FIFA Crisis Deepens as 16 Officials Arrested Due to “Unconscionable” Scale Corruption

The crisis at FIFA reached a new level of turmoil on Thursday after 16 officials were charged by US authorities in relation to corruption. 

The Department of Justice in Washington D.C. released a new indictment several hours after the arrests of two FIFA vice presidents, Alfredo Hawit, also the Concacaf president and Juan Angel Napout Conmebol president.

The pair were arrested on suspicion of accepting millions of dollars in bribes.

After the revelations of the arrests, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch addressed a press conference in Washington.

“Two generations of soccer officials abused their positions of trust for personal gain, frequently through an alliance of unscrupulous sports marketing executives who shut out competitors and kept highly lucrative contracts for themselves through the systematic payment of bribes and kickbacks,” said Lynch.

“The betrayal of trust set forth here is outrageous. The scale of corruption alleged herein is unconscionable.

Eight defendants, who had previously been charged as part of the ongoing investigations, have pleaded guilty to corruption and paid back £125m.

Former FIFA Vice-President Jeffrey Webb is among those who entered guilty pleas, after admitting money laundering, wire fraud and racketeering. He has agreed to forfeit $6.7m (£4.4m).

“Certain of the defendants and their co-conspirators, including Jack Warner and Jeffrey Webb, took advantage of opportunities to embezzle or personally appropriate funds, including those intended for disaster relief,” added Lynch.

“The Department of Justice is committed to ending the rampant corruption we have alleged amidst the leadership of international soccer – not only because of the scale of the schemes, or the brazenness and breadth of the operation required to sustain such corruption, but also because of the affront to international principles that this behaviour represents.

“The message from this announcement should be clear to every culpable individual who remains in the shadows, hoping to evade our investigation: You will not wait us out. You will not escape our focus.”

Among the 16 officials indicted are former Brazil FA president Ricardo Teixeira and his successor Marco Polo del Nero, who resigned from FIFA’s Executive Committee last week.

This news broke on a day when FIFA’s Executive Committee met to approve proposals for reforms with the aim of, in the words of acting president Issa Hayatou, “restoring FIFA’s credibility as a modern, trusted and professional sports organisation.”

These convictions suggest that world football’s governing body is going to have a major job on its hands to achieve that.

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