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Nine high-ranking FIFA officials involved in FIFA corruption charge probe

The officials are in Switzerland for the FIFA Congress, where incumbent Sepp Blatter faces a challenge from Jordan's Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein in a presidential election on Frid

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Journalists covering the FIFA corruption scandal press conference (Reuters)
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Nine high-ranking soccer officials, including two current vice-presidents of world governing-body FIFA, and five sports marketing executives have been indicted on federal corruption charges, US law enforcement officials said on Wednesday.

The 47-count indictment unsealed in a federal court in New York charged the defendants with racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies as part of a scheme that spanned more than two decades, the US Department of Justice said in a statement.

Seven FIFA officials, including current FIFA vice president and executive committee member Jeffrey Webb, were arrested by authorities in Zurich, Switzerland on Wednesday and detained pending extradition to the United States, the department said. Four individuals and two corporate defendants had already pleaded guilty to various charges, the department said.

Authorities in Zurich on Wednesday launched an operation to arrest several high-ranking FIFA officials on corruption charges and extradite them to the United States, the New York Times reported.

The Times, citing anonymous law enforcement officials, said the US federal charges include racketeering, money laundering and wire fraud and span two decades of misconduct in soccer's world governing body. More than 10 officials were expected to be indicted, the newspaper reported.

The officials are in Switzerland for the FIFA Congress, where incumbent Sepp Blatter faces a challenge from Jordan's Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein in a presidential election on Friday. FIFA spokesman Walter de Gregorio and Delia Fischer, another spokeswoman for the governing body, were unable to be contacted for verification of the report.

Also Read: Prince Ali says FIFA arrests a 'sad day' for football

The paper said more than a dozen plain-clothed Swiss law enforcement officials arrived at Zurich's Baur au Lac hotel early on Wednesday, took keys from the registration desk and headed up to the rooms.

One FIFA official was led by the authorities from his room to a side-door exit of the hotel, the Times said, adding that officials from the body's powerful executive committee were being targeted.

"We're struck by just how long this went on for and how it touched nearly every part of what FIFA did," the Times quoted an unnamed law enforcement official as saying.

"It just seemed to permeate every element of the federation and was just their way of doing business. It seems like this corruption was institutionalized."

The Times said much of the enquiry was focused on the CONCACAF region, which governs soccer in the North America, Central America and the Caribbean.

Also Read: Is Sepp Blatter the 'Jesus' or 'Rogue' of world football, asks football fraternity

The confederation's former boss Jack Warner was regularly dogged by accusations of corruption before he resigned in 2011, putting an end to investigations of the Trinidadian.

Prosecutors expected to announce the case at a news conference at the Brooklyn US attorney's office, which is leading the investigation on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal said in a separate report.

US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey and Internal Revenue Service criminal chief Richard Weber were expected to appear in Brooklyn to announce the case, the WSJ said.

The reports offer a fresh blow to the credibility of FIFA, which has suffered repeated accusations of wrongdoing over the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, which were awarded to Qatar and Russia respectively.

FIFA appointed an independent investigator to look into the allegations and though a summary of his report found some wrongdoing on the part of the Qatari and Russian bid committees, FIFA's ethics judge concluded it wasn't enough to question the entire process.

The investigator, former attorney Michael Garcia, subsequently resigned from his role in December after criticising the handling of his report.

 

Russia denies 2018 World Cup bid link to arrests

Russia's Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said on Wednesday that the arrests of officials from soccer's world governing body FIFA were not linked to Russia's successful bid for the 2018 World Cup, TASS news agency reported.

Six officials, including some high-ranking members of FIFA, were arrested by Swiss police in Zurich early on Wednesday and detained pending extradition to the United States.
 

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