Football – FIFA – FIFA Corruption: New wave of arrests in Switzerland – The Équipe.fr

A new wave of arrests of FIFA officials, current and former, took place Thursday morning in Switzerland as part of the investigation the corruption scandal within the instance . American justice should conduct charges, said the New York Times , which revealed the information. In a statement, FIFA confirmed “action” conducted by the US justice and assured that “continue to cooperate fully” both with US investigators and Swiss. She added that she will “no further comment” on the events of the day.

Sepp Blatter was not arrested

This operation, conducted at the request of American justice, occurred in Zurich, where FIFA met in Executive Committee since Wednesday, where also seven world football officials were arrested on May 27 to suspicions of corruption and money laundering. The operation began at 06:00 and aimed notably the Baur au Lac hotel, which had already been the scene of the first wave of arrests. Sepp Blatter, FIFA president resigned, is not among those arrested.

The representatives of the South American federations and central covered

The persons referred to this morning were largely representatives of federations of South America and Central America. According to the New York Times , Juan Angel Napout, president of CONMEBOL since August 2014 and Vice President of FIFA (since March 2015) and Alfredo Hawit, Acting of the Football Confederation president North America, Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF), would be part of the arrested officials. Several members of the CONCACAF have already been arrested: Jack Warner, former chairman Chuck Blazer, former Secretary General, Jeffrey Webb, president between 2012 and 2015, or Eduardo Li, a former member of the executive committee

The Swiss ministry. of Justice has confirmed the arrests of two new FIFA officials at the request of the United States for their extradition for suspected corruption, without revealing their identity. “These senior executives were paid in exchange for the sale of marketing rights in connection with the distribution of tournaments in Latin America and qualifications for the World Cup,” the ministry said in a statement.

Ironically, the current Executive Committee was supposed to consider the reforms envisaged by FIFA to regain credibility. These new arrests come also after the fifth anniversary of the award of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. This allocation is the center of investigations and crystallizes suspicions of corruption.