Authorities Making New FIFA Arrests in Switzerland

They are the third past or current presidents of each continental body to be indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice since May in a widening corruption investigation.

Among the other South American officials indicted are Ricardo Teixeira, an ex-Brazilian federation head and former son-in-law of Joao Havelange, who was FIFA’s president in 1974-98; Marco Polo del Nero, president of the Brazilian football federation; recently resigned CONMEBOL Secretary General Jose Luis Meiszner; Manuel Burga, a former Peruvian soccer federation president; and Luis Chiriboga, president of the Ecuadorean federation and a member of CONMEBOL’s executive committee.

Lynch told a news conference in Washington DC: “The betrayal of trust is truly outrageous”.

She said: “The Department of Justice is committed to ending the rampant corruption we have alleged amidst the leadership of worldwide soccer”.

Two top Federation Internationale de Football Association officials have been arrested in dawn raids in Zurich, Switzerland, Thursday morning on suspicion of taking “millions of dollars” in bribes related to marketing rights for Latin American soccer tournaments, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice said in a statement.

Both deny wrongdoing and say they had a verbal contract to pay Platini for work as Blatter’s presidential adviser from 1998-2002. The arrests were made ahead of a 9 a.m. (0800 GMT) FIFA executive committee meeting which is scheduled to approve wide-ranging reforms to help protect against corrupt officials.

The most shocking detail in the new indictment is the new revelation involving officials who were indicted following arrests last May.

Carlos Chavez, CONMEBOLs former treasurer and the president of the Bolivian Football Federation, was jailed in July on charges he diverted funds from a charity match.

“Today’s developments only strengthen the Confederation’s resolve in continuing to enact significant structural and governance changes to the organization, including substantial amendments to its statutes and fundamentally changing how it conducts business”, a spokesperson stated. Future presidents and council members will be limited to 12 years in office.

Prosecutors in NY suspect the two “of accepting bribes of millions of dollars”, the FOJ statement said.

Webb, a Cayman Islands citizen who has been released on bail and is largely restricted to his home in Stone Mountain, Georgia, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, three counts of wire fraud conspiracy and three counts of money laundering conspiracy. “Some of the offences were agreed and prepared in the USA”.

Another new defendant is Juan Angel Napout, head of South American soccer body Conmebol. “Payments were also processed via United States banks”, the Swiss justice ministry said.

“It was like someone had died, that was the atmosphere inside”, Sarney said.

Both face lifetime bans at ethics hearings expected this month. “Everybody was surprised, the feeling was like it’s happening again, that it’s something we think is personal”.

The arrests overshadowed FIFA’s same-day announcement that it had approved a series of reforms aimed at cleaning up the scandal-ridden soccer-governing body.

In a December 2 e-mail to Bloomberg News, Napout listed several of FIFA’s proposed measures and said Conmebol is “supporting all of it”.