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 The world's most popular sport was plunged into turmoil after U.S.
and Swiss authorities announced separate inquiries into the
activities of the game's powerful ruling body.
U.S. authorities said nine soccer 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 U.S. 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, Florida, headquarters of CONCACAF, the soccer federation
that governs North America, Central America and the Caribbean, were
being searched on Wednesday, the DoJ said.
"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 U.S. 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.
"DIFFICULT MOMENT"
FIFA said the arrests were a "difficult moment" but Blatter
would seek a fifth term as FIFA head as planned and the upcoming
World Cups would go ahead as intended.
Separate from the U.S. investigation, Swiss prosecutors said they
had opened their own criminal proceedings against unidentified
individuals on suspicion of mismanagement and money laundering
related to the awarding of rights to host the 2018 World Cup in
Russia and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Data and documents were seized from computers at FIFA's Zurich
headquarters, the Swiss prosecutors said.
Officials said that following the arrests, accounts at several banks
in Switzerland had been blocked.
The U.S. Department of Justice named those arrested in its case as:
Webb, Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, FIFA Vice-President
Eugenio Figueredo, Rafael Esquivel and José Maria Marin.
The DoJ said the defendants included U.S. 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 media
and marketing rights to international soccer tournaments".
"The indictment alleges corruption that is rampant, systemic, and
deep-rooted both abroad and here in the United States," U.S.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement.
"It spans at least two generations of soccer officials who, as
alleged, have abused their positions of trust to acquire millions of
dollars in bribes and kickbacks," she said.
BILLIONS OF DOLLARS
The international governing body of soccer collects billions of
dollars in revenue, mostly from sponsorship and television rights
for World Cups.
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It has persistently been dogged by reports of corruption which it
says it investigates itself, but 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
criticized 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 rewritten to move the cup.
Qatar's stock market fell sharply as news of the Swiss investigation
emerged. A Russian official said his country would still host the
2018 World Cup.
Three years ago FIFA hired a former U.S. prosecutor to examine
allegations of bribery over the awarding of the World Cups to Qatar
and Russia, but last year it refused to publish his report,
releasing only a summary in which it said there were no major
irregularities. The investigator quit, saying his report had been
mischaracterized.
Most of the arrested officials are in Switzerland for the FIFA
Congress, where Blatter faces a challenge from Jordan's Prince Ali
bin al-Hussein in an election on Friday to lead the organization.
Other potential challengers to Blatter have all dropped out the
race.
Prince Ali, who has promised to clean up FIFA if elected to the top
job, called it "a sad day for football".
CONCACAF FOCUS
Much of the U.S. 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.
U.S. law gives its courts broad powers to investigate crimes
committed by foreigners on foreign soil if money passes through U.S.
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 and 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 told Reuters.
"It proves that Sepp Blatter's promises over the last few years to
look into corruption at FIFA have not materialized 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."
(Additional reporting Curtis Skinner in San Francisco and Ian Ransom
in Melbourne; Writing by Peter Graff and Giles Elgood, editing by
Peter Millership)
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