FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S.

[Newsjock]

Source: New York Times

ZURICH — Swiss authorities began an extraordinary early-morning operation here Wednesday to arrest several top soccer officials and extradite them to the United States on federal corruption charges.

As leaders of FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, gathered for their annual meeting, more than a dozen plain-clothed Swiss law enforcement officials arrived unannounced at the Baur au Lac hotel, an elegant five-star property with views of the Alps and Lake Zurich.

... The charges allege widespread corruption in FIFA over the past two decades, involving bids for World Cups as well as marketing and broadcast deals, according to three law enforcement officials with direct knowledge of the case. The charges include wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering. Prosecutors planned to unseal an indictment soon against more than 10 officials, not all of whom are in Zurich, law enforcement officials said.

“We’re struck by just how long this went on for and how it touched nearly every part of what F.I.F.A. did,” said a law enforcement official. “It just seemed to permeate every element of the federation and was just their way of doing business. It seems like this corruption was institutionalized.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/sports/soccer/fifa-officials-face-corruption-charges-in-us.html

[TDale313]

1. Wow.

Shocked- not at the allegations but that people actually got arrested. I've heard before that FIFA is an incredibly corrupt organization.

[PSPS]

2. "an elegant five-star property with views of the Alps and Lake Zurich."

As leaders of FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, gathered for their annual meeting, more than a dozen plain-clothed Swiss law enforcement officials arrived unannounced at the Baur au Lac hotel, an elegant five-star property with views of the Alps and Lake Zurich.

Any "governing body" that gathers at "an elegant five-star property with views of the Alps and Lake Zurich" can safely be assumed to be corrupt.

[4lbs]

3. The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The best that $10 million in bribes could obtain.

The runner up? USA.

Yet, once it got it out that a major money-man influenced FIFA officials to get Qatar the 2022 World Cup, there was no re-rewarding the event to the runner up, or at least a re-vote.

Meanwhile, Qatar is importing "slave labor" from South Asia to build their stadiums and it is believed many will die in the heat and poor working conditions as they are being built.

The 2022 World Cup also had to be moved to November through December instead of the traditional June through July, because the summer in Qatar gets up to oh.... about 130 degrees. Don't want those pasty-faced Netherlands players disintegrating as they step off the plane, do we?

It will also be interesting to see how things go if Israel qualifies for the 2022 World Cup. Oh joy. Political unrest anyone?

More fun reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_2022_FIFA_World_Cup_controversies

[Psephos]

5. very interesting

Meanwhile, the Olympics aren't far behind FIFA in corruption...but apparently are better connected.

[tblue37]

9. About 1100 workers have already died building the World Cup facilities because of the

deadly working conditions and because they are treated as slaves, so they cannot escape those conditions:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/23/qatar-nepal-workers-world-cup-2022-death-toll-doha

[nitpicker]

11. Swiss to question World Cup site voters

The latest from Press Association's Martyn Ziegler is that 10 Fifa members who took part in the vote for the 2018-2022 World Cups are to be questioned by Swiss police.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/live/32698190 0947 update

[SwankyXomb]

4. Up next, the IOC. n/t

[davidpdx]

8. They need to nail those corrupt fuckers at the IOC

It's just a matter of time.

[Purveyor]

6. Israel Cries Foul Over FIFA Suspension Talk (Of course this can't be related...)

Jerusalem (CNN)FIFA President Sepp Blatter is trying to broker a deal between the Palestinian and Israel football associations ahead of this week's FIFA World Congress at which the Palestinians have called for a vote to suspend Israel.

--CLIP
The Palestinian group objects to Israeli teams playing in the West Bank. They also say Israel restricts movements of Palestinian players between the West Bank and Gaza as well as for international matches.

"They keep bullying here and there, and I think they have no right to keep being the bully of the neighborhood," Palestinian Football Association President Jibril Rajoub said of Israel. "If the Israelis are using the issue of security, I can say that their security concern is mine. I am ready to fix parameters for security concerns, but security should not be used ... as a tool in order to keep this racist, apartheid policies."

He declared the situation in the West Bank far worse than apartheid that existed in South Africa because right-wingers and extremists in Israel want to "delete Palestine." In the 1960s, FIFA suspended South Africa for decades after it failed to comply with the association's nondiscrimination policies. The nation was also expelled from FIFA a month after the Soweto Youth Uprising of 1976.

MORE..

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/25/world/fifa-israel-palestinians/

[HooptieWagon]

7. About time. Hopefully IOC is next. nt

[nitpicker]

10. FIFA presser at 10 am BST (5 am EDT)

http://www.bbc.com/sport/live/32698190

BBC Sportsday link to the latest news.

[nitpicker]

12. FIFA PR man so far: Don't blame FIFA

http://www.bbc.com/sport/live/32698190
10:27


More from Walter De Gregorio: "We are very happy with what is happening right now, it is once again Fifa suffering under the circumstances, it is certainly a difficult moment for us.

"Of course congress will take place, one thing has nothing to do with the other. Congress will be carried out taking into account this current procedure.

"We are of course in very close contact with the attorney general and it is possible that later in the day or tomorrow we can give you an update on the latest situation.

"We know nothing more right now, only what we have been informed through this press release."

Posted at 10:27

More from Walter De Gregorio: "I wish to repeat in this case Fifa is the damaged party, this leads to the fact that there were no searches within the offices of Fifa. We co-operate with the information requested because it is of our highest interest that open questions can be answered.

"The general secretary and the president are not involved, as to the names of the people published I am unable to comment. There is hardly anything we can say to the current procedure, it is once again Fifa suffering under these circumstances."


Posted at 10:24

Fifa's director of communications and public affairs Walter De Gregorio has begun the news conference in Zurich.

He said: "First and foremost Fifa initiated this process on 18 November last year.

"Fifa lodged a legal complaint with the federal attorney that had to do with the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

"The second point important to me is that while the timing may not obviously be the best, Fifa welcomes this process and Fifa cooperates fully with the attorney general of Switzerland and Federal Office of Justice and it corresponds to all requests for information."

[nitpicker]

13. Department of Justice news release

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/nine-fifa-officials-and-five-corporate-executives-indicted-racketeering-conspiracy-and

(snip)
The defendants charged in the indictment include high-ranking officials of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the organization responsible for the regulation and promotion of soccer worldwide, as well as leading officials of other soccer governing bodies that operate under the FIFA umbrella. Jeffrey Webb and Jack Warner – the current and former presidents of CONCACAF, the continental confederation under FIFA headquartered in the United States – are among the soccer officials charged with racketeering and bribery offenses. The defendants also include U.S. and South American sports marketing executives who are alleged to have systematically paid and agreed to pay well over $150 million in bribes and kickbacks to obtain lucrative media and marketing rights to international soccer tournaments.
(snip)

Also earlier this morning, Swiss authorities in Zurich arrested seven of the defendants charged in the indictment, the defendants Jeffrey Webb, Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Eugenio Figueredo, Rafael Esquivel and José Maria Marin, at the request of the United States. Also this morning, a search warrant is being executed at CONCACAF headquarters in Miami, Florida.

The guilty pleas of the four individual and two corporate defendants that were also unsealed today include the guilty pleas of Charles Blazer, the long-serving former general secretary of CONCACAF and former U.S. representative on the FIFA executive committee; José Hawilla, the owner and founder of the Traffic Group, a multinational sports marketing conglomerate headquartered in Brazil; and two of Hawilla’s companies, Traffic Sports International Inc. and Traffic Sports USA Inc., which is based in Florida.
(snip)

[brooklynite]

14. Does anyone understand what gives the US prosecutorial jurisdiction in this case?

[hack89]

15. It involves CONCACAF, which is based in Miami

all the crimes were committed in the US.

CONCAF = Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football. It is the governing body for soccer in our region of the world and is part of FIFA.

[freshwest]

19. IDK, it seems some countries are contracting their government functions to the USA. Like the FBI.

And at least one (didn't read the entire list) was an American.

[hack89]

22. The crimes took place in America. Nt

[randome]

16. John Oliver pointed out the FIFA corruption not long ago.

It's been an open secret for a long time.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]No squirrels were harmed in the making of this post. Yet.[/center][/font][hr]

[freshwest]

20. Yes, saw that video here at DU. Wonder why the human rights abuses that surround these games

are not the primary issue, but suspect the DOJ is taking that into account anyway.

But Al Capone wasn't arrested for his crimes as they were mired by the obsfucations of organized crime and the lack of testimony from the conveniently dead, others whose lives were destroyed or who felt threatened.

So they got him on income tax evasion, and this appears to be the same routine, when you can't go directly after someone. I suspect the fans of the countries involved are going to be angry about this.

I wouldn't mind seeing Qatar get the shaft the way they've treated the slave *cough, cough* work force there.

[Novara]

17. Yet Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield lying murderous bastards still walk free

[jtuck004]

18. Huh. Steal from the country, throw millions of people and their children into poverty for the rest

of their lives, government policies send bank$ter/donors billions of dollars to put in their pockets as profit and leave millions of citizens in a place they will never recover from.

But fuck with tv programming, and here comes the FBI.

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. Now FIFA's got real trouble: Coca-Cola says corruption has 'tarnished' the World Cup

They can live with a few disposable vice-presidents going to jail - that's just normal personnel turnover; but when the money men start making noises about the image of football, Blatter will get nervous:

Coca-Cola, one of football’s biggest sponsors, said Wednesday the allegations of corruption now swirling around Fifa, soccer’s governing body, have “tarnished” the reputation of the World Cup.

Hours after the justice department accused nine senior current or former Fifa officials of “hijacking” international football to run “a World Cup of fraud”, Coca-Cola became the first major sponsor to call for the organisation to put its house in order.

“This lengthy controversy has tarnished the mission and ideals of the Fifa World Cup and we have repeatedly expressed our concerns about these serious allegations. We expect Fifa to continue to address these issues thoroughly. Fifa has stated that it is responding to all requests for information and we are confident it will continue to cooperate fully with the authorities,” the company said in a statement.

Coca-Cola has had sponsorship deals at every World Cup since 1950 and currently has signed up to be a top-tier sponsor alongside Adidas, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Hyundai-Kia and Visa until 2022. The World Cup is responsible for more than 90% of Fifa’s income.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/may/27/coca-cola-corruption-world-cup