GENEVA: The Swiss justice ministry on Friday approved the extradition to the US of British-born businessman Costas Takkas, one of the FIFA officials whose arrest in May ignited an unprecedented crisis in world football.

“The Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) has approved the extradition of Costas Takkas to the US. The British citizen has 30 days in which to appeal to the Swiss Federal Criminal Court against the FOJ’s ruling,” a statement said.

Takkas, from a Greek-Cypriot family, has been held in Zurich since May 27 awaiting his extradition with the US making a formal request in July.

The 58-year-old former general secretary of the Cayman Islands Football Association was a member of both FIFA and the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) where he served as attachi to confederation president Jeffrey Webb.

“Takkas is accused of demanding and accepting bribes of millions of dollars for the president of CONCACAF in connection with the sale of marketing rights for World Cup 2018 and 2022 qualifiers to a US sports marketing company,” said the FOJ statement.

Of the six other officials arrested in Zurich last May, former FIFA vice-president Webb of the Cayman Islands has agreed to be extradited to face corruption charges in the US.

Swiss authorities had already approved the extradition to the US to face the same charges of others arrested in the corruption sting — former Venezuelan Football Federation president Rafael Esquivel, Uruguayan former FIFA vice-president Eugenio Figueredo and former head of the Costa Rican Football Federation Eduardo Li, while the former president of the Nicaraguan Football Federation Julio Rocha agreed last month to be extradited back to his home country.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2015

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