ZURICH — Trinidadian Jack Warner, once one of the most powerful men in soccer, has been banned from all football-related activities for life, the ethics committee of world governing body FIFA said Tuesday.



Warner, 72, is one of 14 soccer officials and sports marketing executives who were indicted in the United States on May 27 on bribery, money laundering and wire fraud charges involving more than $150 million in payments.



In the latest twist in the corruption scandal, Swiss authorities said last week they were investigating FIFA President Sepp Blatter on suspicion of criminal mismanagement and misappropriation of funds.



The FIFA ethics committee said Warner was investigated following an inquiry into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. The tournaments were awarded to Russia and Qatar respectively in December 2010 by the FIFA executive committee, of which Warner was a member.



Warner was found to have committed “many and various acts of misconduct continuously and repeatedly during his time as an official in different high-ranking and influential positions at FIFA and CONCACAF,” the committee said.



Warner is the former president of CONCACAF, the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football.



He is currently in his native Trinidad and Tobago, where he is fighting extradition to the United States.



Warner resigned from his posts when he was placed under investigation by the ethics committee in 2011 over a cash-for-votes scandal in the run-up to that year’s FIFA presidential election. The case was subsequently dropped by the ethics committee as he was no longer involved in football.



Warner is the second FIFA official to be suspended for life after American Chuck Blazer, 70, the one-time powerbroker of North American football who turned whistleblower for the FBI.



The Swiss justice ministry, meanwhile, Tuesday approved the extradition to the US of Costa Rican national Eduardo Li.



“The Costa-Rican citizen has 30 days in which to appeal to the Swiss Federal Criminal Court against the FOJ’s ruling,” a statement said.



Li, the former head of the Costa Rican Football Federation, was arrested in Zurich on May 27 following a US indictment on charges that he took bribes while selling football television rights.



Chung wants task force to run FIFA



FIFA presidential candidate Chung Mong-joon, meanwhile, called Tuesday for a task force to run football’s world body after veteran leader Sepp Blatter was placed under criminal investigation.



The South Korean former FIFA vice president said an emergency congress should be held to set up the force to oversee the scandal-tainted body. Chung said the FIFA organization that should be preparing for the 2018 World Cup in Russia is in “total meltdown.”



“FIFA and regional confederations should consider convening extraordinary sessions of their respective executive committees as well as a Congress to set up an emergency task force that will enable the FIFA secretariat to function without interruption,” Chung said.



His spokesman Lin Byung-taik told AFP that Chung wanted an “emergency congress” even before one to be held in February to elect a new president.



Chung is one of several men who have announced they plan to run for the FIFA presidency. The others are UEFA President Michel Platini, Jordan’s Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein and Musa Bility, the Liberian Football Association boss. — Agencies