Honduran FIFA official agrees to extradition

Hawit, left, was arrested in Zurich in early December Keystone

Another world football official arrested in Switzerland on corruption charges will be extradited to the United States. FIFA Vice President Alfredo Hawit of Honduras agreed to extradition, the justice ministry says. 

Hawit, who is also the head of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football, is the fourth of nine individuals arrested in Zurich last year to agree to be handed over to the US. 

Following the arrests of seven FIFA officials in May 2015, Hawit was one of two others arrested in December in Zurich. The other man arrested in December was FIFA Vice President Juan Angel Napout, who agreed to be extradited to the US on December 15. 

Hawit and Napout were among 16 football officials charged by US prosecutors earlier in December with taking part in multi-million-dollar bribery schemes for marketing and broadcast rights linked to football tournaments in Latin America. 

Two separate legal investigations into FIFA corruption and bribery are underway in the US and in Switzerland.

While the US authorities focus on marketing and sponsoring rights for football tournaments in the Americas, the Swiss justice authorities are examining the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup to Russia and Qatar respectively. 

The Swiss have also opened an investigation into FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who was recently banned from football for eight years by FIFA’s ethics court, along with his potential successor, Michel Platini.