LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - Romer Osuna, a senior Bolivian soccer official who was banned for life by FIFA in August over a bribery scheme, has died at the age of 70.
Officials told local media that Osuna died in a clinic in the Santa Cruz region, about 420 kilometers east of La Paz, as a result of pneumonia.
Osuna was a former treasurer for South America’s soccer body CONMEBOL and was also the head of Bolivia’s soccer federation between 1986 and 1988.
FIFA banned Osuna after accusing him of receiving bribes related to broadcasting rights contracts between 2012 and 2015. He was also handed a $1 million fine.
Osuna was CONMEBOL’s treasurer for 27 years and also a member of the South American soccer body’s executive committee.
Osuna was charged in the sweeping American criminal case into FIFA officials in 2015, with the indictment saying Osuna “solicited and received millions of dollars in bribe payments during his years as treasurer of CONMEBOL” and “maintained his position as a member of FIFA’s audit and compliance committee, a committee in charge of, among other things, developing proposals for organizational reform.”
___
More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/apf-Soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Please read our comment policy before commenting.