A former Argentine football official has reportedly committed suicide after he was accused of bribe-taking in testimony to a trial of top former FIFA figures in New York.
Jorge Delhon threw himself under a train in a Buenos Aires suburb yesterday, Argentine newspapers Clarin and La Nacion reported on their websites.
A sports marketing executive, Alejandro Burzaco, had testified in the trial yesterday that Delhon and another man, Pablo Paladino, took millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for rights to broadcast football games.
According to AFP News, Burzaco, the first witness in the trial, painted a damning picture of corruption in South American soccer, saying millions of dollars in bribes were paid for TV rights to major tournaments.
Burzaco, the former chairman of an Argentine sports marketing company, pleaded guilty in November 2015 to racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies and agreed to pay US$21.6 million in restitution.
The FIFA corruption trial began on Monday, two and a half years after the United States unveiled the largest graft scandal in the history of world soccer.
Three South American defendants are in the dock, charged with racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies.
The trial is due to last five to six weeks, and prosecutors are expected to present hundreds of thousands of pages of evidence and dozens of witnesses.
If convicted by a jury, they risk up to 20 years behind bars for the most serious offenses.
