Top FIFA officials indicted on corruption charges

Nine FIFA top officials have been arrested in Switzerland, accused of pocketing well over $150m in bribes in “brazen corruption” stretching back 24 years.

More than a dozen officers descended on the five-star Baur au Lac hotel on Wednesday, where officials had gathered for FIFA’s annual meeting.

The dawn arrests in Zurich came hours before Swiss prosecutors announced a criminal investigation into the 2018 and 2022 football World Cup bids.

Among the suspects are: Jack Warner, the former FIFA vice-president; Jeffrey Webb, current FIFA vice-president and president of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (COCACAF); Eugenio Figueredo, another current vice-president and executive committee member; Eduardo Li, current executive committee member-elect; Julio Rocha, current  development officer; Rafael Esquivel, president of the Venezuelan Football Federation; José Maria Marin, ex-president of the Brazilian Football Confederation; and Costas Takkas, current attaché to the COCACAF president Jeffrey Webb.

There are also sports marketing executives arrested: Alejandro Burzaco, the principal of Argentinean sports marketing firm Torneos y Competencias S.A; Aaron Davidson, president of Traffic Sports USA; Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, principals of Argentinean sports marketing firm Full Play Group S.A. A further marketing executive, José Marguiles, was charged as an intermediary.

THREE YEARS INVESTIGATION

The arrests were made on behalf of United States authorities, after an FBI investigation that has been ongoing for at least three years. Those arrested in Zurich face extradition to the United States.

US prosecutors said the football officials conspired with sports marketing executives to “shut out competitors and keep highly lucrative contracts for themselves through the systematic payment of bribes and kickbacks”.

Hours later, Swiss federal prosecutors confirmed they had opened criminal proceedings in connection with the award of the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 tournament to Qatar. The decisions have been shrouded in claims of bribery and corruption ever since the vote in December 2010.

In a statement, the Swiss attorney general’s office explained the timing of the operation was deliberately co-ordinated with the arrests on behalf of the US authorities “to avoid any possible collusion” between suspects.

Besides, a large number of those involved in the voting for the two World Cups were present in Zurich, where FIFA president Sepp Blatter was expected to be re-elected for another four-year term on Friday.

FIFA EXPLANATIONS

At a press conference in FIFA headquarters, spokesman Walter de Gregorio denied Blatter was in any way involved with either investigation and told the journalists that the Swiss proceedings were as a result of information provided by FIFA to the attorney general’s office in November 2014.

He also confirmed that there was no suggestion that Russia or Qatar would lose the World Cup.

“THEY CORRUPTED SOCCER TO SERVE THEIR INTERESTS”

The US attorney office has held a press conference to explain the details of the operation and the reasons why the FIFA officials and sports marketing executives have been arrested.

US attorney general Loretta Lynch confirmed that “FIFA officials used their positions of trust within their respective organizations to solicit bribes from sports marketers.” “They did this over and over again, year after year, tournament after tournament”, she added.

She believed many have been harmed: “from youth leagues and developing countries that should benefit from the revenue generated by the commercial rights these organizations hold, to the fans at home and throughout the world.''

Kelly T Currie, acting US attorney in the Eastern District of New York, addressed further details of the indictments:

“This sort of corruption and bribery in international soccer has been going on for two decades”, he said; “the investigation leading to these indictments took years, and this is only the beginning”, he concluded.

Asked about Sepp Blatter’s implication, Lynch only said: “I’m not able to comment further on Mr Blatter’s status.” But she talked about Jeffrey Webb, commenting that he “used his positions of trust to solicit and collect bribes from sports marketing executives who needed his support to get contracts.”

Lynch lamented that the FIFA officials “were expected to uphold the rules that keep soccer honest, and protect the integrity of the game. Instead, they corrupted the business of worldwide soccer to serve their interests and enrich themselves.”

“This Department of Justice is determined to end these practices; to root out corruption; and to bring wrongdoers to justice”, she concluded.