FIFA Vice President Jeffrey Webb extradited to the US

Swiss authorities say former FIFA Vice President Jeffrey Webb, one of the seven FIFA officials arrested in Zurich as part of a U.S. corruption probe has been extradited to the United States.

Switzerland's Federal Office of Justice says the unnamed official was extradited on Wednesday. It said in a statement Thursday that he was handed over to three U.S. police officers who accompanied him on the flight to New York.

The official agreed last week to be extradited, unlike six others who are contesting the extradition. Swiss authorities did not identify the official.

In May, the U.S. Justice Department named nine soccer officials and five media and marketing executives in an investigation it says involves extensive racketeering and money-laundering schemes as well as over $150 million in bribes paid over two decades.

Extradition hearings are being held by Zurich cantonal police in a process expected to finish by early September, Swiss justice office spokesman Raphael Frei told the Associated Press on Thursday. Appeals to Switzerland's federal criminal court and supreme court can extend the cases by several months.

A source told Reuters last week that Webb, a former FIFA vice president and president of the CONCACAF regional soccer federation, had agreed to be extradited to the United States to face corruption charges.

Last week, former FIFA executive committee member Chuck Blazer, a key figure in the U.S. investigation, was banned for life from soccer activities on Thursday by the sport's governing body.

Blazer, who in 2013 secretly pleaded guilty in the United States to bribery and financial offenses, was found by FIFA's ethics committee to have breached rules on loyalty, confidentiality, duty of disclosure, conflicts of interest, offering and accepting gifts and bribery and corruption.

U.S. authorities have said more indictments could follow, and FIFA President Sepp Blatter is a target of the widening case.

Under pressure from the investigation and a separate Swiss federal probe of money laundering linked to FIFA's award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, Blatter announced on June 2 that he intends to leave office.

Wire services