FIFA officials arrested in Zurich, corruption charges filed

Following a probe on allegations of conspiracy and corruption, American federal prosecutors have charged 14 individuals including high-ranking officials of FIFA, the world governing body of football.
Seven of these have been arrested in Zurich, officials here and in Switzerland announced, posing a question mark on the decision-making process of football's apex governing body.
Those charged in the indictment unsealed in a New York court today include high-ranking officials of the Federation Internationale de Football Association, the organisation responsible for the regulation and promotion of soccer worldwide, as well as leading officials of other soccer governing bodies that operate under the FIFA umbrella.

Jeffrey Webb and Jack Warner - the current and former presidents of CONCACAF, the continental confederation under FIFA headquartered in the United States - are among the soccer officials charged with racketeering and bribery offences.
Others include US and South American sports marketing executives who are alleged to have systematically paid and agreed to pay well over 150 million US Dollars in bribes and kickbacks to obtain lucrative media and marketing rights to international soccer tournaments.
At the request of the US, Swiss authorities in Zurich Wednesday morning arrested seven of the defendants charged in the indictment -- Jeffrey Webb, Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Eugenio Figueredo, Rafael Esquivel and Jose Maria Marin.

Also this morning, a search warrant is being executed at CONCACAF headquarters in Miami, Florida.
The guilty pleas of the four individual and two corporate defendants that were also unsealed today include the guilty pleas of Charles Blazer, the long-serving former general secretary of CONCACAF and former US representative on the FIFA executive committee; Jose Hawilla, the owner and founder of the Traffic Group, a multinational sports marketing conglomerate headquartered in Brazil; and two of Hawilla's companies, Traffic Sports International Inc., which is based in Florida.