Six senior Fifa officials have been arrested in Switzerland on US charges of corruption and fraud. Is the organisation finally going to be reformed?
What’s going on?
Up to 15 people, including seven senior Fifa officials (football’s world body) have been arrested by Swiss police after being indicted in the United States on charges of corruption, racketeering and tax evasion. These centre on allegations that officials took bribes and kickbacks in relation to the running of several tournaments in the US.
There are also claims that they didn’t pay any taxes. A bilateral treaty between the two countries means that they are likely to be extradited from Switzerland to face trial in America. At the same time, Swiss prosecutors have also started a separate investigation into how the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were awarded to Russia and Qatar respectively in 2010. However, it is not yet known if the arrests and new investigation are formally related.
Hasn’t there already been an investigation?
In 2012, Fifa commissioned a report from former senior US prosecutor Michael Garcia. While the investigation was intended just to focus on past allegations of bribery, Garcia expanded his remit to include the decision to host the two next World Cups in Russia and Qatar.
However, this part of the report has not been released. Instead, a summary by Fifa official Hans-Joachim Eckert claims that it largely exonerated officials from both countries. Indeed, Eckert even claimed that the rival British and Australian bidding teams broke rules themselves. For his part, Garcia claims that Eckert’s summary was extremely misleading.
Could Russia and Qatar lose their hosting rights?
Initially Fifa officials said that any investigation wouldn’t affect the two tournaments. However, its spokesperson has now stated that while “Russia and Qatar will be played”, he “can’t go into speculation about what will happen tomorrow”. This implies that the bidding process for either (or both) tournaments could be reopened.
Qatar is especially controversial, because its scorching temperatures mean that it will have to be played during the winter, causing a huge amount of disruption to club football around the globe. It has also been criticised for the high death toll in building the stadiums where the matches are due to take place.
Other issues include generally dire labour conditions, confiscation of workers’ passports and the use of forced workers (including those from North Korea).
What about Sepp Blatter?
The official line is that the head of Fifa, who many believe to epitomise the corruption within the organisation, won’t be affected by the scandal since he hasn’t been indicted. Indeed, experts believe that he is likely to be re-elected as Fifa president on Friday, despite a strong challenge from Prince Ali bin al-Hussein.
For his part, al-Hussein has claimed that he was himself approached by a fixer, offering to deliver up to 48 votes in favour of the Jordanian royal. The prince’s team say that it declined the alleged offer and they informed the police (though not Fifa) about it.