Seven current FIFA officials have been arrested on corruption charges in Switzerland, including its vice-presidents.
A spokesman for the football governing body stated that while president Sepp Blatter is not involved in the arrests, VPs Jeffrey Webb and Eugenio Figueredo have been detained, alongside Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Rafael Esquivel and Jose Maria Marin, with former FIFA officials Jack Warner and Nicolas Leoz having also been arrested.
A number of those arrested also have ties with the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), including Jeffrey Webb, who is the current president of the organisation.
The authorities in Zurich arrested the men earlier today, with them being linked to wire fraud and money laundering of up to $150 million, extraditing them to the US. There have been calls for the FIFA presidential elections, which were set to take place on Friday, should be delayed due to the arrests, though a press conference from FIFA saw the governing body insisting that they should still take place as scheduled.
Jeffrey Webb, FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF president, is among the arrests.
A statement from FBI director James B Comey reads:
“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.
“Undisclosed and illegal payments, kickbacks and bribes became a way of doing business at FIFA.
“When leaders in an organisation resort to cheating the very members that they were supposed to represent, they must be held accountable.
“Whether you call it soccer or football, the fans, players and sponsors around the world who love this game should not have to worry about officials corrupting their sport.
“This case isn’t about soccer, it is about fairness and following the law.”
FIFA came under fire during its election of a country to host the World Cups 2018 and 2022, with many suspecting that many had changed hands in order to bring the event to the unlikely destinations of Qatar and Russia. FIFA’s allocation of the events to those countries has come under much criticism due to their laws against homosexuality (Sepp Blatter famously said that homosexual people wanting to travel to the events should “refrain from any sexual activities”), and the awful mistreatment of foreign workers in the development of the stadiums across Qatar, with many having died from dehydration and exhaustion.
An independent investigation was carried out by FIFA, who hired former attorney Michael Garcia to assess the allegations. Garcia did rule that there had been some shady business between FIFA, Russia and Qatar, though FIFA ruled that this would not be enough to reevaluate the process. Garcia resigned from his position with FIFA after stating that he wasn’t happy with the governing body’s evaluation of his report, though the report was handed over to Swiss officials. It is uncertain whether the report’s findings had anything to do with today’s arrests.
Photo: Getty Images
(Via Sky Sports)
