What Happened?
Early on Wednesday morning seven FIFA officials - in Zurich, Switzerland for the Presidential elections - were hauled out of their hotel rooms and arrested over charges of having received $150 million in bribes.
The arrests were made by the Swiss police on behalf of the American Justice Department, who indicted a total of nine FIFA executives on charges of federal corruption charges.
Who Were Arrested?
Part of FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s current Executive Board, vice presidents Jeffrey Webb and Eugenio Figueredo were among the seven who were hauled out of their hotel rooms in Zurich early on Wednesday morning.
Also arrested were Rafael Esquivel (President of Venezuelan Football Federation), Eduardo Li (President of Costa Rican Football Federation), Julio Rocha (Former President of Nicaraguan Football Federation), Costas Takkas (Former General Secretary the Cayman Islands Football Association) and Jose Maria Marin (Former President of the Brazilian Football Confederation).
The two indicted defendants who were not among the seven arrested in Zurich were Jack Warner, the current Minister of National Security, Trinidad and Tobago and FIFA member Nicolas Leoz.
Why Were They Arrested?
The arrests were made after the US Justice Department unsealed a 47-count 166-page indictment in a federal court in New York charging the nine FIFA executives with racketeering, wire fraud and money-laundering. This was done over a time period spanning over two decades, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.
What Are the Charges?
The Justice Department warned that the nine FIFA executives stand to face a maximum term of 20 years in jail.
1. 2010 South Africa World Cup: The indictment claimed that South Africa paid $10 million to Jack Warner, former FIFA vice president and executive committee member of CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central America, Caribbean Association Football), to ensure he along with two other FIFA executive committee members vote in their favour to host the 2010 World Cup.
2. $40,000 Cash Envelopes: In 2011, Warner, the current Minister of National Security of Trinidad and Tobago allegedly worked together with a FIFA Presidential candidate to sway votes in his favour. He is believed to have told members of the Caribbean Football Union to pick up a “gift” in another conference room, where each member found an envelope stuffed with $40,000, the indictment claimed.
The Swiss Investigations
This however is not the end of the trouble for football’s governing body. There was a parallel criminal investigation opened by Swiss authorities on Wednesday itself, over the awarding of hosting rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Qatar and Russia.
Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General (OAG) also said in a statement it had seized data and documents stored in computer systems at FIFA.
Subsequent to the seizure of files, the OAG and Swiss police will question 10 people who took part in voting on the hosting rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups as members of the Executive Committee in 2010.
What About the Elections?
In all this controversy, it may be easy to forget that the FIFA executives were in Zurich to elect the next FIFA President.
And now with a few of their own now under arrest, including two vice-presidents, a large part of the world body’s board wants to postpone the elections - but incumbent President Sepp Blatter refuses to budge.
Bidding for re-election for a fifth term, Sepp Blatter is standing against Jordan’s Prince Ali bin al-Hussein. FIFA spokesman Walter De Gregorio has said that the Swiss criminal investigations into the two upcoming World Cups has nothing to do with the elections and that “there was never such an idea to postpone the congress nor the election.”
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