14 Fifa officials indicted over £65m Bribery case - 6 Arrested by FBI - Includes Vice President

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• Six football officials were arrested on Wednesday by Swiss police
  FIFA vice president Jeffrey Webb among those detained in 6am raid
  Former FIFA vice president Jack Warner is among 14 indicted
  Nine of those on FBI indictment list are FIFA officials
  Case involves bribes 'totaling more than $100m (£65m)' linked to deals in North and Latin American dating back to the 1990s
  President of world governing body Blatter not among men arrested
  Blatter's presidential opponent Prince Ali: 'This is a sad day for football'
  FIFA will hold a news conference at 10am BST

Six football officials including FIFA vice-president Jeffrey Webb were arrested and detained after a raid at a luxury hotel by Swiss police on Wednesday pending extradition at the request of US authorities.

The case involves bribes 'totaling more than $100m (£65m)' linked to commercial deals dating back to the 1990s for football tournaments in the United States and Latin America.

The officials are in Switzerland for the FIFA congress and presidential election, where Sepp Blatter is widely expected to win a fifth term at the helm of the governing body of world football.

Blatter was not among the men arrested, FIFA spokesman Walter de Gregorio said, but vice president Webb was.

Among the other FIFA members arrested in the dawn raid were Eugenio Figueredo, the Uruguayan football executive, who was due to stand down from the world governing body after Friday election.


The third known arrest was Eduardo Li, President of the Costa Rica Football Association. Li was led from the hotel via a side entrance with a sheet covering his head.

He is about to join the FIFA Executive Committee.

The indictment, seen by the New York Times, listed 14 names. The football officials charged are Webb, Figueredo, Li, Jack Warner, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Rafael Esquivel, Jose Maria Marin and Nicolas Leoz.

Charges are also expected against the sports marketing executives Alejandro Burzaco, Aaron Davidson, Hugo Jinkis and Mariano Jinkis.

The authorities have also charged Jose Marguiles as an 'intermediary who facilitated illegal payments.'

All the charges are understood to be based on deals done in the United States dating back to the 1990s and involve charges of racketeering and money laundering.

Much of the evidence has come from Chuck Blazer, a former member of the FIFA executive committee who turned 'supergrass' for the FBI.

Blazer wore a wire tap to the London Olympic Games on behalf of the FBI in order to record meetings with colleagues.

The American publications New York Times, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal were tipped off about the raid by the FBI.

The FBI raiding party arrived at the hotel at 6am and the last arrest was of Li, who was led from the building with a sheet over his head at 6.45am.

Blatter is scheduled to attend a meeting of the Confederation of African Football at 10:30am local time in a different Zurich hotel. Precautions are being made to ensure Blatter is not mobbed by the media.

FIFA will hold a press conference about the arrests at 10am BST at their headquarters on the outskirts of Zurich.

The FBI will hold a press conference at 3.30pm British time.

FIFA Presidential candidate Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, reacting to the news, said: 'Today is a sad day for football. Clearly this is a developing story, the details of which are still emerging. It would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.'

But yeah, the only way FIFA will ever change is if a reasonable number of the big nations begin to boycott the WC. FIFA will only start acting when revenues tumble and sponsors start pulling out.

To me that doesn't deal with the issue. I am not a fan of the rich getting richer, and there's a reason people despise Britain holier than thou attitude. I get the point, I really do, but you must encourage democracy. I don't like the idea of England/Spain/France etc deciding whats best for African football. The issue is stopping the corruption at the top, not just deleting those nations and doing the lazier part of the job.

My problem with boycotting is you are taking a huge aspect of people's careers away from them and punishing fans too. I think the best way to attack FIFA is for those major nations to pull out of deals with sponsors of FIFA. If they want to wield their power in a responsible way, and they do believe in altruism towards the game, then don't work with McDonalds and Nike until they boycott FIFA.

I think its a balance thing. Obviously it can't be a system where the bigger nations control it, but equally I can't agree with a system that makes nations that are irrelevant in football terms equal with World Cup winners.

It is not democracy when it is so clearly corrupt, unfortunately Dolph you're not smart enough to patronise me.

Hammersmith harrier wrote:Sorry Ent but you're just wrong, the world cup is and always has been played during the European Summer, it has only changed because of corruption and your insistence on comparing time of year to time of day shows how far off you really are.

The World Cup does not exist to be convenient for european nations, as shown by hosting it in countries which have non prime time kick off times for European nations.

Things change, the format, number of teams, rules etc the World Cup had never been played in Africa before 2010, should it not have gone there.

It has been moved to winter to facilitate matches and for player safety. The awarding to Qatar may have heavily involved bribes but I beleuve it was always the intention to take it to the Middle East.

Should they just play in the summer (when it is more dangerous) to please European nations?

Ent wrote:

Hammersmith harrier wrote:Sorry Ent but you're just wrong, the world cup is and always has been played during the European Summer, it has only changed because of corruption and your insistence on comparing time of year to time of day shows how far off you really are.

The awarding to Qatar may have heavily involved bribes

They are the only words of relevance in that post.

As far as I know, Ent, the bidding process was for a summer World Cup, not a winter one.

That's why it should be played in the summer - and if it is too dangerous to be held in Qatar, it shouldn't be played there!

Qatar are more guilty of outbidding everyone else. Blame FIFA for setting the game rules, not Qatar for playing it better than everyone else.

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:My problem with boycotting is you are taking a huge aspect of people's careers away from them and punishing fans too. I think the best way to attack FIFA is for those major nations to pull out of deals with sponsors of FIFA. If they want to wield their power in a responsible way, and they do believe in altruism towards the game, then don't work with McDonalds and Nike until they boycott FIFA.

Yeah that's not going to happen, these federations love money and they aren't going to refuse money from these huge companies.

Hammersmith harrier wrote:

Ent wrote:

Hammersmith harrier wrote:Sorry Ent but you're just wrong, the world cup is and always has been played during the European Summer, it has only changed because of corruption and your insistence on comparing time of year to time of day shows how far off you really are.

The awarding to Qatar may have heavily involved bribes

They are the only words of relevance in that post.

Only if you have no interest in any thought process but your own.

Hammersmith harrier wrote:It is not democracy when it is so clearly corrupt, unfortunately Dolph you're not smart enough to patronise me.

Considering you don't have to be smarter than someone to patronise them, yet you have tried to be clever and insult me and got it wrong, probably means I am smart enough regardless.

Remember kids when you are on the Internet you're both losers.

Ent wrote:

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:My problem with boycotting is you are taking a huge aspect of people's careers away from them and punishing fans too. I think the best way to attack FIFA is for those major nations to pull out of deals with sponsors of FIFA. If they want to wield their power in a responsible way, and they do believe in altruism towards the game, then don't work with McDonalds and Nike until they boycott FIFA.

Yeah that's not going to happen, these federations love money and they aren't going to refuse money from these huge companies.

I agree, its just how I would approach it. It also highlights the sad "however" of their stand up approach to FIFA.

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:

Hammersmith harrier wrote:It is not democracy when it is so clearly corrupt, unfortunately Dolph you're not smart enough to patronise me.

Considering you don't have to be smarter than someone to patronise them, yet you have tried to be clever and insult me and got it wrong, probably means I am smart enough regardless.

Of course it does Dolph, you don't have to be smarter but you do need to be smart in order to patronise.

How about a system in which the higher ranked nations have a higher number of votes? All nations still get to vote but Germany have more say than Turks and Caicos Islands.

Hammersmith harrier wrote:

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:

Hammersmith harrier wrote:It is not democracy when it is so clearly corrupt, unfortunately Dolph you're not smart enough to patronise me.

Considering you don't have to be smarter than someone to patronise them, yet you have tried to be clever and insult me and got it wrong, probably means I am smart enough regardless.

Of course it does Dolph, you don't have to be smarter but you do need to be smart in order to patronise.

Again, its really about delivery and point. Anyway, really could do with moving on with the p*ssing contest.

Hero wrote:How about a system in which the higher ranked nations have a higher number of votes? All nations still get to vote but Germany have more say than Turks and Caicos Islands.

There could be closer to a political system of representation, but it still leads, due to history, to a European bias as these clubs are the majority of powerhouses.

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:

Hero wrote:How about a system in which the higher ranked nations have a higher number of votes? All nations still get to vote but Germany have more say than Turks and Caicos Islands.

There could be closer to a political system of representation, but it still leads, due to history, to a European bias as these clubs are the majority of powerhouses.

History wise it'd only then be based on the last four years that the FIFA rankings is based on, whilst there's more European and S.African nation's higher up the ranking (as they do better) there's Costa Rica and Algeria currently in the top 20.

Does performance mean importance? It would make it easier to remain in power.

I agree with ENT, it really is about policing and oversight not who calls the shots. I am sorry corruption can and does take place everywhere. In the US there is corruption but it is much more subtle than buy me a car or new Rolex and I will vote for you. The same thing exists in Europe, what there is no corruption in Italy you got to be kidding me. The poorer nations are just cheaper and easier to buy. But I think if you had independent oversight if anyone was caught selling or buying votes their federation gets banned, and that is a fair solution. Rewards those who play by the book. It comes back to oversight, rule of law, and transparency. If these things are enforced properly then all decisions are made out of reason and what is good for the game not about who bribes the most. Everyone is agreed that Qatar doesn't deserve a world cup mainly because they aren't a place people want to go in the summer, the weather, the fact that it is a tiny little country without much going on, lacks infrastructure and is run by some of the slimest people imaginable. How that decision was made comes down to bribery, so stop bribery and don't throw out the baby with the bath water.

Ent wrote:

Nico the gman wrote:

Ent wrote:

Nico the gman wrote:

Ent wrote:Not really bothered about the European leagues being disrupted, happens to the Southern Hemisphere leagues every time.

Had they chosen another host country they wouldn't be in this bother. I think they wanted to go to the Middle East, which has been a foolish decision given the human rights abuses.

Qatar has over 10 times the gdp of Papau New Guinea so not really comparable.

The U.S. itself may be implicated in these cases, and the complaints about heat etc applied to usa 94.

I'm not defending fifa in anyway but I find it all a bit rich as all this has come about because the big boys didn't get what they want.

So you think one of the great football nations Qatar, getting the World cup was all legit.I like most in this country and Europe like to watch the Fifa world cup in the summer(when its always been played) with my mates with a short sleeved football top on, just like I always have, not with a wooly jumper and an overcoat on.

Qatar's World cup bought by dirty Middle eastern money.

I don't think anyone particularly cares how you want to watch the World Cup, time differences are a pain in the ass but South American nations etc still get to host.

World cups been in Asia, Africa for the first time, going to an eastern block country for he first time and the Middle east.

Poor choice of host in the end, but they are all up to no good and the big boys are just unhappy they haven't gotten their way.

Uefa shouldn't be allowed any say really - look at the balls platini has made of the European championships, 22 qualifiers, extended qualifying campaigns and an end to host countries with games all over Europe and 1000s of miles extra travelling for teams and fans.

How I choose to watch the World Cup along with millions of other footy  fans is what's important to me and them, so anyone not been particularly bothered how I watch it, is actually you.

The World Cup is played in the summer not the winter, just like the Olympics always has been.

I'm sorry hit the fact you want to watch in a t shirt is an irrelevance. It is a world wide event and not around just to suit european viewers. There were 9 am kick offs in 2002, so this is nothing new.

The World wide event as you call it, has been held in Uruguay, Mexico, Argentina, USA, South Africa and Brazil, guess when, yep in the summer, so your argument about just suiting Europeans, I'm afraid that doesn't hold water, pretty much covers a wide spectrum the countries listed.

Forget about corruption, Blatter or watching football in the summer with a tee-shirt on - when you should be outside anyway doing something more interesting than watching TV in some dark dungeon house or pub.

Besides, even in winter the fans that travel won't be in any overcoats in Qatar!!!

Anyway, like before, it's not about any of that in the context of Qatar - it's really simply that so many workers need to die so that young lads or old lads can wear short-sleeved football tops all over the world and watch football.

How many died when getting the London Olympics up and running?  This is a modern world - you shouldn't have to die by the hundreds or thousands to get a collection of buildings built for a bloody sporting event.

Qatar should be told no more deaths or you're closed down.  This is the 21st century.  If you don't want to live in it and respect the lives of workers and safety of workers then don't apply to hold 21st century events.

SecretFly wrote:Forget about corruption, Blatter or watching football in the summer with a tee-shirt on - when you should be outside anyway doing something more interesting than watching TV in some dark dungeon house or pub.

Besides, even in winter the fans that travel won't be in any overcoats in Qatar!!!

Anyway, like before, it's not about any of that in the context of Qatar - it's really simply that so many workers need to die so that young lads or old lads can wear short-sleeved football tops all over the world and watch football.

How many died when getting the London Olympics up and running?  This is a modern world - you shouldn't have to die by the hundreds or thousands to get a collection of buildings built for a bloody sporting event.

Qatar should be told no more deaths or you're closed down.  This is the 21st century.  If you don't want to live in it and respect the lives of workers and safety of workers then don't apply to hold 21st century events.

What are you talking about, its about a World cup bought with dirty money, hence the name of the title of this topic, £65mill bribery case. Nobody is condoning the workers who are dying making this corrupt World Cup happen,that's a disgrace in itself and that's another reason for this World Cup not to be happening.

Nico the gman wrote:

SecretFly wrote:Forget about corruption, Blatter or watching football in the summer with a tee-shirt on - when you should be outside anyway doing something more interesting than watching TV in some dark dungeon house or pub.

Besides, even in winter the fans that travel won't be in any overcoats in Qatar!!!

Anyway, like before, it's not about any of that in the context of Qatar - it's really simply that so many workers need to die so that young lads or old lads can wear short-sleeved football tops all over the world and watch football.

How many died when getting the London Olympics up and running?  This is a modern world - you shouldn't have to die by the hundreds or thousands to get a collection of buildings built for a bloody sporting event.

Qatar should be told no more deaths or you're closed down.  This is the 21st century.  If you don't want to live in it and respect the lives of workers and safety of workers then don't apply to hold 21st century events.

What are you talking about, its about a World cup bought with dirty money, hence the name of the title of this topic, £65mill bribery case. Nobody is condoning the workers who are dying making this corrupt World Cup happen,that's a disgrace in itself and that's another reason for this World Cup not to be happening.

The second Highlighted bit answers the first Highlighted bit.  It's a little crass to be talking about mates in tee shirts in the summer when migrant workers are dying to give you the grudge of not having the event at a time of your choosing.  I'm merely saying that as a reason for not having an event in Qatar, your reason kinda falls down a steep cliff.... and corruption kinda fades away too.  

But carry on, pay lip service to the people dying in working sites with no safety standards and raging heat and put tee shirts and Blatter above them.  

Was there an question from the media about that when they grilled Blatter about his accounting and legitimacy?  I'd be attacking him on that - constantly....that he gave games to a Nation that doesn't respect human rights.

SecretFly wrote:

Nico the gman wrote:

SecretFly wrote:Forget about corruption, Blatter or watching football in the summer with a tee-shirt on - when you should be outside anyway doing something more interesting than watching TV in some dark dungeon house or pub.

Besides, even in winter the fans that travel won't be in any overcoats in Qatar!!!

Anyway, like before, it's not about any of that in the context of Qatar - it's really simply that so many workers need to die so that young lads or old lads can wear short-sleeved football tops all over the world and watch football.

How many died when getting the London Olympics up and running?  This is a modern world - you shouldn't have to die by the hundreds or thousands to get a collection of buildings built for a bloody sporting event.

Qatar should be told no more deaths or you're closed down.  This is the 21st century.  If you don't want to live in it and respect the lives of workers and safety of workers then don't apply to hold 21st century events.

What are you talking about, its about a World cup bought with dirty money, hence the name of the title of this topic, £65mill bribery case. Nobody is condoning the workers who are dying making this corrupt World Cup happen,that's a disgrace in itself and that's another reason for this World Cup not to be happening.

The second Highlighted bit answers the first Highlighted bit.  It's a little crass to be talking about mates in tee shirts in the summer when migrant workers are dying to give you the grudge of not having the event at a time of your choosing.  I'm merely saying that as a reason for not having an event in Qatar, your reason kinda falls down a steep cliff.... and corruption kinda fades away too.  

But carry on, pay lip service to the people dying in working sites with no safety standards and raging heat and put tee shirts and Blatter above them.  

Was there an question from the media about that when they grilled Blatter about his accounting and legitimacy?  I'd be attacking him on that - constantly....that he gave games to a Nation that doesn't respect human rights.

Its got nowt to do with tee shirts, the World Cup is and always has been played in the summer when all domestic leagues have finished.

This is the last I will talk about it, everybody knew giving the World Cup to Qatar was bent at the time and it still is, with regards to talking about human rights, what you think and I think isn't going to change what's happening in Qatar, that's for people in higher places to sort out, like it or not.

When european leagues have finished, not all leagues.

There was always going to be a winter World Cup at some point, Qatar have far bigger issues than timing.

Blatter has resigned/is stadning down

blatter finally gone!! today is a good day for football

only took the fbi, uefa all over him to get it

Bye bye palpatine.

Which new corrupt evil man will take over now?

prince ali must be miffed, waited till he didnt win till he resigns

still have no faith in fifa sorting its act out though but cant be any worse than it was. he's probably had a nice golden handshake to step down to relieve pressure on fifa

compelling and rich wrote:blatter finally gone!! today is a good day for football

only took the fbi, uefa all over him to get it

Not sure I'd give UEFA the credit. A few countries were very vocal against him, but apparently he got plenty of European votes too.

Probably a few forces at play.i don't doubt his successor will be hand picked by the same people who benefit from Blatter

Much rather he was arrested for his crimes, he is the Bin Laden of football.

I fully expect that he's been informed the FBI have finally got some dirt on him and he's had to jump before he's arrested whilst in charge.

Blazer's testimony is released tomorrow I believe, might have been the reason

Hero wrote:I fully expect that he's been informed the FBI have finally got some dirt on him and he's had to jump before he's arrested whilst in charge.

Eh, he'd have gone a long time ago if so. Suspect he planned to go and wanted to win the election so he could go on his terms.

Wow! Cheers then Sepp, mind the door on the way out.
Ta-ta, cheerio, au revoir, so long, sayonara.
I wonder if this has anything to do with Chuck Blazer?
Or as I suspect he is avoiding setting foot on Canadian soil for some reason.......?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-32986950

That might be why.

As I suspected the Feds are using the same strategy that strangled the NY mafia on FIFA. Go up the chain and use those investigations to get to the top, which in this case is Blatter. Revelations have come out that this Blazer guy wore a wire for 2 or 3 years for the Feds before this whole thing went public. I think Blatter's resignation is away of crying uncle by resigning hoping that FBI moves on and accepts that he fell on his sword. But I think that is highly unlikely. The fact that Swiss are conducting their own investigation into the last two world cups and coordinated these raids so closely with the FBI tells me that there has been a lot of intelligence sharing between the two nations and probably info provided by Blazer's wire to the Swiss. The fact that Swiss are also involved points directly to Blatter. Because my understanding and I am no expert is that the Swiss do not extradite Swiss citizens to the US. Well that doesn't end matters right there, if the Feds provide the Swiss with evidence that Swiss law has broken in Switzerland by a Swiss citizen then Blatter is not safe anywhere. And the Swiss involvement in this case seems to point to a building case against Blatter with serious intel sharing and pushing from the Feds. Of course we won't know until Blatter is charged with something but usually where there is smoke there is fire. And Blatter is smoking like Cheech and Chong right now.

If Twitter voted for the next FIFA president

Latest is the FBI are now investigating the awarding of the World Cup to Russia and Qatar, the FBI are like a pitbull with a bone, they aren't letting go of this. Tick Tock Blatter.

blazer admitting to taking bribes! sh!t about to go down

Jack Warner's ready to sing like a Canary, alleging Fifa had links to the 2010 Trinidad & Tobago allegations, and that Blatter had knowledge of his transactions.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jun/04/fifa-crisis-jack-warner-says-he-fears-for-life-and-will-reveal-avalanche-of-secrets

Apparently goes back to '98, the buying of World Cups. How does one get a job at Fifa?

Very much appears Blatter abandoned ship before the floodgates opened. Very hard to see FIFA continuing without major reforms.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33011692

I think that paints the FAI in a worse light than FIFA.

What was their alternative?

They are lucky they got anything. Bad decisions are part of the game. This was inexplicably bad, sure. But if they got anywhere with this, it would have changed the game immeasurably.

As an aside, I see Fifa were behind a coup of some sort in Trinidad. I mean what the actual fu.ck. Who are these guys