Former El Salvador football federation chief Reynaldo Vasquez latest to receive life-ban from FIFA

Lausanne: The former chief of the El Salvador football federation Reynaldo Vasquez was banned for life from all football-related activities after a corruption investigation, FIFA said on Monday.

Vasquez was sentenced to eight years in jail on charges of embezzlement by a Salvadoran court in March 2017.

On Monday, FIFA banned him for life and gave him a 475,000-euro ($522,000) fine for corrupt activities involving revenues from friendly matches between 2009-2015.

He is the latest South American former FIFA official to be banned for life.

His ban follows those of Uruguayan former football boss Eugenio Figueredo, Juan Angel Napout, former president of the Paraguayan football association, and Colombian Enrique Sanz, the former secretary-general of CONCACAF, North American football’s governing body.

Former South American football chief Nicolas Leoz, a key suspect in the scandal investigated by the US Justice Department, died aged 90 of heart failure in August.

A former vice-president of FIFA, CONMEBOL president and a close ally of Sepp Blatter, Leoz was also one of a group of leaders suspected of receiving bribes to support Qatar’s successful bid to host the 2022 World Cup.