AFC back Blatter whereas South America gets rocked by FIFA scandal

 The Asian Football Confederation has re-affirmed its support for embattled FIFA boss Sepp Blatter and pushed for Friday's presidential election to go ahead despite the corruption scandal that has rocked soccer's global governing body.

The AFC, which represents 47 member nations, has been a staunch ally of the 79-year-old Swiss and the bloc's support will be vital for his hopes of clinging to the presidency for a fifth term.

"The Asian Football Confederation expresses its disappointment and sadness at Wednesday's events in Zurich whilst opposing any delay in the FIFA Presidential elections to take place on Friday May 29 in Zurich," the AFC said in a statement posted on its website (the-afc.com) on Thursday.

"Furthermore, the AFC reiterates its decision taken at the AFC Congress in Sao Paulo in 2014, endorsed at subsequent Congresses in Melbourne and Manama in 2015, to support FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter," it added. FIFA has been thrown into renewed crisis with the arrests of seven of the governing body's most powerful officials in Switzerland on Wednesday over corruption allegations.

They are now waiting extradition to the United States where authorities have said nine soccer officials and five sports and promotions executives face corruption charges involving more than $150 million in bribes. US prosecutors said they aimed to make more arrests but would not be drawn on whether Blatter, for long the most powerful man in the sport, was a target of the probe.

The European soccer body UEFA called for the election, which pits Blatter against Jordanian Prince Ali bin Al Hussein, to be postponed but FIFA is determined it will go ahead. 

Though the US probe's indictments have targeted soccer officials in the Caribbean and central America, Swiss authorities have also announced their own criminal investigation into the awarding of the next two World Cups hosted in Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.

FIFA corruption scandal: All you need to know about this latest controversy

The awarding of the 2022 tournament to Qatar, a tiny desert country with no domestic tradition of soccer, proved controversial, with subsequent corruption allegations embroiling former AFC President Mohammed Bin Hammam. 

The Qatari, a former member of FIFA's all-powerful executive committee, was to oppose Blatter at the last presidential election in 2011 but was banned for life after an investigation by the governing body's ethics committee. 

Bin Hammam and Qatari's bid team have consistently denied any wrongdoing, but accusations of impropriety continue to rock the sprawling continent. The AFC suspended its general secretary Alex Soosay earlier this month after a Malaysian newspaper reported Soosay had asked another official to hide some documents during a corruption probe.

"The AFC is against any form of corruption in football and fully supports any actions taken by the independent FIFA Ethics Committee where wrongdoing may have occurred, whether such actions affect Asian officials or otherwise," the AFC said.

"The AFC is still undergoing its own process of reform and has taken many concrete steps in the last two years to improve governance in the Confederation, whilst recognising that there is still much work to do," it added.

Though the AFC's top brass have declared Asia will vote for Blatter as a bloc, other officials at a January congress in Melbourne would not rule out some dissent.

"It's a free vote and the declaration by the president of the AFC, Sheikh Salman, that Asia will vote as a bloc for Blatter is arrogant in the extreme and disrespectful of his own membership," Australian Les Murray, a former member of FIFA's ethics committee wrote in his blog on local broadcaster SBS's website (theworldgame.sbs.com.au).

South America gets affected by FIFA scandal

As if losing the World Cup to Europe on home soil for the first time was not enough, Latin American soccer now faces more humiliation with some of its most powerful executives arrested in a massive international corruption sweep. Yet while local fans were saddened not to see one of their own teams win last year's trophy in Brazil, they were cheering the unprecedented arrests and probes announced on Wednesday.

"This should have happened long ago!" said Wilson Suares, 66, a newspaper seller, in Rio de Janeiro, the city that is for many the sport's spiritual 'home' and where the World Cup final was held - and won by Germany - in 2014. "All those people are just there to steal," he said, in views echoed in streets and Tweets across the soccer-mad region.

Latin American fans have long booed officials assumed to be on the take, amid deep public disgust at graft in the game. Sentiment against world governing body FIFA was strong during big street protests before the Brazil World Cup.

Also Read:  Voices from European soccer outrage over FIFA scandal; call for Sepp Blatter to resign

Seven of the region's best-known soccer figures were detained in Switzerland on Wednesday to face possible extradition to the United States. US officials said the investigation exposed complex money laundering schemes, millions of dollars in untaxed incomes and tens of millions in offshore accounts held by FIFA officials.

Those arrested are: Jeffrey Webb, vice-president of world body FIFA, president of North and Central American body CONCACAF and head of soccer in the Cayman Islands; Eduardo Li, who runs Costa Rica's soccer federation; Julio Rocha, who headed Nicaragua's federation; Eugenio Figueredo, another FIFA vice-president who used to run Uruguayan soccer; Rafael Esquivel who is the sport's boss in Venezuela; Jose Maria Marin, who used to be the head of Brazil's federation; and Costas Takkas, another CONCACAF official.

Those detained or their representatives were not available to comment. The seven were taken before dawn at a hotel in Switzerland - where suites cost up to $4,000 a night - before a FIFA congress where its president Sepp Blatter was seeking re-election.

"Unfortunately it wasn't our police who caught them, but somebody had to catch them. Thieves have to go to jail," said former Brazilian soccer great Romario, who was on the team that won the World Cup in 1994 and is now a senator. "I hope this has positive effects and that these events allow us in South America and Brazil to definitively clean up our soccer," he added, praising Swiss and US authorities.
 

COPA AMERICA AFFECTED?

Another two soccer officials - Nicolas Leoz, a Paraguayan who used to be head of South American soccer body CONMEBOL; and Jack Warner, a former FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF head from Trinidad and Tobago - were also named in the US indictment.

A judge granted Warner, who faces 12 charges, TT$2.5 million (US$400,000) bail when he appeared in court in Port of Spain on Wednesday, although local TV reported he did not have adequate asset documents on him to post bail so he was spending the night in jail. His lawyers planned to secure his release on Thursday. The United States is seeking his extradition.

Warner, a parliamentarian, said he was innocent and noted he had left soccer activities four years ago. The US charges run from racketeering and bribery to wire fraud and money laundering. Many fans and players across Latin America and the Caribbean have long believed soccer's governors enrich themselves at the expense of grassroots development.

"We have a FIFA with millions of dollars and there are players in Uruguay, in Costa Rica, where I'm told they don't earn more than $150 (a month)," former Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona told local TV, adding he was "enjoying" the spectacle of top officials being arrested. The news from Switzerland came at a bad time for Latin American football federations: their showpiece tournament, the Copa America, starts in Chile on June 11.

There was no suggestion the event would be canceled, and embarrassed national federations quickly put out statements disassociating themselves from corruption. The news also comes on the heels of a string of high-profile corruption scandals that have stung Latin American politicians in Brazil, Chile, Guatemala and elsewhere.

Related: World football rocked as top officials held; criminal investigation into awarding of 2018 and 2022 World Cups

Brazil's soccer body, the CBF, whose new headquarters was inaugurated last year bearing Marin's name, said it would "completely support" any investigation. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said investigations should help make local soccer more professional, Costa Rica announced its own investigation, and Bolivian President Evo Morales said FIFA heads should live for soccer, not for enriching themselves.

Some fans called for action against FIFA head Blatter. "He has got to go, he needs a red card," said Juan Escobedo Martinez, 75, a Mexico City taco seller. Most of those arrested or named on Wednesday are high-profile characters in their home countries.

Marin, remembered in Brazil for surreptitiously pocketing a winner's medal for teenagers who won the Sao Paulo Youth Cup in 2012, warned last year that Brazil's performance in the World Cup would take them either to "heaven or hell". It turned out to be the latter after they were demolished 7-1 by Germany in the semi-final.

Li was seen as the architect of Costa Rica's excellent World Cup run in Brazil and named 2014 person of the year by 'La Nacion' newspaper. Venezuela's Esquivel is nicknamed "Whisky-vel" by detractors who accuse him of preferring corruption and the high life to professionally running the sport. He denies the accusations.