A FIFA bribery scheme to amass the exclusive broadcasting rights to South American soccer for Fox Sports was so successful that even CEO Rupert Murdoch took notice, a key witness for the federal government testified Wednesday.
Former Latin American soccer TV executive Alejandro Burzaco, who pleaded guilty in 2017 to being part of the arrangement, said that up to $32 million was paid out between 2010 and 2015 with the help of former Fox Sports executives Hernan Lopez and Carlos Martinez.
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Assistant US Attorney Megan Farrell (at podium) questions government witness Alejandro Burzaco, on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. (Elizabeth Williams/AP)
The men are currently on trial in Brooklyn Federal Court for wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy.
Though Fox is not charged in the sprawling criminal investigation into corruption in the professional soccer league, Burzaco said that Murdoch was so grateful for his company’s success in cornering the broadcast market in South America that he sent his partner a note.
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“The most important person at Fox, Rupert Murdoch, sent him a letter thanking him,” Burzaco told the court.
Both Lopez and Martinez moved up the corporate chain at Fox Sports Latin America as the broadcast giant gobbled up a larger and larger slice of the multi-million-dollar broadcast rights, the disgraced former soccer executive said, eventually cornering the market.
Rupert Murdoch (Pool / Getty Images)
“If you were living in the Spanish-speaking countries of South America, which is every country except Brazil, you were watching Fox Sports,” Burzaco said.
Eventually, Fox also had a piece of Brazil too, he said.
Burzaco, who was born and raised in Argentina, said that soccer was everything to South America.
“It’s the most important thing that happens in the country for most of the people,” he said. “It’s your family – father, mother, sons – and then it’s your club.
After Argentina won the World Cup in December, millions of people flooded the streets for days in celebration.
Local soccer officials wield outsized power in their respective countries.
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“They’re treated like royalty,” Burzaco said. “They have access to benefits that many mere mortals do not receive.”
Soccer leaders in each of the South American countries started out getting $600,000 a year in bribes, but eventually, that ballooned to $1.2 million per official, with tens of millions more promised.
“The purpose of the bribes, at the end of the day, was to secure extremely long-term contracts with the best soccer clubs in South America at the very lowest price and renew them before they mature and could be purchased by a competitor,’ Burzaco said.
The scheme started in Bueno Aires after the local soccer clubs gave up their right to negotiate broadcast contracts individually and united under the umbrella of the South American Football Federation known as CONMEBOL.
Burzaco, who ran a sports licensing company called Torneo, partnered with the two men on trial to keep local officials happy.
“We were partners, Torneo and Fox, together we funneled, paid money to soccer executives in exchange for contracts,” he said.
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Lopez joined the scheme in 2009, teaming up with a Caymans-based company paying out $32 million by Burzaco’s estimate and Martinez came in two years later.
“He was fully immersed in the subject of paying bribes to soccer officials in 2011,” Burzaco said.
He said that annually he paid local soccer executives $7 million a year, but as the conspiracy matured more officials had their hands out.
Lawyers for the defendants declined to comment on the testimony. Fox Sports did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
Trial testimony continues on Thursday.
FIFA officials got note of thanks from Murdoch: bribery trial
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