Alejandro Burzaco, a former banker turned sports marketing executive, has avoided prison time after admitting to paying tens of millions of dollars in bribes to corrupt Latin American soccer officials. Burzaco, who worked as an investment banker for Citigroup Inc. in New York, was charged by US prosecutors in 2015 and later cooperated with them to expose a sprawling fraud at the highest levels of FIFA.
The investigation brought down some of the biggest names in the sport, including former FIFA president Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, who was ousted from the role after 17 years. Burzaco's cooperation with the authorities led to the conviction of two of the three soccer officials on trial in 2017, and one of the former 21st Century Fox executives in March of this year.
Burzaco's testimony during the trials was not without controversy. During the first trial in 2017, he faced aggressive questioning from defense lawyers who tried to portray him as a liar. He also had to endure a defendant making a slicing motion across his throat while on the witness stand, temporarily halting the proceedings when the witness broke down.
At the second trial, Burzaco spent 11 days on the stand, describing how he conspired with two former 21st Century Fox executives to bribe soccer officials to win the lucrative TV rights to the continent’s biggest annual tournament and help land broadcasting rights to the World Cup. He even claimed that Rupert Murdoch was so grateful that he sent a complimentary note to one of the FIFA bosses. However, Fox was not charged in the investigation.
Overall, the government’s investigation resulted in more than two dozen guilty pleas from people accused of participating in a global, 24-year conspiracy to bribe high-ranking soccer officials with six-figure sums for broadcast and media rights. Four corporate entities also pleaded guilty.
Burzaco's cooperation with the authorities was crucial in exposing the corruption in FIFA, and his assistance has spared him from serving time in prison. Instead, he was given credit for the time he spent incarcerated. The crackdown on corruption in soccer has been a long time coming, and Burzaco's role in exposing it is commendable.