United States law enforcement officials declared in forceful terms on Wednesday that their broad investigation of FIFA had only begun and pledged to rid the international soccer organization of systemic corruption.
The Justice Department, F.B.I. and I.R.S. described soccer's governing body in terms normally reserved for Mafia families and drug cartels, saying that top officials treated FIFA business decisions as chits to be traded for personal wealth. One soccer official took in more than $10 million in bribes, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said.
The schemes involving the fraud included the selection of South Africa as the host of the 2010 World Cup; the 2011 FIFA presidential elections; and several sports-marketing deals.
"These individuals and organizations engaged in bribery to decide who would televise games, where the games would be held, and who would run the organization overseeing organized soccer worldwide," said Ms. Lynch, who supervised the investigation from its earliest stages.
The Department of Justice indictment names 14 people on charges including racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. In addition to senior soccer officials, the indictment also named sports-marketing executives from the United States and South America who are accused of paying more than $150 million in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for media deals associated with major soccer tournaments.
The soccer officials charged are Eduardo Li, Jeffrey Webb, Eugenio Figueredo, Jack Warner, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Rafael Esquivel, José Maria Marin and Nicolás Leoz.
Comment: Why are they going after these folks? Because they refused to pull games out of Russia? While Russia is barely mentioned in the above NYT report, it is noteworthy that just yesterday elite hack Sen. John McCain and other senators
called for FIFA President Sepp Blatter to be ousted for "supporting Russia's 2018 World Cup despite fighting in Ukraine".
Clearly the Western elites are displeased with FIFA not following the Western charge against Russia and are now playing the corrupt card against them, a card that could have been played at any point in the last 50 years. FIFA corruption has been an open secret for quite a long time, yet the American government was willing to look the other way. Besides, the American government going after FIFA for corruption is very much the pot calling the kettle black. It wasn't until FIFA stepped on the political toes of powerful Western institutions that they were called out for their indiscretions.
It's interesting that the man at the center, Sepp Blatter, has avoided indictment at this time. Perhaps the Americans are waiting to see if Blatter will give in to the political pressure to move the World Cup out of Russia and are offering to drop criminal charges if he acquiesces.
Comment: They always say the "public is not at risk". This is an accident waiting to happen.