Swiss authorities have launched a dawn raid to arrest senior FIFA officials for extradition to the United States.
Reports claim upto a dozen arrests were made at the Baur au Lac hotel where FIFA are gathering to re-elect Sepp Blatter for a fifth term as president.
Suspicions about how FIFA operate turned into accusations and investigations after the 2022 World Cup was awarded to Qatar which was announced at the same time as Russia were given the 2018 competition.
The United States, Australia and England all put in bids for those competitions. When they were overlooked suspicions switched to the process involved with claims that some FIFA officials were ‘looked after’ by third parties in return for their votes.
Within an hour of the news breaking the New York Times published an incredibly detailed report on the operation going into detail about the reasons why the US authorities requested the action which could see officials extradited to the US.
The New York Times reports: “The charges allege widespread corruption in FIFA over the past two decades, involving bids for World Cups as well as marketing and broadcast deals, according to three law enforcement officials with direct knowledge of the case. The charges include wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering, and officials said they targeted members of FIFA’s powerful executive committee, which wields enormous power and does its business largely in secret.
“The arrests were a startling blow to FIFA, a multibillion-dollar organization that governs the world’s most popular sport but has been plagued by accusations of bribery for decades.
“The inquiry is also a major threat to Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s longtime president who is generally recognized as the most powerful person in sports, though he was not charged. An election, seemingly pre-ordained to give him a fifth term as president, is scheduled for Friday.
“Prosecutors planned to unseal an indictment against more than 10 officials, not all of whom are in Zurich, law enforcement officials said. Among them are Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands, a vice president of the executive committee; Eugenio Figueredo of Uruguay, who is also an executive committee vice president and until recently was the president of South America’s soccer association; and Jack Warner of Trinidad and Tobago, a former member of the executive committee who has been accused of numerous ethical violations.
“We’re struck by just how long this went on for and how it touched nearly every part of what FIFA did,” said a law enforcement official. “It just seemed to permeate every element of the federation and was just their way of doing business. It seems like this corruption was institutionalized.”
News of the arrests and extradition process is bound to embarrass the SFA and Irish Football Association who will host friendlies against Qatar on June 5 and May 31.
CLICK HERE for New York Times report in full.