Seven of the most powerful figures in global soccer faced extradition to the United States on corruption charges after being arrested yesterday in Switzerland, where authorities also announced a criminal investigation into the awarding of the next two World Cups.
The world’s most popular sport was plunged into turmoil after US and Swiss authorities announced separate inquiries into the activities of the game’s powerful ruling body.
US authorities said nine football officials and five sports media and promotions executives faced corruption charges involving more than $150 million in bribes.
Swiss police arrested seven FIFA officials who are now awaiting extradition to the United States.
Those arrested did not include Sepp Blatter, the Swiss head of FIFA, but included several just below him in the hierarchy of sport’s wealthiest body.
Of the 14 indicted by the US Department of Justice, seven FIFA officials, including vice-president Jeffrey Webb, were being held in Zurich. Four people and two corporate defendants had already pleaded guilty to various charges, the department said.
The Miami headquarters of CONCACAF, the soccer federation that governs North America, Central America and the Carib-bean, were being searched yesterday.
“As charged in the indictment, the defendants fostered a culture of corruption and greed that created an uneven playing field for the biggest sport in the world,” said FBI director James Comey.
“Undisclosed and illegal payments, kickbacks and bribes became a way of doing business at FIFA.”
The arrested FIFA officials appeared to have walked into a trap set by US and Swiss authorities. The arrests were made at dawn at a plush Zurich hotel where FIFA officials are staying ahead of a vote this week where they are expected to anoint Blatter for a fifth term in office.
Data and documents were seized from computers at FIFA’s Zurich headquarters, the Swiss prosecutors said.
Illegal payments, kickbacks and bribes became a way of doing business at FIFA
Officials said that following the arrests, accounts at several banks in Switzerland had been blocked.
The US Department of Justice named those arrested in its case as: Jeffrey Webb, Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, FIFA vice-president Eugenio Figueredo, Rafael Esquivel and José Maria Marin.
The DoJ said the defendants included US and South American sports marketing executives alleged to have paid and agreed to pay “well over $150 million in bribes and kickbacks to obtain lucrative rights”.
“The indictment alleges corruption that is rampant, systemic and deep-rooted both abroad and here in the United States,” US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said.
The international governing body of football collects billions of dollars in revenue, mostly from sponsorship and television rights for World Cups.
It has persistently been dogged by reports of corruption which it says it investigates itself. However, until now it has escaped major criminal cases in any country.
In particular, the decision to award the World Cup to Qatar, a tiny desert country with no domestic tradition of soccer, was heavily criticised by soccer officials in Western countries.
FIFA was forced to acknowledge that it is too hot to play soccer there in the summer when the cup is traditionally held, forcing schedules around the globe to be re-written to move the cup.
Much of the US inquiry focuses on CONCACAF, whose Trinidadian former boss Jack Warner was regularly dogged by accusations of corruption before he resigned in 2011, at which point FIFA terminated its investigations of him.
US law gives its courts broad powers to investigate crimes committed by foreigners on foreign soil if money passes through US banks or other activity takes place there.
Damian Collins, a British member of parliament who founded the reform group New FIFA Now, said the arrests could have a massive impact on the governing body.
“The chickens are finally coming home to roost and this sounds like a hugely significant development for FIFA,” he said.
“It proves that Sepp Blatter’s promises over the last few years to look into corruption at FIFA have not materialised and because he has totally failed to do this, it has been left to an outside law enforcement agency to do the job and take action.”