The British accountant seized in dawn raid
A BRITISH-born businessman being held in the Fifa corruption and bribery scandal once tried to recruit UK players to represent the Cayman Islands in qualifying matches for the 2002 World Cup.
Accountant Costas Takkas persuaded a number of English and Scottish footballers to play for the islands in friendly matches, hoping that because the Caymans were a British dependent territory they could represent the Caribbean side.
They played in friendly matches, but the plan was scuppered by Fifa, which said only those with island roots could be in World Cup qualifiers.
Takkas, 57, from a Greek-Cypriot family, was born in Islington, North London. He studied at London University and married in Shoreditch, East London, before leaving Britain for the Cayman Islands in the 1980s.
He is being held in Zurich after being arrested in dawn raids on Wednesday. The alleged Takkas link to Fifa corruption is highlighted in the American charge sheet.
Takkas acted as general secretary of the Cayman Islands Football Association – a member of both Fifa and the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football – and served as attaché to confederation president Jeffrey Webb, who has also been arrested.
He is accused of using his various bank accounts to pass on a bribe from a sports marketing official to a Fifa official.
While basing himself in Savannah in the Caymans, Webb is said to have bought a number of properties in the US, including a sprawling £1million mansion with a swimming pool in Loganville, Georgia.
Takkas is also understood to have a property in Miami, in addition to his Cayman home. In the 164-page US indictment, it is claimed he arranged for funds to be transferred from a Citibank account in his name in Miami to a swimming pool builder in Blairsville, Georgia.
Webb owns other property in Georgia and investigators say Takkas transferred funds from his Kosson Ventures business to the SunTrust Bank in the state in order for Webb to buy a home in Stone Mountain.
Much of the alleged bribery money is said to have gone through Traffic Sports USA, a business controlled by another of the accused, Aaron Davidson.
Takkas also currently has links to a holding company in the British Virgin Islands.
After his arrest in Zurich, he was suspended as chief financial officer of the Miami-based metals company Abakan, where he has worked for less than a year.