Conmebol welcomes dismissal of GolTV lawsuit

The South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) has hailed a ruling from the Federal Court of the Southern District of Florida dismissing a claim from pan-American pay-television broadcaster GolTV and its agency partner Global Sports Partners for damages in connection to the sport’s wide-ranging corruption scandal.

GolTV and Global Sports Partners took to the US courts in October 2016, claiming hundreds of millions of dollars in damages owing to Conmebol’s connection to the scandal.

In the suit, GolTV and Global Sports Partners claimed they were the victim of one of the bribery schemes outlined in the second indictment in the scandal of 2015 featuring members of football’s global governing body Fifa.

The indictment claimed that executives at Conmebol had solicited bribes in exchange for supporting the sale to the T&T Sports Marketing company of rights for pan-regional club competitions including the Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana.

The claim argued that the financial impact on GolTV and Global Sports Partners amounted to “at least hundreds of millions of dollars” and demanded compensation “for the harm they suffered from the loss of the rights that plaintiffs otherwise would have been able to obtain in a fair and competitive market”.

However, the US court has now rejected this claim, with Conmebol having long insisted that the illicit behaviour was the responsibility of individuals from previous regimes and not the governing body in its current guise.

Conmebol president Alejandro Domínguez said: “As recognised by the United States Department of Justice, Conmebol and its member associations were, and are, victims of the corruption scheme of former leaders. With this demand, Paco Casal (controller of GolTV) sought to take advantage of the circumstances to try to profit at the expense of South American football, to the detriment of the teams, the clubs and the players of the continent.

“The Tribunal correctly concluded that any illegal acts carried out by former directors of Conmebol cannot be attributed to the institution. As we have been maintaining, the Judge ruled that they not only acted for their own benefit but directly to the detriment of the Confederation.

“This is a very big setback for the enemies of South American football. Conmebol will continue to defend itself against all those who seek to profit from football.”