World football body FIFA fined former Ecuadorian Football Association president Luis Chiriboga a million Swiss francs ($1.01 million) and banned him from football for life on Thursday after finding him guilty of taking bribes.
Chiriboga, a former member of the CONMEBOL Executive Committee and a former FIFA standing committee member, was handed a 10-year jail sentence in Ecuador in 2016 for corruption.
The 72-year-old ran his country’s football federation for 18 years but was put under house arrest in late 2015.
He was one of about 40 football bosses, mainly Latin Americans, implicated in U.S.-led investigations that rocked the world football body. FIFA has since, under the leadership of president Gianni Infantino, stepped up its effort to root out corruption and unethical conduct.
FIFA said their investigation into Chiriboga related to “schemes in which he received bribes in exchange for his role in awarding contracts to companies for the media and marketing rights to various football tournaments.”
The tournaments included the Copa America and Copa Libertadores.
“The adjudicatory chamber found that Mr Chiriboga had breached art. 27 (bribery) of the 2018 edition of the FIFA Code of Ethics and banned him for life from all football-related activities… at both national and international level,” added FIFA.
