ZURICH -- The former president of Venezuela's football federation has agreed to be extradited from Switzerland to the United States to face corruption charges, a Swiss justice official said on Friday.
Rafael Esquivel was arrested in Zurich in May as part of a U.S. investigation into alleged corruption among senior figures in world football and FIFA, the sport's top governing body.
A spokesman for the Swiss Federal Office of Justice said it was informed by Esquivel on Friday that the Venezuelan had withdrawn his final appeal against extradition, which was pending before Switzerland's highest court.
"This enabled the Federal Office of Justice to approve his extradition to the U.S.A. the same day," Folco Galli told The Associated Press.
"Esquivel must be placed in the custody of a U.S. police escort and taken to the U.S.A. within 10 days," he added. Galli said the precise day and time of his extradition wouldn't be announced for reasons of privacy and security.
Esquivel appealed his extradition to the Federal Tribunal in Lausanne on Jan. 27. News of his decision to drop the appeal came as delegates from FIFA's 207 members were voting in Zurich for a new president to replace Sepp Blatter, as well as a package of reforms designed to tackle corruption in the organisation.
U.S. authorities accuse Esquivel of receiving bribes worth millions of dollars in connection with the sale of marketing rights to the Copa America tournaments in 2007, 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2023.
Esquivel was among nine former football officials arrested in two separate raids in Zurich last year. Five men have already been extradited to the United States. A seventh was sent to his native Uruguay, while two others -- ex-FIFA staffer Julio Rocha of Nicaragua and Briton Costas Takkas, a former aide to the president of the CONCACAF federation -- are still appealing extradition in Swiss courts.