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FIFA awarded $201m in forfeited funds after corruption probe by US Department of Justice

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Fifa will receive $201m (£146m) in forfeited funds seized during a corruption probe, the US Department of Justice has announced.

More than 50 defendants have been criminally charged since the Department of Justice unveiled its corruption probe in 2015.

Twenty-seven people and four corporate entities have pleaded guilty, with two people convicted at trial.

The repayment will begin with an initial $32.3m (£23.5m).

The money, which was seized from the bank accounts of former officials who were prosecuted for corruption, will be used by the Fifa Foundation, an independent foundation, to help finance football-related projects which, Fifa says, can “positively impact so many people across the football world, especially through youth and community programmes”.

The 2015 scandal, the biggest in the sport’s history, involved collusion between officials from the governing bodies and sports marketing executives, with fraud, bribery, racketeering and money laundering offences committed.

It led to the end of Sepp Blatter’s 17-year reign as the governing body’s president and the election of Gianni Infantino as his successor in February 2016.

“I am delighted to see that money which was illegally siphoned out of football is now coming back to be used for its proper purposes, as it should have been in the first place,” said Infantino.

“I want to sincerely thank the US Justice authorities for their efforts in this respect, for their fast and effective approach in bringing these matters to a conclusion, and also for their trust in general.

“The truth is that, thanks to their intervention back in 2015, we have been able to fundamentally change Fifa from a toxic organisation at the time, to a highly esteemed and trusted global sports governing body

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