UPDATES:

Jack Warner: Former FIFA vice president and executive committee member, CONCACAF president, CFU president and Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) special adviser has handed himself over to the police.

CONCACAF Statement

The Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) is deeply concerned by today’s developments, in the arrest of several international football officials including those belonging to our Confederation.

The Confederation will continue to cooperate with the authorities to its fullest capacity.

At present, CONCACAF is not in a position to comment further on the specific allegations, which have been referred to the appropriate legal counsel through the pertinent channels.

CONCACAF continues to operate in the ordinary course of business, hosting all of its upcoming tournaments in a successful and timely manner, including the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Statement: FIFA is fully cooperating as injured party in the actions by Swiss authorities

FIFA welcomes actions that can help contribute to rooting out any wrongdoing in football. We understand that today’s actions by the Swiss Federal Office of Justice on behalf of the US authorities and the Swiss Office of the Attorney General (initiated by FIFA through the submission of the file on the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup bidding process) relate to different matters.

Firstly, the arrest of six individuals this morning in Zurich concerns investigations by the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of the State of New York. The Swiss authorities, acting on behalf of their US counterparts, arrested the individuals for activities carried out in relation with CONCACAF and CONMEBOL business.

The second instance follows FIFA’s initiative of presenting the file on the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup™ bidding process to the Swiss Office of the Attorney General in November 2014. The authorities are taking the opportunity of the FIFA Congress to interview those FIFA Executive Committee members who are not Swiss residents who voted back in 2010 and are still in office.

Today, the Swiss Office of the Attorney General announced that it has opened criminal proceedings against persons unknown in relation to the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup™ bidding process. FIFA is fully cooperating with the investigation and is supporting the collection of evidence in this regard. As noted by the Swiss authorities, this collection of evidence is being carried out on a cooperative basis.

We are pleased to see that the investigation is being energetically pursued for the good of football and believe that it will help to reinforce measures that FIFA has already taken.

Statement by FIFA President Blatter

This is a difficult time for football, the fans and for FIFA as an organisation. We understand the disappointment that many have expressed and I know that the events of today will impact the way in which many people view us.

As unfortunate as these events are, it should be clear that we welcome the actions and the investigations by the US and Swiss authorities and believe that it will help to reinforce measures that FIFA has already taken to root out any wrongdoing in football.

While there will be many who are frustrated with the pace of change, I would like to stress the actions that we have taken and will continue to take. In fact, today’s action by the Swiss Office of the Attorney General was set in motion when we submitted a dossier to the Swiss authorities late last year.

Let me be clear: such misconduct has no place in football and we will ensure that those who engage in it are put out of the game. Following the events of today, the independent Ethics Committee – which is in the midst of its own proceedings regarding the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups – took swift action to provisionally ban those individuals named by the authorities from any football-related activities at the national and international level. These actions are on top of similar steps that FIFA has taken over the past year to exclude any members who violate our own Code of Ethics.

We will continue to work with the relevant authorities and we will work vigorously within FIFA in order to root out any misconduct, to regain your trust and ensure that football worldwide is free from wrongdoing.

 

Fifa corruption arrests: key questions answered

By Josh Halliday From The Guardian UK

Six senior officials from football’s world governing body have been arrested on corruption charges in an early-morning raid in Zurich. What’s the story so far?

Swiss police descended on the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich, Switzerland, in an early-morning raid.

What has happened?
Some of the top officials at Fifa – the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, the governing body of world football – have been arrested at a hotel in Zurich, Switzerland, on suspicion of receiving bribes totalling $100m (£65m). They were arrested before Fifa’s annual general meeting on Friday in an early-morning raid by Swiss police, acting on a request from the US authorities. The officials are all facing extradition to the US.

In a separate move, officers raided Fifa’s headquarters in Zurich, seized electronic data and opened criminal proceedings “on suspicion of criminal mismanagement and of money laundering in connection with the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 football World Cups”.

Who was arrested?
Jeffrey Webb, president of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) and a major figure in Fifa politics, was among those detained. His predecessor, Jack Warner, was also arrested, according to the New York Times. The others held by Swiss police are: Eugenio Figueredo, a Uruguayan Association football executive and former footballer; Eduardo Li, president of the Costa Rican football federation; Julio Rocha, a Fifa development officer; Rafael Esquivel, president of the Venezuelan Football Federation; José Maria Marin, ex-president of the Brazilian Football Confederation, and Nicolás Leoz, the former South American football president. Another suspect was named as Costas Takkas.

Up to 15 officials are understood to be under investigation worldwide, so the arrests on Wednesday morning may be just the start.

Was Fifa president Sepp Blatter arrested?
No. Fifa are due to hold a press conference at 10am GMT when they will address the arrests, but so far football’s world governing body has declined to comment. Blatter’s Twitter account, which recently celebrated Fifa’s 111th birthday, has remained silent on the arrests.

What do the charges involve?
The charges include money laundering, racketeering and wire fraud. The Swiss Federal Office of Justice said the bribery suspects – representatives of sports media and sports promotion firms – are alleged to have been involved in schemes to make payments to delegates of Fifa and other functionaries of Fifa sub-organisations totalling more than $100m. In return, it is believed that they received media, marketing, and sponsorship rights in connection with football tournaments in Latin America.

Could Russia and Qatar be stripped of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups?

No country has ever been stripped of a World Cup, so this is without precedent. Such a move would be mired in legal complexities, with both Qatar and Russia likely to aggressively challenge any decision to strip them of the tournament on which both countries have already spent vast sums.

However, it is equally likely that members of the rival bids – including Australia and the US for the 2022 World Cup, and Portugal and Spain for 2018 – will be looking closely at the details of Wednesday’s extraordinary developments with a view to applying for the bidding process to be reopened.

Both World Cups have been mired in controversy since they were awarded on 2 December 2010. Yet Sepp Blatter has been adamant that nothing would derail either tournament, declaring as recently as last week after meeting Russian president Vladimir Putin that “nothing will get in the way of Russia hosting the best ever World Cup”. As he spoke, the FBI and Swiss police were preparing to make arrests that would throw the future of both World Cups into grave doubt.

Why were the arrests made now?
Swiss police appear to have timed the arrests to occur before Fifa’s annual general meeting on Friday, when they knew that a significant number of their suspects would be in the same city. Not just the same city, but the same hotel. The raid on the Baur au Lac, a luxury hotel with views overlooking the Alps, has long been favouredby Fifa officials visiting Zurich.

Why are US authorities investigating Fifa?
The US attorney general is due to hold a press conference on Wednesday when more details will become clear. However, the FBI has been investigating the process that led to the award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals to Russia and Qatar respectively. News of the FBI investigation emerged in March 2013 with further details reported in November last year. It was reported that Chuck Blazer, a former Fifa executive committee member, was cooperating with the inquiry after he was approached over huge unpaid tax bills related to commissions he had received during his time as Concacaf general secretary.

Who is Chuck Blazer?
Chuck Blazer is a former Fifa executive committee member. Days before he was due to stand down in May 2013, he was suspended from football for 90 days by Fifa amid allegations that he fraudulently received more than $20m from Concacaf.

The 70-year-old football chief has also held senior posts in America and is credited with turning the sport into a booming success in the US. And while US soccer’s fortunes flourished, so did Blazer’s. He earned the nickname Mr Ten Percent after reportedly negotiating an extraordinary contract with Concacaf that entitled him to 10% of just about every penny the body brought in. His colourful jet-set lifestyle matched his exuberance, and when he wasn’t living in his $18,000-a-month Manhattan apartment, he was probably relaxing at his luxury condo in the Bahamas.

Last November it emerged that Blazer was cooperating with a US investigation into Fifa. Investigators were said to have approached Blazer in 2011 after allegedly discovering huge unpaid tax bills related to commissions he had received during his time as Concacaf general secretary. The New York Daily News, which broke the story in November 2014, reported that Blazer had secretly recorded Fifa executives for US investigators using a keychain fitted with a covert recording device.

IMAGE: Swiss police have arrested six Fifa officials in a raid on the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich. Photograph: Reuters

For more on this story go to: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/27/fifa-corruption-arrests-key-questions-answered

Related story:

Fifa corruption inquiries: Officials arrested in Zurich
From BBC
NY Times reporter Matt Apuzzo, one of the New York Times journalists who broke the story: “These are big names in the soccer world”
Two criminal investigations into corruption at football’s world governing body Fifa are under way, with seven senior officials arrested in Zurich on US charges.
Separately, Swiss prosecutors have launched a criminal case into the bids for the 2018 and 2022 world cups, to be held in Russia and Qatar respectively.
The seven are among 14 indicted on corruption charges, US authorities say.
Fifa says it plans to go ahead with elections for president on Friday.
Incumbent president Sepp Blatter, who is seeking a fifth term, was not one of the seven high-ranking officials arrested.
Fifa also said on Wednesday there would be no rerun of the World Cup bidding processes which saw Russia awarded the tournament in 2018 and Qatar in 2022, despite the Swiss inquiry.
Members of the media stand outside the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich, Switzerland, on 27 May 2015.
The raid took place at a five-star hotel in Zurich early on Wednesday
Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein of Jordan – Mr Blatter’s rival for the Fifa presidency – described the arrests as “a sad day for football”.
Fifa’s Zurich headquarters has also been raided, with electronic data and documents seized.
‘Rampant, systematic, deep-rooted’
The US justice department said 14 individuals were under investigation worldwide, including high-ranking Fifa officials, for allegedly accepting bribes and kickbacks worth $150m (£97m) over a 24-year period. They include:
Jeffrey Webb – head of the confederation for North and Central America and the Caribbean, Concacaf, and Fifa vice-president
Jack Warner, former Fifa vice-president and former Concacaf president
Costa Rica’s national football chief Eduardo Li, who was due to join Fifa’s executive committee on Friday
Uruguay’s Eugenio Figueredo, president of South American football governing body Conmebol
Brazil’s Jose Maria Marin, a member of Fifa’s club committee
Seven of those under investigation were arrested in a police operation at a five-star hotel in Zurich earlier on Wednesday.
“The indictment alleges corruption that is rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted both abroad and here in the United States,” said US Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Four Fifa officials arrested at a Zurich hotel on 27 May 2015
Fifa officials from left: Jeffrey Webb, Eduardo Li, Eugenio Figueredo, Jose Maria Marin
Several officials have already pleaded guilty, the US Department of Justice says. These include Charles Blazer, the former head of Concacaf, who was previously on the Fifa executive committee.
Mr Blazer, one of Fifa’s most senior US representatives, allegedly started working with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and took part in undercover work, according to US media reports.
US authorities are also searching the headquarters of Concacaf in Miami, Florida, as part of their investigations into the case.

Football’s untouchable ‘dark prince’ – Imogen Foulkes, BBC News, Switzerland
Many have wondered how Sepp Blatter can have been in charge of Fifa for so long, amid so many reports of corruption, and yet remain, apparently, untouched.
One Swiss newspaper jokingly called him “the dark prince of football, the godfather, Don Blatterone” – but no inquiry has ever revealed proof of his involvement in corruption.
“He’s a survivor,” says one member of parliament, Roland Buechel. “Nothing ever sticks to him; there is always someone between him and the bribes.”
Some old friends describe Mr Blatter as down-to-earth and open. Others who have worked with him say he is a man who resents opposition, pointing to the swift departure of Fifa colleagues who dared to question him.
What emerges, finally, is a man who both critics and supporters say cannot imagine his life without Fifa, a man whose tenure as president has outlasted three marriages.
But as scandal follows scandal, Mr Blatter’s determination not to leave his post willingly could see him bundled unceremoniously out of the back door.
Fifa “welcomes the process and co-operates fully with the attorney general of Switzerland,” spokesman Walter DeGregorio told reporters on Wednesday.
“It is certainly a difficult moment for us,” he said, “but this is good for Fifa. It confirms that we are on the right track”.
Both Swiss and US justice officials said the indicted officials had allegedly received $150m worth of bribes from the early 1990s for football tournaments in the US and Latin America.
Fifa spokesman Walter De Gregorio: “This confirms that we are on the right track”
The crimes were agreed to and prepared in the US via US bank accounts, the office of the Swiss prosecutor said, adding that the Swiss authorities could immediately approve the extradition.
In a separate move, Swiss prosecutors opened criminal proceedings “against persons unknown on suspicion of criminal mismanagement and of money laundering in connection with the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 football world cups”.
Fifa has been mired in controversy in recent years, with the most recent allegations of bribery related to the 2018 and 2022 bidding process.

For more on this story and video go to: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32895048