The world governing body of football, Fifa, was plunged into an unprecedented crisis on the eve of its congress in Zurich after Swiss authorities arrested a string of officials in a dawn raid and opened criminal proceedings over the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
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The arrests were made on behalf of US authorities, after an FBI investigation that has been ongoing for at least three years. The US Department of Justice said authorities had charged 14 officials, nine of whom are current or former Fifa executives. Those arrested in Zurich face extradition to the US.

Hours later, Swiss federal prosecutors said they had opened criminal proceedings in connection with the award of the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 tournament to Qatar.
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“Today is a sad day for football,” said Prince Ali on Wednesday morning. “Clearly this is a developing story, the details of which are still emerging. It would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.”
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Zurich cantonal police arrived at the Baur au Lac hotel, where senior Fifa executives habitually gather on their all-expenses paid jaunts to Zurich for committee meetings, at about 6am on Wednesday. They stopped at the reception to get the room numbers for the officials they intended to arrest. The men were not handcuffed as they were led away from the hotel. “Very peaceful,” tweeted NYT reporter Michael Schmidt. “Hotel staff meanwhile is freaking out.”

vladimir wrote:Will Septic Blatherer win again on Friday? Yes. Will this change anything? No.

It's all a load of balls if you ask me.

The long arm of American law enforcement first caught up with what US attorney general Loretta Lynch calls international football’s “rampant, systemic and deep-rooted” corruption racket while chasing a mobility scooter down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Inside the scooter was Chuck Blazer, a suburban soccer dad who had risen near to the top of the sport’s governing body, Fifa, and by 2011 was living the high life in two apartments above Fifa’s regional office in nearby Trump Tower: one for him and one, reputedly, for his cats.

Fifa officials arrested on corruption charges as World Cup inquiry launched

Behind him were agents from the US Internal Revenue Service and FBI who called out Blazer’s name and wanted to know why he had not paid tax on his share of $151m of alleged bribes and kickbacks said to have been sloshing through Fifa’s hands for two generations.

ExPenhMan wrote:"BREAKING NEWS: Swiss Police confirm that when arrested, all seven FIFA officials threw themselves on the ground and pretended to be injured."

LOL. I don't know the source of this but a friend posted it on my FB page.

Fifa President Sepp Blatter has pulled out of a third scheduled public appearance since the arrest of seven Fifa executives at their Zurich hotel yesterday morning.
Mr Blatter was supposed to speak at the opening of the second session of Fifa’s Medical Conference at Zurich’s Hallenstadion this morning, but will not be attending for what his spokesperson called “obvious reasons.”

Damian Collins, the Conservative MP who has campaigned for the reform of Fifa, described Mr Blatter as “the most despicable man in sport” and urged him to stand down. He also called for new votes on the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to be held in light of the claims.