A Peruvian football official accused of taking bribes has been cleared by a jury in the US.<\/p>\n
Manuel Burga, who led football in Peru until 2014, was accused of taking cash in exchange for distributing marketing and media rights to matches.<\/p>\n
Two other South American football officials were convicted by the same jury on Friday.<\/p>\n
During the trial, Mr Burga denied he threatened a key witness by making a throat-slashing gesture.<\/p>\n
After leaving the court in New York, Mr Burga said: “God bless America!”<\/p>\n
Mr Burga was charged along with Jose Maria Marin, the former head of Brazil’s Football Confederation (CBF), and Juan \u00c1ngel Napout, who led South America’s football governing body Conmebol.<\/p>\n
Marin and Napout were convicted on Friday<\/a>\u00a0of a number of offences, including wire fraud.<\/p>\n They, and Mr Burga, who once served as a development executive with football’s global governing body, Fifa, had denied all charges. The jury had said it was deadlocked on the one count of racketeering conspiracy against Mr Burga.<\/p>\n His lawyers had argued that he would not have been able to receive bribes as he was under investigation for money laundering in Peru.<\/p>\n The main prosecution witness was Argentine Alejandro Burzaco, a former banker turned TV executive.<\/p>\n In the first week of the trial, Jorge Delhon, an Argentine lawyer named in Mr Burzaco’s testimony, took his own life.<\/p>\n A day later, Mr Burga was accused of making a throat-slashing gesture to Mr Burzaco, but he denied the accusation.<\/p>\n After the verdict was announced on Tuesday, Mr Burga’s lawyer said clearing him was “the right thing to do”.<\/p>\n Federal prosecutors in New York have indicted more than 40 sports and football executives linked to football in the Americas as part of the inquiry.<\/p>\n In October, the former head of Guatemala’s federation,\u00a0Hector Trujillo, became the first person to be sentenced as part of the investigation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trujillo was sentenced to eight months in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"