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 The unnamed officials were taken into custody pending extradition
after pre-dawn raids on Thursday conducted at the behest of the U.S.
Department of Justice.
"The high-ranking FIFA officials are alleged to have taken the money
in return for selling marketing rights in connection with soccer
tournaments in Latin America, as well as World Cup qualifying
matches," Switzerland's Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) said.
The FOJ said it would release their names later on Thursday. FIFA's
ethics committee has routinely suspended officials swept up in the
probe.
The New York Times identified targets of the investigation as
Alfredo Hawit of Honduras, acting president of CONCACAF, and Juan
Angel Napout of Paraguay, the head of CONMEBOL.
The two men, their representatives and their federations were not
immediately available for comment. FIFA declined to comment on the
identity of those arrested.
CONCACAF administers soccer in North and Central America and the
Caribbean, while COBMEBOL handles South America. The past two
CONCACAF heads before Hawit have been indicted by U.S. authorities.
"While we are profoundly disappointed by the allegations made by
authorities that again, CONCACAF has been the victim of fraud, we
remain committed to CONCACAF’s goal to develop, promote and manage
the game of soccer," Hawit had said when he took charge of the
confederation in May.
The Times quoted law enforcement officials as saying that Sepp
Blatter, FIFA's longtime president, or Jerome Valcke, his suspended
deputy, were not among those charged on Thursday.
Both have been suspended by an internal ethics watchdog, along with
European soccer boss Michel Platini. None of them has been charged
with a crime and all deny any wrongdoing.
The avalanche of corruption allegations involving FIFA prompted
Blatter in June to say he would resign, only days after being
re-elected to a fifth term. FIFA is to elect a successor in
February.
PRE-DAWN ARRESTS
Swiss authorities said Thursday's arrests were related to alleged
offences agreed and prepared in the United States and involving
payments processed by U.S. banks. The names of banks involved were
not released.
Authorities have said for months they expected to level a second
wave of corruption charges in soccer following U.S. charges in May
against 14 officials and sports marketing executives with paying and
taking bribes.
The New York Times said in the latest action authorities were
targeting current and former senior soccer officials on charges that
included racketeering, money laundering and fraud. The new charges
were expected to hit South and Central American soccer leaders
particularly hard, the paper said.
The Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich, the scene of dawn raids in May
triggered by U.S. indictments, closed its gates after a group of
four people, believed to be plainclothes police, went in around 6
a.m. (0000 ET), a Reuters witness said.
Another group of police then went in through the rear entrance and
left half an hour later. Shortly afterwards, two cars with tinted
windows were seen leaving the hotel. Reporters could not see who was
inside.
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FIFA officials routinely use the luxury lakeside hotel and many are
in Zurich for an executive committee meeting at which an internal
FIFA reforms committee is to present its recommendations.
Leading FIFA sponsors Anheuser-Busch InBev NV <ABI.BR>, Adidas
<ADSGn.DE>, Coca-Cola <KO.N>, McDonald's Corp <MCD.N> and Visa Inc
<V.N> on Tuesday published an open letter demanding independent
oversight of the reform process.
"FIFA will continue to cooperate fully with the U.S. investigation
as permitted by Swiss law, as well as with the investigation being
led by the Swiss Office of the Attorney General," FIFA said in
response to the latest arrests.
U.S. Department of Justice officials were expected to discuss the
case at a Washington news conference on Thursday, people familiar
with the plans said.
LEADERSHIP CHANGES
Swiss and U.S. authorities are conducting parallel investigations of
corruption in soccer, focusing on whether certain business contracts
or the World Cup hosting rights for 2018 and 2022 were won with the
help of bribery.
Wednesday marked five years since the Dec. 2, 2010, vote in which
the FIFA executive committee awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cup
finals hosting rights to Russia and Qatar.
The choice of Qatar, a small desert state where summer daytime
temperatures rarely fall below 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit),
was especially contentious and went against the advice of FIFA's own
technical committee.
The leaderships of several South American national soccer
organizations have been upended. Last week, Marco Polo Del Nero, the
head of the Brazilian Football Confederation, resigned his post on
FIFA's executive committee amid criticism of his leadership. FIFA's
ethics committee opened formal proceedings against him on Nov. 23.
Also last month, the president of the Colombian Football Federation,
Luis Bedoya, resigned unexpectedly as a government source said
Bedoya had flown to New York. The president of Chile's ANFP national
soccer association, Sergio Jadue, resigned his post and went to the
United States to talk to the FBI, Chilean media reported.
(Additional reporting by Michael Shields and Brian Homewood in
Zurich, Mark Hosenball in Washington, Mica Rosenberg and David
Ingram in New York and Brett Wolf in St. Louis; Editing by Raju
Gopalakrishnan and Jon Boyle)
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