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The world governing body of football, Fifa, was plunged into an unprecedented crisis on the eve of its congress in Zurich after Swiss authorities arrested a string of officials in a dawn raid and opened criminal proceedings over the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
More than a dozen plainclothed officers descended on the five-star Baur au Lac hotel on Wednesday, where officials had gathered for Fifa’s annual meeting.
The arrests were made on behalf of US authorities, after an FBI investigation that has been ongoing for at least three years. The US Department of Justice said authorities had charged 14 officials, nine of whom are current or former Fifaexecutives. Those arrested in Zurich face extradition to the US.
Hours later, Swiss federal prosecutors said they had opened criminal proceedingsin connection with the award of the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 tournament to Qatar. The decisions have been shrouded in claims of bribery and corruption ever since the vote in December 2010.
The Swiss authorities seized “electronic data and documents” in a raid on Fifa headquarters. Bank documents had earlier been collected from various Swiss financial institutions. Police will question 10 members of the Fifa executive committee members who took part in the World Cup votes.
In a statement, the Swiss attorney general’s office said the executives were being questioned on suspicion of “criminal mismanagement” and money laundering. It said the timing of the operation was deliberately co-ordinated with the arrests on behalf of the US authorities “to avoid any possible collusion” between suspects and because a large number of those involved in the voting for the two World Cups were present in Zurich, where Fifa president Sepp Blatter was expected to be re-elected for another four-year term on Friday.
At a later press conference at Fifa headquarters, spokesman Walter de Gregorio denied Blatter was in any way involved with either investigation and said that the Swiss proceedings were as a result of information provided by Fifa to the attorney general’s office in November 2014. He also confirmed that there was no suggestion that Russia or Qatar would lose the World Cup.
Fifa vice-president Jeffrey Webb, of the Cayman Islands, was among those arrested. He is the head of Fifa’s north American regional body, known as Concacaf, which reported itself to US tax authorities in 2012.The arrests on behalf of the US authorities form part of an international investigation into bribes worth $100m (£65m) spanning three decades. The allegations date back to the 1990s and involve “the acceptance of bribes and kickbacks”, Swiss officials said.
The organisation had not paid taxes for several years when its president was Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer was secretary general.
As well as Webb, the Department of Justice statement confirmed the Fifa officials charged were Eugenio Figueredo, Jack Warner, Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Rafael Esquivel and José Maria Marin and Nicolás Leoz. A further four defendants were the sports marketing executives Alejandro Burzaco, Aaron Davidson, Hugo Jinkis and Mariano Jinkis. A further marketing executive, José Marguiles, was charged as an intermediary.
The DoJ statement confirmed the charges were for racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies, “among other offences” and alleged a “24-year scheme to enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer”. The charges were announced by the US Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
The arrests came two days before Fifa president Blatter had expected to be re-elected for a fifth term. On Wednesday morning, Blatter – who was not among those arrested – was said to be actively lobbying to have Friday’s election postponed.
Blatter has been closely entwined with many of those charged in the US during his 40 years at Fifa, including the Paraguayan Leoz and the Trinidadian Warner. Webb and Figuero are current Fifa vice-presidents.
Last year it emerged that Blazer, who was forced to resign after being accused of financial irregularities, had been helping the FBI with its long-running inquiry. The DoJ statement said Blazer had already pleaded guilty to charges, as had José Hawilla, the owner and founder of the Traffic Group, a multinational sports marketing agency with its headquarters in Brazil.
Blazer wore a wiretap at the London 2012 Olympics and, although seriously ill, has been continuing to help the FBI with its investigation.
“The indictment alleges corruption that is rampant, systemic and deep-rooted both abroad and here in the United States, said Lynch. “It spans at least two generations of soccer officials who, as alleged, have abused their positions of trust to acquire millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks.”
The raids in Zurich are believed to have begun shortly before 6am, when six Fifa officials were led from the Bauer au Lac hotel to unmarked cars with sheets over their heads.
The Swiss FOJ said: “The US attorney’s office for the eastern district of New York is investigating these individuals on suspicion of the acceptance of bribes and kickbacks between the early 1990s and the present day.
“The bribery suspects – representatives of sports media and sports promotion firms – are alleged to have been involved in schemes to make payments to the soccer functionaries – delegates of Fifa (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) and other functionaries of Fifa sub-organisations – totalling more than $100m.
“In return, it is believed that they received media, marketing, and sponsorship rights in connection with soccer tournaments in Latin America. According to the US request, these crimes were agreed and prepared in the US, and payments were carried out via US banks.”
Pressure is now bound to build on Blatter to postpone Friday’s election, where he is standing against the Jordanian Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein.
“Today is a sad day for football,” said Prince Ali on Wednesday morning. “Clearly this is a developing story, the details of which are still emerging. It would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.”
The mounting sense of crisis in Zurich has echoes of four years ago when Blatter was re-elected unopposed following the withdrawal of his Qatari rival Mohamed Bin Hammam in the midst of bribery claims that again centred on Concacaf members. Then he sailed on, asking: “Crisis? What is a crisis?”.
The difference this time is that Swiss prosecutors have co-operated with US law enforcement to extradite Fifa officials gathered for the most high profile meeting in its calendar.
Zurich cantonal police arrived at the Baur au Lac hotel, where senior Fifa executives habitually gather on their all-expenses paid jaunts to Zurich for committee meetings, at about 6am on Wednesday. They stopped at the reception to get the room numbers for the officials they intended to arrest. The men were not handcuffed as they were led away from the hotel. “Very peaceful,” tweeted NYT reporter Michael Schmidt. “Hotel staff meanwhile is freaking out.”
Photographs showed officers hiding the suspects behind sheets as they escorted them to unmarked cars. One, Eduardo Li of Costa Rica, was allowed to bring his luggage as he left through a side door, the NYTreported. Reporters were shooed away shortly after arrests began.
The last time international media attention was focused on the Baur au Lac was four years ago, when US and British World Cup bids were rejected in favour of Russia and Qatar. Suspicions of vote-buying and wrongdoing in those bidding contests have dogged Fifa ever since.
Swiss officials said the suspects’ deportation could be sanctioned immediately. The statement added: “The Zurich cantonal police will question the detainees today on behalf of the FOJ regarding the US request for their arrest.
“A simplified procedure will apply for wanted persons who agree to their immediate extradition. The FOJ can immediately approve their extradition to the US and order its execution.
“However, if a wanted person opposes their extradition, the FOJ will invite the US to submit a formal extradition request within the deadline of 40 days specified in the bilateral extradition treaty.”
Last November, Fifa’s ethics committee closed its investigation into the controversial bidding process that saw Qatar named as host of the 2022 World Cup, ruling that any breaches of the rules were only of “very limited scope”.
The decision to award Qatar the tournament was hugely controversial, prompting an avalanche of allegations about the way it won the bid and concerns about the searing heat in which matches would be held as well as the treatment of migrant workers building the infrastructure underpinning it.
But Fifa said an investigation did not find any direct link between the World Cup bid and illicit payments made by the disgraced former Asian Football Confederation president Bin Hammam, a Qatari who was banned for life for paying bribes during a campaign to unseat Blatter as president.
The Guardian
The Guardian
