ZURICH: Eduardo Li, former head of the Costa Rica football federation, has decided to stop fighting a United States extradition application and accept a flight from Switzerland to face FIFAGate charges writes KEIR RADNEDGE, a respected author of several works on football and professional sports.

Li had been just about to be admitted formally to the executive committee of world governing body FIFA when he was arrested by Swiss police at the BAur au Lac hotel in Zurich on May 27.

The US Department of Justice has alleged that Li had sought and received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from sports marketing companies in exchange for commercial rights to World Cup qualifiers.

Swiss authorities approved his extradition Li in September and he had submitted notice of intention to appeal. Now Li’s New York lawyers have indicated that he has changed his mind.

As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, Li was a FIFA executive committee member-elect, CONCACAF executive committee member, and Costa Rican soccer federation (FEDEFUTBOL) president at the time of his arrest by law enforcement agents from Switzerland and the United States.

Li is part of a 47-count indictment was unsealed in federal court in New York in May, charging 14 defendants with racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies, among other offenses, in connection with the defendants’ participation in a 24-year scheme to enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer.

Weeks after the indictment was unsealed and the arrests took place, former CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb was revealed to have provided court testimony that led to the massive “FIFAgate” investigation, which has tarnished the image of international football.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, between 1991 and the present, the defendants and their co-conspirators corrupted the enterprise by engaging in various criminal activities, including fraud, bribery and money laundering. Two generations of soccer officials abused their positions of trust for personal gain, frequently through an alliance with unscrupulous sports marketing executives who shut out competitors and kept highly lucrative contracts for themselves through the systematic payment of bribes and kickbacks.

All told, the soccer officials are charged with conspiring to solicit and receive well over $150 million in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for their official support of the sports marketing executives who agreed to make the unlawful payments.