The United States has charged 40 persons in connection with the global FIFA scandal and a good many of them have been from this region, which is known as CONCACAF, short for the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football.
A second wave of indictments came down on December third for 16 Latin American football executives, and that's when we realized that at least one executive has been charged for corruption in every single Central American country except Belize.
That's right, in Salvador, the former head of the Soccer Federation Reynaldo Vasquez allegedly accepted at least two six figure bribes from a Miami Based sports marketing company Media World.
In Guatemala, Rafael Salguero was a senior FIFA executive, and he is accused of accepting $450,000 in bribes from a sports marketing group based in Argentina. The US says he worked with fellow Guatemalans Brayan Jimenez and Hector Trujillo, to also accept a six-figure bribe from the Miami-based sports marketing company Media World.
Brayan Jimenez has been the present of Guatemala's soccer federation since 2010. The US indictment says he split a $200,000 bribe with Trujillo, and got another 200 grand which he kept as a secret from Trujillo. Jimenez also accepted a $10,000 bribe for agreeing to allow Guatemala's national team to play a friendly match in Lima, Peru.
Trujillo has been the general secretary of Guatemala's soccer federation - while also a judge on the constitutional court. He is accused of splitting a six-figure bribe from the Miami-based Media World alongside the other Guatemalan defendants.
Alfredo Hawit from Honduras formerly served as the head of CONCACAF (CONCACAF). He was charged along with countryman Rafael Callejas with accepting $600,000 in bribes from the same company, Media World. Hawit is also accused of accepting $450,000 in bribes with Panama's Ariel Alvarado and Guatemala's Rafael Salguero from an Argentine sports company.
Rafael Callejas is the former president of Honduras and in 2012, he served as the head of Honduras' soccer federation. The US says that alongside Alfredo Hawit, he agreed to accept a $600,000 bribe from Media World, in exchange for selling them media rights.
Panama's Ariel Alvarado headed Panama's soccer federation from 2004 to 2012. Alongside Rafael Salguero and Alfredo Hawit, he agreed to accept $450,000 in bribes from Argentine sports company Full Play.
And then, in 2009, while negotiating media rights with Miami-based sports marketing firm, Traffic USA, Alvarado accepted a $70,000 bribe. Traffic - which also has a deal with Belize's Federation - later paid Alvarado an additional $60,000 bribe. So, there it is, senior executives indicted in every single Central American nation - and, in call cases, for selling television rights. As we noted, Belize only did a deal with Traffic Sports, the full details of which are still not known.
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