Controversial Trinidadian football executive Jack Warner has been banned from the game for life by FIFA's ethics committee.

The 72-year-old, who first joined FIFA's Executive Committee in 1983 and spent over 20 years as president of CONCACAF, was arrested in Zurich earlier this year on wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering charges. He is currently awaiting extradition proceedings that would take him to the United States to stand trial.

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.

Hans-Joachim Eckert, chair of the Ethics Committee at FIFA, has been heading FIFA's internal investigation into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, and it is as a result of this that Warner has been banned.

"Mr 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," said FIFA in a statement.

"In his positions as a football official, he was a key player in schemes involving the offer, acceptance, and receipt of undisclosed and illegal payments, as well as other money-making schemes.”

Warner was one of 14 football 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.

One of the incidents under scrutiny by the Swiss attorney general was a TV rights deal for the Caribbean, granted to Warner and allegedly signed off by Blatter. Warner reportedly bought the TV rights for £400,000 and subsequently sold them on for around £12 million.

It was not the first time FIFA had given Warner TV rights for a knockdown price - in 1998 he was awarded the 2002 World Cup TV rights for Trinidad and Tobago for just one dollar, a practice that had begun under Blatter's predecessor Joao Havelange.

Warner has consistently denied any wrongdoing and continues to fight proceedings against him, as does Blatter.

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