Washington, May 27:
Seven top FIFA officials, including a vice-president were today 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 tomorrow. 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 today 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 today 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. (PTI)
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