Swiss police have confirmed the arrest of six top football officials on Wednesday, who will be extradited to USA on federal corruption charges.
An international law enforcement collaboration resulted in the detaining of numerous as-yet-unnamed officials, who were in Switzerland ahead of the 65th Fifa Congress in Zurich.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter is not believed to have been arrested, but Swiss police revealed six figures are set to be questioned over fraud allegations.
"By order of the Federal Office of Justice (FOJ), six soccer officials were arrested in Zurich on Wednesday and detained pending extradition," a statement from Zurich police confirmed.
"The US authorities suspect them of having received bribes totalling in the millions of US dollars. The FOJ's arrest warrants were issued further to a request by the US authorities.
"The US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York is investigating these individuals on suspicion of the acceptance of bribes and kick-backs between the early 1990s and the present day.
"The bribery suspects - sports media and promotion representatives - are alleged to have been involved in schemes to make payments to the soccer functionaries (delegates of Fifa and its sub-organisations) totalling more than 100 million US dollars.
"In return, it is believed that they received media, marketing, and sponsorship rights in connection with soccer tournaments in Latin America. According to the US request, these crimes were agreed and prepared in the US, and payments were carried out via US banks."
Zurich police confirmed the extradition process will begin immediately, subject to appeal, while a senior official within the US law enforcement ranks expressed their shock at the two decades of alleged money-laundering and fraud.
"We're struck by just how long this went on for and how it touched nearly every part of what Fifa did," the unnamed source told the New York Times. "It just seemed to permeate every element of Fifa and was just their way of doing business. It seems like this corruption was institutionalised."
-- Goal
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