Washington: Seven top FIFA officials, including a vice-president were on Wednesday arrested on charges of conspiracy and corruption in Zurich, rocking the world body of football a day before the start of its annual Congress.
The officials were arrested from a luxury hotel in Zurich where they were preparing for a congress starting Thursday. They now face deportation to the United States on charges of accepting more than USD 100 million in bribes.
At the request of the US, Swiss authorities in Zurich this morning arrested seven of the defendants charged in the indictment — Jeffrey Webb, Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Eugenio Figueredo, Rafael Esquivel and Jose Maria Marin.
Webb and Warner – the current and former presidents of CONCACAF, the continental confederation under FIFA headquartered in the United States – are among the soccer officials charged with racketeering and bribery offences.
Others include US and South American sports marketing executives who are alleged to have systematically paid and agreed to pay well over USD 150 million in bribes and kickbacks to obtain lucrative media and marketing rights to international soccer tournaments.
Also this morning, a search warrant was being executed at CONCACAF headquarters in Miami, Florida.
Altogether, the American federal prosecutors have charged 14 individuals in the case.
Those charged in the indictment unsealed in a New York court on Wednesday include high-ranking officials of the FIFA as well as leading officials of other soccer governing bodies that operate under the FIFA umbrella.
The guilty pleas of the four individual and two corporate defendants that were also unsealed Wednesday include the guilty pleas of Charles Blazer, the long-serving former general secretary of CONCACAF and former US representative on the FIFA executive committee; Jose Hawilla, the owner and founder of the Traffic Group, a multinational sports marketing conglomerate headquartered in Brazil; and two of Hawilla’s companies, Traffic Sports International Inc., which is based in Florida.
“The indictment alleges corruption that is rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted both abroad and here in the United States,” said US Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
“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.
“It has profoundly harmed a multitude of victims, from the youth leagues and developing countries that should benefit from the revenue generated by the commercial rights these organisations hold, to the fans at home and throughout the world whose support for the game makes those rights valuable,” she added.
The arrests came two days before FIFA president Sepp Blatter seeks a afifth term in the office.
The indictment alleges that, since 1991 and the present, the defendants and their co-conspirators corrupted the enterprise by engaging in various criminal activities, including fraud, bribery and money laundering.
Two generations of soccer officials abused their positions of trust for personal gain, frequently through an alliance with unscrupulous sports marketing executives who shut out competitors and kept highly lucrative contracts for themselves through the systematic payment of bribes and kickbacks.
“Soccer officials are charged with conspiring to solicit and receive well over USD150 million in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for their support of the sports marketing executives who agreed to make the unlawful payments,” federal prosecutors alleged. (PTI)
