Emilio Azcarraga Jean, chair of Mexican telecommunications and broadcast giant Televisa, is stepping down from his role effective immediately amid an investigation into the company's relationship with global soccer governing body FIFA and its employees.
Azcarraga, also the chair of high-profile Mexican soccer side Club America, is subject to an investigation by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ).
In 2017, the same year Azcarraga stepped back as chief executive of Televisa, the company was implicated in a bribery scandal where it was alleged to have paid FIFA officials directly to secure TV rights to FIFA World Cup matches taking place from 2018-2030.
Televisa settled an investor lawsuit surrounding the allegations in 2023 to the tune of $95 million, paid to investors who say they lost money due to the business inflating its share price by concealing the bribery.
The suit claimed that Televisa teamed up with leading Brazilian media group Grupo Globo and Argentinian sports rights agency Torneos y Competencias in 2013 to pay bribes totaling $15 million to the late Julio Grondona, a top FIFA executive, for rights to the 2026 and 2030 World Cups across Latin America.
In particular, it alleged that Televisa used Mountrigi Management Group, its Switzerland-based subsidiary, to pay bribes to senior FIFA officials to win rights to the World Cup.
Televisa was said to have used Mountrigi to pay $7.25 million to Torneos, which forwarded the money to Argentinian official Grondona.
Now though, the DOJ has initiated a separate probe into the business over the FIFA dealings that have prompted Azcarraga to take “a leave of absence”.
In 2022, FIFA received $92 million in compensation from the DOJ for its losses related to a range of recent corruption incidents in soccer.
This money, seized from those prosecuted and sentenced for the wrongdoing, came in addition to the $201 million it had received from the DOJ for the same reason the year prior.
Since 2015, over 50 individual and corporate defendants from at least 20 countries have faced DoJ charges.
Offences committed included fraud, bribery, racketeering, and money laundering.
Televisa is one of the Spanish-speaking world's biggest broadcasters, operating both in Mexico and across the US and Latin America, and holds several major soccer rights beyond those of the World Cup.
