U.S. Prepares Criminal Indictment Alleging Corruption at Soccer Body
FIFA Charges against multiple individuals expected to be unsealed in Brooklyn court as early as Wednesday morning
U.S. authorities are preparing to unveil a criminal indictment against officials of soccer’s international governing body that will detail allegations of widespread corruption, according to people familiar with the matter.
The indictment against officials of the International Federation of Association Football, known as FIFA, was expected to be unsealed in Brooklyn federal court against multiple individuals as early as Wednesday morning, the people said. Authorities were expected to make a series of early morning arrests. It wasn’t immediately clear who would be charged, though the indictment was expected to include at least some current officials, these people said.
A FIFA spokesman couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Prosecutors expect to announce the case at a news conference at the Brooklyn U.S. attorney’s office, which is leading the investigation. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch,Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey and Internal Revenue Service criminal chief Richard Weber are expected to appear in Brooklyn to announce the case, the people said.
The indictment is likely to roil the governing body of the world’s most popular sport, which has been dogged by allegations of corruption and bribery for years.
The development comes less than 72 hours before the organization’s annual congress in Zurich where FIFA is expected to elect Joseph “Sepp” Blatter to a fifth consecutive term as president. Mr. Blatter, a 79-year-old former watch company executive, has presided over FIFA, the nonprofit custodian and organizer of the World Cup, since 1998.
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The organization has faced controversy in recent years. There have been allegations of bribery surrounding
the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, a high-profile lawsuit by MasterCard in New York federal court and the ousting of at least eight members of FIFA’s executive committee, along with public-relations faux pas on topics from fan racism to women’s soccer uniforms.
Brooklyn prosecutors and agents in the FBI’s New York field office have been investigating FIFA for years, according to the people familiar with the matter. Investigators reached a turning point in their probe in 2011 when an American member of the FIFA Executive Committee, Charles “Chuck” Blazer, began cooperating with them, one of the people said. Mr. Blazer, a Queens, N.Y., native, began providing FBI agents with information about alleged fraud and money laundering within FIFA’s ranks, according to the person.
Mr. Blazer, who from 1990 to 2011 was the general secretary of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, or Concacaf, agreed to record conversations with other FIFA executives after authorities threatened to bring tax evasion charges against him, the person said.
