The highly reckoned reputation of the multibillion-dollar organization, International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) is under jeopardy after a groundbreaking incident in Zurich, Switzerland today – two days before their annual meeting to elect of a new president.
The Swiss authorities conducted an unorthodox operation this morning at the Baur au Lac Hotel in Zurich to arrest numerous high ranked FIFA officials with intentions of extraditing them to the United States with allegations of federal corruption, including wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering.
Six officials have been arrested but more than ten were being accused of the act.The officials are said to be Eduadio Li of Costa Rica, Vice President of the executive committee Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands, Eugenio Figueredo of Uruguay and Former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner of Trinidad Tobago.
However, it has been confirmed that President Sepp Blatter is not involved.
According to New York Times reporter Michael J. Schmidt, the arrest was carried out peacefully and that the executives were not led out with handcuffs.
The Swiss Federal Office of Justice have released a statement regarding the incident.
“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 and other functionaries of FIFA sub-organizations — totaling more than $100 million.”
“In return, it is believed that they received media, marketing, and sponsorship rights in connection with soccer tournaments in Latin America. According to the U.S. request, these crimes were agreed and prepared in the U.S., and payments were carried out via U.S. banks.”
FIFA has been the governing body of the most popular sport- football, for decades and is known to be organizers of major tournaments like the World Cup.
Photo credits: espnfc
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