ZURICH: The suspended president of the Brazilian Football Confederation, Marco Polo Del Nero, has been banned from football for life by FIFA’s ethics committee for bribery and fined one million Swiss francs (733,171 pounds), the global soccer body said on Friday. FIFA said that Del Nero had been investigated over “schemes in which he received bribes in exchange for his role in awarding contracts to companies for the media and marketing rights to various football tournaments.” These included the Copa America, the Copa Libertadores – the South American equivalent of the Champions League – and the domestic Copa Brasil tournament. In doing so, he violated ethics rules on bribery, offering and accepting gifts, loyalty, conflict of interest and general rules of conduct, FIFA said. Del Nero, a former member of FIFA’s executive committee, denied wrongdoing and said he would appeal. “Yes, I’ve seen the news from FIFA and I can only describe it as a big absurdity,” he said in a brief telephone conversation. Published in Daily Times, April 28th 2018.