Fifa’s chief Sepp Blatter is reportedly chairing an emergency meeting as the game’s world governing body officials face serious charges of corruption.
Six high ranking FIFA officials were arrested by the Swiss police on charges of corruption in an overnight raid in Zurich on Wednesday.
The suspects have allegedly been involved in schemes to make payments to FIFA delegates and other functionaries of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) sub-organizations totaling more than $100 million, reports suggest.
“The charges allege widespread corruption in FIFA over the past two decades, involving bids for World Cups as well as marketing and broadcast deals, according to three law enforcement officials with direct knowledge of the case. The charges include wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering, and officials said they targeted members of FIFA’s powerful executive committee, which wields enormous power and does its business largely in secret,” reported The Reporter Times.
The FIFA officials were escorted out of the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich, behind sheets.
Reports have suggested that the soccer officials charged are Jeffrey Webb, Eugenio Figueredo, Jack Warner, Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Rafael Esquivel, José Maria Marin and Nicolás Leoz.
Football legend Diego Maradona lauded American investigating agency FBI for “revealing the truth” adding that “where was Blatter when all this was going on?”