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Soccer
officials
arrested
at Swiss
hotel in
corruption
probe
By
GRAHAM
DUNBAR
Associated
Press
ZURICH -
The U.S.
government
launched
a
corruption
attack
on
soccer's
global
governing
body
Wednesday,
pulling
FIFA
executives
out of a
luxury
Zurich
hotel to
face
racketeering
charges
and
raiding
regional
offices
in
Miami.
Swiss
officials
also
invaded
FIFA
headquarters,
seizing
records
and
computers
to
investigate
whether
the
decisions
to award
World
Cups to
Russia
and
Qatar
were
rigged.
Scandals
and
rumors
of
deeper
corruption
have
dogged
FIFA
throughout
the
17-year
reign of
its
president,
Sepp
Blatter,
but he
was not
named in
either
investigation.
He is
scheduled
to stand
Friday
for
re-election
to fifth
term,
and the
organization
said the
vote
would go
ahead as
planned,
despite
the
latest
turmoil.
FIFA
also
ruled
out a
revote
of the
World
Cup bids
won by
Russia
in 2018
and
Qatar in
2022.
"We
welcome
the
actions
and the
investigations
by the
U.S. and
Swiss
authorities
and
believe
that it
will
help to
reinforce
measures
that
FIFA has
already
taken to
root out
any
wrongdoing
in
football,"
Blatter
said in
a
statement.
The
organization
said it
was
cooperating
fully
with the
investigation.
Authorities
conducted
early
morning
raids in
Zurich
at FIFA
headquarters
and the
five-star
Baur au
Lac
Hotel
downtown
in the
investigations.
In
Miami,
evidence
was
seized
at the
headquarters
of
CONCACAF,
the
governing
body of
North
and
Central
America
and the
Caribbean,
whose
past and
current
presidents
were
among 14
defendants
under
indictment
for
corruption.
Swiss
police
arrested
seven
soccer
official
at the
request
of
American
prosecutors
and
threatened
them
with
extradition
to the
U.S.
Four
other
soccer
and
marketing
officials
agreed
to plead
guilty.
"Beginning
in 1991,
two
generations
of
soccer
officials
... used
their
positions
of trust
within
their
respective
organizations
to
solicit
bribes
from
sports
marketers
in
exchange
for the
commercial
rights
to their
soccer
tournaments,"
U.S.
Attorney
General
Loretta
E. Lynch
said at
a news
conference
in New
York.
"They
did this
over and
over,
year
after
year,
tournament
after
tournament."
American
prosecutors
said
they
will
seek
forfeiture
of more
than
$151
million
the
government
alleges
was
illegally
obtained.
Richard
Weber,
head of
the IRS
Criminal
Division,
called
the
developments
"the
World
Cup of
fraud."
Two
current
FIFA
vice
presidents
were
among
those
arrested
and
indicted,
Jeffrey
Webb of
the
Cayman
Islands
and
Eugenio
Figueredo
of
Uruguay,
the
Justice
Department
said.
The
others
are
Eduardo
Li of
Costa
Rica,
Julio
Rocha of
Nicaragua,
Costas
Takkas
of
Britain,
Rafael
Esquivel
of
Venezuela
and Jose
Maria
Marin of
Brazil.
All
seven
are
connected
with the
regional
confederations
of North
and
South
America
and face
up to 20
years in
prison
if
convicted.
FIFA
suspended
11
people,
including
Webb and
Figueredo,
from all
soccer-related
activities
following
the U.S.
announcement.
Webb
called
himself
a
reformer
when he
was
elected
as
CONCACAF
president
in 2012
to
replace
Jack
Warner,
who also
was
named in
the
indictment.
The
seven
soccer
officials
arrested
are
connected
with
CONCACAF
or
CONMEBOL,
South
America's
governing
body.
Each
faces up
to 20
years in
prison
if
convicted.
The
Swiss
justice
ministry
said six
of the
seven
officials
arrested
oppose
extradition
to the
United
States,
adding
that
U.S.
authorities
now have
40 days
to
submit
the
formal
extradition
request.
One of
those
detained,
who was
unidentified,
agreed
to "a
simplified
extradition
procedure,"
meaning
he can
be sent
to the
U.S. in
the
coming
days.
Four of
the men
indicted
are
sports
marketing
executives
and
another
works in
broadcasting.
Jack
Warner,
a former
FIFA
vice
president
from
Trinidad
and
Tobago,
was
among
those
indicted.
The case
involves
bribes
totaling
more
than
$100
million
linked
to
commercial
deals
dating
back to
the
1990s
for
soccer
tournaments
in the
U.S. and
Latin
America,
the
Swiss
Federal
Office
of
Justice
said.
The
Justice
Department
cited
bribes
and
kickbacks
involving
media
rights
deals
involving
World
Cup
qualifying
matches
in the
Caribbean
and
Central
America,
the Copa
America
- South
America's
continental
championship
- plus
the
CONCACAF
Gold Cup
and
Champions
League.
"They
were
expected
to
uphold
the
rules
that
keep
soccer
honest
and to
protect
the
integrity
of the
game,"
Lynch
said.
"Instead,
they
corrupted
the
business
of
worldwide
soccer
to serve
their
interests
and to
enrich
themselves."
U.S.
prosecutors
said
they had
uncovered
a dozen
different
schemes,
including
$10
million
in
payments
from a
FIFA
account
in
Switzerland
to an
account
in New
York for
credit
to an
account
controlled
by
Warner.
South
Africa,
with the
backing
of
Nelson
Mandela,
beat
rival
bids
from
Morocco
and
Egypt to
host the
tournament
in 2010,
four
years
after
narrowly
losing
out to
Germany
for the
previous
tournament.
The
Swiss
prosecutors'
office
said the
U.S.
probe
was
separate
from its
investigation
but that
authorities
were
working
together.
The
votes to
award
the
World
Cups to
Russia
and
Qatar
have
been
surrounded
in
controversy
and
accusations
of
corruption.
The
Swiss
prosecutors'
office
said in
a
statement
it
seized
"electronic
data and
documents"
at
FIFA's
headquarters
Wednesday
as part
of the
probe.
Swiss
police
said
they
will
question
10 FIFA
executive
committee
members
who took
part in
the
World
Cup
votes in
December
2010.
The
Swiss
investigation
against
"persons
unknown
on
suspicion
of
criminal
mismanagement
and of
money
laundering"
again
throws
into the
doubt
the
integrity
of the
voting.
Qatar, a
tiny
Gulf
nation
with
little
soccer
tradition,
was
criticized
from the
start
for its
extreme
summer
heat.
FIFA has
since
been
forced
to move
the
tournament
to
November-December
instead
of the
usual
June-July
time
slot.
FIFA
also
hired
former
U.S.
attorney
Michael
Garcia
to
investigate
the 2018
and 2022
bid
process.
His
findings
were
never
fully
released
and both
Russia
and
Qatar
were
confirmed
as
hosts.
Garcia's
full
report
was
turned
over to
Swiss
authorities
in
November,
prompting
Wednesday's
raid on
FIFA
headquarters.
Russian
Sports
Minister
Vitaly
Mutko,
who is
also a
FIFA
executive
committee
member,
told The
Associated
Press
"we've
got
nothing
to
hide."
"We're
prepared
to show
everything,"
Mutko
said in
a
telephone
interview.
"We've
always
acted
within
the
law."
Qatari
soccer
officials
declined
to
comment.
Dozens
of
soccer
officials
are in
Switzerland
for the
FIFA
congress,
where
Blatter
is
widely
expected
to win
re-election.
But
European
football's
governing
body,
known as
UEFA,
said the
election
should
be
postponed
and that
it would
consider
boycotting
this
week's
FIFA
congress
following
the
arrests.
UEFA
general
secretary
Gianni
Infantino
said the
corruption
investigations
into
FIFA
"tarnish
the
image of
football
as a
whole."
Blatter
had been
scheduled
to
attend a
meeting
of the
Confederation
of
African
Football
in a
different
downtown
Zurich
hotel,
but he
canceled
his
appearance.
He later
canceled
his
plans to
attend a
meeting
of the
South
American
confederation.
Blatter's
only
opponent
in
Friday's
election,
Prince
Ali bin
al-Hussein
of
Jordan,
seized
on the
situation
to push
his
candidacy.
"We
cannot
continue
with the
crisis
in FIFA,
a crisis
that has
been
ongoing
and is
not just
relevant
to the
events
of
today,"
Prince
Ali said
in a
statement.
"FIFA
needs
leadership
that
governs,
guides
and
protects
our
national
associations.
...
Leadership
that
restores
confidence
in the
hundreds
of
millions
of
football
fans
around
the
world."
In
Florida,
a small
group of
agents
from the
FBI and
IRS
executed
search
warrants
at
CONCACAF
headquarters
in Miami
Beach.
Neither
agency
offered
comment
on the
investigation.
CONCACAF
reported
itself
to U.S.
tax
authorities
in 2012.
Then
based in
New
York,
the
organization
had not
paid
taxes
over
several
years
when its
president
was
Warner
and
secretary
general
was
Chuck
Blazer
of the
United
States,
who was
accused
of
failing
to
report
more
than $11
million
in
income
and
agreed
to plead
guilty.
Warner
left
soccer
in 2011
to avoid
FIFA
sanctions
in a
bribery
scandal
during
that
year's
presidential
election.
Blazer
left in
2013 and
has
pleaded
guilty
to
charges,
the
Justice
Department
said
Wednesday.
Warner's
successor
as
CONCACAF
leader
and FIFA
vice
president
is Webb,
who was
staying
at the
Baur au
Lac this
week.
The
Swiss
Federal
Office
of
Justice
said in
its
statement
that
U.S.
authorities
suspect
the
arrested
officials
of
having
received
or paid
bribes
totaling
millions
of
dollars
and that
the
crimes
were
agreed
to and
prepared
in the
U.S.,
and
payments
carried
out via
U.S.
banks.
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