August 13 – South America’s governing body CONMEBOL have denied that Alejandro Dominguez, the Paraguayan president of the organisation, is wanted to testify by investigators from the FIFAGate case. The denial follows a report by Argentinean newspaper Clarin.
The newspaper claimed that South America’s leading football official was on the wish list of American authorities to testify in connection with evidence given in last December’s trial of Juan Angel Napout, Dominguez’s predecessor.
But the news report was firmly rebuked by CONMEBOL. Monserrat Jimenez, the organisation’s legal director, clarified that neither CONMEBOL nor its president had been summoned to testify by American authorities. “In the case of the FIFAGate investigation we have received no requests for information,” said Jimenez. “Those in charge have moved on.”
Napout was one of the South American officials to be arrested in FIFAGate and found guilty of corruption offences relating to marketing and broadcasting contracts, which were worth millions of dollars. Napout has always maintained his innocence, but to little avail. He is currently awaiting sentencing and could face up to a maximum of 60 years in prison.
Dominguez was elected unopposed in 2016. Under his presidency CONMEBOL pushed FIFA to expand the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to 48 teams, a move that now looks unlikely to happen until the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada. However, a FIFA working group is supposedly looking in to the implications of expanding 2022, though any final decision will likely rest with the approval 2022 hosts Qatar.
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