Fifa officials arrested on corruption charges

Swiss police, working with the Federal Office of Justice, have detained and will attempt to extradite a number of Fifa delegates, plus other executives, over fraud allegations

Swiss police have confirmed the arrest of six top football officials who will be extradited to USA on federal corruption charges.

An international law enforcement collaboration resulted in the detaining of numerous officials and sports marketing executives, who were at the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich ahead of the 65th Fifa Congress .

Fifa president Sepp Blatter is not believed to have been arrested, and the governing body have called a press conference for 10:00BST.

Swiss police have 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 read.

"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."


           UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT | The Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich on Wednesday morning (Getty)


               MEDIA SCRUM | Camera crews flocked to the hotel as news of the arrests broke (Getty)

The United States Department of Justice have confirmed the nine officials to be arrested are Jeffrey Webb, Eugenio Figueredo, Jack Warner (who resigned from Fifa under a wave of corruption claims in 2011 and is believed to have been arrested elsewhere), Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Rafael Esquivel, Jose Maria Marin and Nicolas Leoz.

Four sports marketing executives and another man were also identified by the newspaper, with a total of 14 people named on the indictment.

Zurich police confirmed the extradition process will begin immediately, subject to appeal, while another New York Times source 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," a law enforcement official told the newspaper. "It just seemed to permeate every element of Fifa and was just their way of doing business. It seems like this corruption was institutionalised."

The timing could not be more striking, with Blatter up for re-election as Fifa president on Friday - an election he is favourite to win against opponent Prince Ali bin al Hussein, who was reticent to pass judgement on the arrests.

"Today is a sad day for football," the Jordanian said. "Clearly this is a developing story, the details of which are still emerging. It would not be appropriate to comment further at this time."