More FIFA corruption

Yet more corruption in world football as 16 more money grabbers have been indicted but the US department of justice.

They produced a 92-count indictment in federal court in Brooklyn against 16 new defendants, all from the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) and the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol).


The current and former senior football executives charged are:
  • Alfredo Hawit - Concacaf president
  • Ariel Alvarado - ex-Panamanian football official
  • Rafael Callejas - former president of Honduras football
  • Brayan Jimenez - Guatemala FA chief
  • Rafael Salguero - Guatemalan Fifa executive committee member
  • Hector Trujillo - general secretary of Guatemala FA
  • Reynaldo Vasquez - former El Salvador FA president
  • Juan Angel Napout - Conmebol president
  • Manuel Burga - former Peru FA president
  • Carlos Chavez - Bolivia football president
  • Luis Chiriboga - Ecuador football president
  • Marco Polo del Nero - Brazil football president
  • Eduardo Deluca - Conmebol general secretary
  • Jose Luis Meiszner - former Conmebol secretary general
  • Romer Osuna - Bolivia football audit and compliance committee chief
  • Ricardo Teixeira - former Brazil FA chief
US attorney general Loretta Lynch was understandably disgusted by events.


"The betrayal of trust set forth here is outrageous. The scale of corruption alleged herein is unconscionable. And the message from this announcement should be clear to every culpable individual who remains in the shadows, hoping to evade our investigation: you will not wait us out. You will not escape our focus.”

The eight defendants who were arrested in May have all pleaded guilty including Alejandro Burzaco (£13.86m), Jose Marguiles (£6.07m) and Jeffrey Webb (£4.42m) who has admitted racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering.

Alfredo Hawit became president of Concacaf when Webb was accused in May, seems a change leadership does little to change things.

The new arrests nearly doubled the number of people so far named bu investigating authorities. Swiss police entered the hotel Baur au Lac through a side door at 6 a.m. local time while a hotel manager told visitors in the lobby they had to leave the property because of “an extreme situation.”

The two men arrested in this raid, Mr. Hawit and Mr. Napout are accused of accepting millions of dollars in bribes related to the sale of marketing rights for World Cup qualifying matches and soccer tournaments in Latin America. In May we heard of two decades of corruption with rigged World Cup bids and organisation of marketing and broadcasting contracts in exchange for bribes, none of it a surprise.

FIFA has promised reform and were meeting to discuss them for a second time, the arrests took place ahead of this meeting and shows that those discussing on and voting on reform can't be trusted, that some of them are corrupt themselves. Adidas, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and two other World Cup sponsors have this week signed a letter urging FIFA to ensure independent oversight of the reforms.

The world doesn't hold its breath.

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