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MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — The Uruguay football association said Tuesday it was preparing to rescind a television contract for the national team's 2018 World Cup qualifying matches, as the rights company involved has been targeted by a U.S. investigation into corruption in world football.
"The matter is being studied by our lawyers, but everything indicates we're going to go down the road of cancelling it," the association's general secretary Alejandro Balbi told The Associated Press.
Uruguayan clubs voted last week to authorize the executive committee to get out of the contract if they deemed it necessary.
In a U.S. Department of Justice indictment, the company Full Play is said to have agreed to millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks in obtaining rights deals. Full Play, run by Hugo Jinkis and his son Mariano, is a sports marketing and broadcasting company and has similar deals across South America.
The two men were among 14 soccer officials and business executives who were indicted earlier this year by U.S. justice officials in a sweeping investigation into alleged bribery, racketeering and money-laundering that has rocked the sport's governing body, FIFA.
They have also been charged by Argentine authorities with tax evasion related to the U.S. charges.
The father and son team were released from prison last week by an Argentine federal judge until an ongoing extradition proceeding to the United States is resolved.
Under the court order, they must remain not more than 60 kilometers (35 miles) from the headquarters of the court, and cannot leave their residences for more than 24 hours without notifying officials.
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