The FIFA presidential election scheduled for Friday will go ahead as planned despite the arrest of seven FIFA officials on charges of corruption.
Sepp Blatter faces Prince Ali bin al-Hussein in Friday’s election as he seeks a fifth term as FIFA president but an extraordinary early-morning operation conducted by Swiss authorities on Wednesday to arrest several top soccer officials and extradite them to the United States on federal corruption charges is the latest news from the Zurich headquarter of the football governing body.
Those arrested in a dawn raid at the prestigious Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich were FIFA vice-president Jeffrey Webb, Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Eugenio Figueredo, Rafael Esquivel and Jose Maria Marin.
As leaders of FIFA gathered for their annual meeting, more than a dozen plain-clothed Swiss law enforcement officials arrived unannounced at the venue. They went to the front desk to get room numbers and then proceeded upstairs.
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The arrests were carried out peacefully.
The charges, backed by an FBI investigation, allege widespread corruption in FIFA over the past two decades, involving bids for World Cups as well as marketing and broadcast deals.
A separate criminal investigation into how the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were allocated has also begun.
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The charges:
Nine current or former FIFA officials, including Webb and former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, charged with corruption
Four individual and two corporate defendants, including former CONCACAF general secretary Chuck Blazer and Warner’s sons Daryan and Daryll, plead guilty
Alleged scheme “fostered a culture of corruption and greed that created uneven playing field”
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“Undisclosed and illegal payments, kickbacks and bribes became a way of doing business at FIFA”
Majority of scheme involved corruption over media and marketing rights to matches and tournaments.
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