Jeffrey Webb, one of seven soccer officials arrested in Zurich in May, has agreed to be extradited and face corruption charges in the US, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Webb, a suspended vice president with the sport's global governing body FIFA, is expected to appear within several days in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, according to the person, who requested anonymity because the matter isn't public.
Webb, the former president of the Central and North American soccer federation known as Concacaf, was among nine FIFA officials and five corporate executives charged in a racketeering and fraud indictment. He would be the first of those arrested on May 27 in Switzerland to face a US judge.
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Switzerland's Federal Office of Justice said the suspect agreed during a hearing Thursday to be extradited, adding "the person didn't wish to be named at the moment," according to a statement Friday. The FOJ approved his extradition "immediately in a simplified process," and he will be handed over to US authorities within 10 days. Raphael Frei, a spokesman for the Federal Office of Justice, did not immediately return messages seeking confirmation of the extradited FIFA official's name.
A burly 50-year-old from the Cayman Islands, Webb took over the scandal-plagued Concacaf in 2012. A former Cayman Islands banker and member of FIFA's internal audit committee, he had become a favourite of Joseph "Sepp" Blatter, FIFA's outgoing president. Blatter suggested before the indictment that Webb would be his ideal successor. The FOJ's description of the US accusations match those against Webb.
