Sepp Blatter Seeks to be Soccer Body’s Honorary President While US

The arrests were linked to U.S. prosecutors’ widening probe into football corruption, with five current and former members of Fifa’s ruling executive committee among 16 additional men accused of bribes and corrupt payments.

“The high-ranking FIFA officials are alleged to have taken the money in return for selling marketing rights in connection with football tournaments in Latin America, as well as World Cup qualifying matches”.

“The Department of Justice is committed to ending the rampant corruption we have alleged amidst the leadership of worldwide 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 global principles that this behaviour represents”, added Lynch.

For others who remain “in the shadows” of soccer, Lynch said, the message is: “You will not wait us out, and you will not escape our focus”.

They included Ricardo Teixeira, the former head of the Brazilian Football Confederation and a former FIFA vice-president; Ariel Alvarado, a Panamanian who sits on FIFA’s disciplinary committee; and Rafael Callejas, president of Honduras 1990-1994 and former head of the Honduran football federation.

FIFA’s Executive Committee was scheduled to hear the Reform Committee’s recommendations on Thursday.

“The reason for the ban, which was based on the request of the investigatory chamber under its chairman Dr Cornel Borbely, is the indictment issued yesterday by the United States Department of Justice for charges of racketeering, conspiracy and corruption”.

“The investigation is going on, and Federation Internationale de Football Association is ready to participate fully”.

According to US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the defendants acted to solicit and receive more than $200 million in bribes and kickbacks since 1991 to sell media and marketing rights.

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FIFA President, who announced he will step down as president in February, and Jerome Valcke, the group’s secretary general, were not among those targeted.

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Dearie, lawyer Charles A. Stillman said Marin hopes to obtain a $2 million surety bond, the final item of collateral, in the next week. The 92-count indictment levelled by United States prosecutors takes down an entire generation of soccer leaders in South America, a bedrock of Federation Internationale de Football Association and World Cup history.

“He is attempting to be elected honorary president of FIFA”, Stohlker noted.

“I think he’s probably spending a lot of time reading through” the indictment, she said at a news conference.

The offices of a sports marketing company in Miami were raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Thursday.