31st March, 2020
Jose Maria Marin, the 87-year-old former Brazilian Football Confederation president has been released from U.S. jail.
Federal judge Pamela Chen authorised his release on compassionate grounds.
This followed a request by his lawyers.
Marin was serving a four-year prison sentence for accepting millions of dollars in bribes as part of the global FIFA corruption scandal.
He was scheduled for release in early December 2020, according to the US Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Marin was the first major football official found guilty and sent to prison in the United States as part of the “FIFA gate” scandal of kickbacks and bribes that smeared the reputation of the global sports organisation.
He was being held in FCI Allenwood, a minimum security facility in the state of Pennsylvania.
In August of 2018, a New York jury found Marin guilty of accepting $6.6 million in bribes — along with his deputy, Marco Polo del Nero — in exchange for contracts to broadcast major tournaments.