As members of FIFA’s executive committee prepared to vote on reforming football’s scandal-plagued governing body, Swiss government agents swept into a luxury hotel before dawn for a second wave of arrests on corruption charges in wake of another sweeping indictment by U.S. prosecutors.
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The officials snatched at the plush Baur au Lac hotel – Juan Angel Napout, who heads the South American Football Confederation, and Alfredo Hawit, president of the Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean – were banned on Friday from football for 90 days by FIFA’s ethics committee.
The betrayal of trust set forth here is outrageous. “We are working to secure the arrest and extradition of further defendants in other countries”.
It added that among those charged for the “criminal schemes involving well over $200m (£132m) in bribes and kickbacks” are former Brazil federation heads, Ricardo Teixeira, Ariel Alvarado, Rafael Callejas, Brayan Jimenez, Rafael Salguero, Hector Trujillo, Reynaldo Vasquez, Manuel Burga, Carlos Chavez, Luis Chiriboga, Marco Polo del Nero, Eduardo Deluca, Jose Luis Meiszner and Romer Osuna.
The offices of a sports marketing company in Miami were raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Thursday.
Eight defendants in the case have also pleaded guilty, including former CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb, whose evidence assisted in the latest round of indictments.
“According to the U.S. arrest requests, they are suspected of accepting bribes of millions of dollars”, the ministry said.
“The message from this announcement should be clear to every culpable individual who remains in the shadows, hoping to evade our investigation: You will not wait us out”.
The charges allege that illegal payments have been made around the sale of broadcasting rights for tournaments into the next decade.
US Attorney Robert Capers said: “These officials were supposed to lead the confederations and Federation Internationale de Football Association itself with the fair advancement of the sport as a primary goal”.
FIFA’s suspended President Sepp Blatter is also under investigation by Swiss authorities in a separate inquiry.
FIFA’s executive committee has been meeting in the city, voting on reforms. Swiss police carried out raids ear…
Shortly after the seven Federation Internationale de Football Association arrests in May, Blatter announced he would step down as president in February 2016 after 17 years in charge, despite having been re-elected the previous week.
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“We stated our determination to root out corruption and bring the wrong-doers to justice and hold the corrupt individuals accountable”, Lynch said on Thursday.
