Just heard a news flash - Swiss police have arrested a number of FIFA officials, 'on suspicion of corruption'. This may run...
Update: Geoffrey Webb? This... Swiss police arrests Fifa officials in Zurich 6 minutes ago From the sectionEurope please log in to view this image Swiss police have arrested a number of executives from football world governing body Fifa over US corruption charges, officials have told the BBC. Police conducted the operation at a hotel in Zurich early on Wednesday. The charges are said to include money laundering, racketeering and wire fraud over the last 20 years. Fifa members are gathering in Zurich for their annual meeting on Friday, where incumbent President Sepp Blatter is seeking a fifth term.
3m ago07:39 We have more from our chief sports correspondentOwen Gibson, who is now outside the hotel: The handful of reporters outside the Bauer au Lac has now swelled as more details emerge. The arrests began around 6am, with Fifa officials being ushered into unmarked cars covered by sheets. The six arrested include Jeffrey Webb, the Concacaf president, who is a major figure in Fifa politics. Webb has been a key figure at Concacaf for years, but has more recently positioned himself as a reformer following the endless corruption claims that dogged his predecessor Jack Warner, who is also among those arrested according to the New York Times. http://www.theguardian.com/football...officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges-live
The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland seizes documents at FIFA Bern, 27.05.2015 - The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) has 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. In the course of said proceedings, electronic data and documents were seized today at FIFA’s head office in Zurich. Today, on Wednesday 27 May 2015, the OAG has seized data and documents stored in IT systems at the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) as part of a so-called “collection of evidence on cooperative basis”. That means that the party in possession of the data – in this case, FIFA – delivers the requested data to law enforcement authorities, or gives assistance in securing the data, thus facilitating an efficient and swift procedure. The collection of relevant bank documents had already been ordered beforehand at various financial institutes in Switzerland. The files seized today and the collected bank documents will serve criminal proceedings both in Switzerland and abroad. In the Swiss criminal proceedings, opened by the OAG on 10 March 2015, it is suspected that irregularities occurred in the allocation of the FIFA World Cups of 2018 and 2022. The corresponding unjust enrichment is suspected to have taken place at least partly in Switzerland. Furthermore, the head office of the damaged party, FIFA, is in Switzerland. For these reasons, investigations are being carried out on the suspicion of criminal mismanagement (Article 158 under 1, Section 3 Swiss Criminal Code / SCC). There are also suspicions of money laundering through Swiss bank accounts (Article 305bis, SCC). Subsequently to today’s seizure of files, the OAG and the Swiss Federal Criminal Police will be questioning 10 persons who took part in voting on the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups as members of the Executive Committee in 2010. These persons should be questioned as persons providing information. For reasons of criminal procedure (principle of proportionality), the procedure coordinated with the requested acts of the U.S. authorities was designed in such a way as to allow the procurement of any criminally relevant data in an effective manner, and to avoid any possible collusion. These measures were carried out simultaneously as a large number of persons involved in allocating the World Cups were currently in Zurich. These legal actions concern two criminal procedures conducted separately by the OAG and the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. The Swiss and US law enforcement authorities are not conducting any joint investigations, but are coordinating their respective criminal proceedings. On 18 November 2014, FIFA had filed criminal charges against persons unknown with the OAG. Therefore, the Swiss proceeding is aimed at persons unknown, with FIFA as the injured party. With this procedure, the OAG is contributing to the struggle against corrupt behaviour and money laundering.
Anti-logos created for the 2022 World Cup... please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
At what point will something be done about this world cup? I find it quite unbelievable that after all that's come out already the tournament is still going ahead in Qatar and with extraordinary changes made to the format to enable them to host it.
Just heard the press conference and the press release by one of the fbi/Swiss officials (didn't take notice of which). Sounds like FIFA are in a right mess. 4 guilty pleas already this morning, from 2 current and 2 ex fifa executive committee members. 10 taken in for questioning, ****ing loads more being investigated. CONCACAF headquarters is being raided as we speak, documents are being seized from FIFA's HQ. It's a pretty mess. Typical of Blatter to plough ahead with this election before more of his cronies get arrested and he loses votes. The bloke doing the press conference (Walter somebody?) stated numerous times that the 2018 and 2022 world cups absolutely will be going ahead in Russia and Qatar. I don't see how they can. Not only that, such a bold statement implies that he knows Blatter's re-election is a formality and that Blatter will not allow a revote.
Webb is the guy who's trying to take a UEFA/European place for the World Cup and give it to Asia. We have 14 but they want it to be 13. Platini is rightly refusing to let them have it.
This has destroyed my faith in human nature and the goodness of people. What next? Politicians exposed as being on the make? The Catholic Church covering up abuses by priests? People in positions of trust using them to abuse kids? People ignoring or covering up things because they are frightened of accusations of racism? Where will it all end?
Your sarcasm implies you think people are surprised by this? I don't know about you, but I think this is a good day, and way too bloody long in coming.
The moment they selectively revealed the findings of the World Cup report confirmed guilt. The moment the World Cups went to Russia and Qatar when others looked favourites confirmed something was up.
Sarcasm doesn't imply surprise on my part. It implies surprise that other people may not. To quote Clive James explaining the difference between sceptics and cynicism, " A sceptic finds Dallas absurd. A cynic thinks other people don't.".
