The governing body of world football FIFA found itself in yet another embarrassing situation as Guam Football Association president Richard Lai pleaded guilty to charges of bribery in a US court on Thursday, reported BBC.
Lai, a United States citizen, also holds posts on the FIFA Audit and Compliance committee and the Asian Football Confederation ethics committee. Both FIFA and AFC have provisionally suspended Lai.
The 55-year old official pleaded guilty to three charges which included two counts of bribery-related wire fraud conspiracy and one count of non-disclosure of a foreign bank account. He will now have to pay $1.1 million in penalties.
It was another victory for the US Department of Justice who have implicated 40 football and sports marketing executives on charges of corruption. More importantly, one of the charges was related to accepting a $100,000 bribe from Mohamed Bin Hammam in the cash-for-votes scandal which saw the Qatari banned for allegedly influencing members to vote for him against the incumbent Sepp Blatter in the FIFA presidential election in 2011.
Bin Hamman received a life ban from FIFA only for it to be overturned in the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2012. FIFA later imposed another life ban for AFC-related corruption.