Rafael Esquivel Melo (born 1946/1947) is a Venezuelan former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

administrator. He was a member of

CONMEBOL The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL, , or CSF; es, Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol; pt, Confederação Sul-Americana de Futebol) is the continental governing body of football in South America (apart from Guyana, Suri ...

executive committee and president of the

Venezuelan Football Federation The Venezuelan Football Federation ( es, link=no, Federación Venezolana de Fútbol or FVF) is the governing body of Association football, football in Venezuela. It was founded in 1925 and affiliated in 1952. It is a member of CONMEBOL as wel ...

(FVF).

Career and arrest

Esquivel was president of the

from 1988 to 2015. Esquivel was arrested in May 2015 in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

to face

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

charges in the United States. He was banned by

FIFA Ethics Committee The FIFA Ethics Committee is one of FIFA's three judicial bodies. It is organized in two chambers, the ''Investigatory Chamber'' and the ''Adjudicatory Chamber''. Its duties are regulated by several official documents, most importantly the ''FIF ...

. In March 2016, Esquivel was extradited to the US and pleaded not guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court. He was released from jail on a US$7 million bond.

In popular media

Chilean actor

Gonzalo Robles Gonzalo Eduardo Robles García (Santiago, April 22, 1952), is a Chilean film, theater and television actor and comedian. Biography Robles studied at Colegio San Ignacio. Later he started a career in Civil Construction at the Pontificia Unive ...

portrayed Esquivel in the 2020

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming and Renting, rental service of Amazon (c ...

original series '' El Presidente''.

References

1940s births Living people Venezuelan football managers FIFA officials Venezuelan people imprisoned abroad {{Venezuela-business-bio-stub