Thursday morning in Zurich broke with a new wave of pre-dawn arrests of FIFA officials, with Swiss authorities raiding the same hotel ahead of another FIFA congressional meeting, per the New York Times.
CONCACAF president among those arrested in new FIFA corruption charges, per reports
Sepp Blatter is reportedly not among the new arrests, but FIFA just can’t escape this scandal.
Philipp Schmidli/Getty Images
While the full list of arrests has not been released, CONCACAF president Alfredo Hawit is reported to be among those arrested. The head of the soccer confederation that includes the United States, Hawit replaced Jeff Webb earlier this year after Webb was among the May arrests. It has also been reported that CONMEBOL president Juan Angel Napout has been arrested as well. According to the Swiss authorities, two men are being held on suspicion of "accepting millions of dollars in bribes."
The arrests are a continuation of the same investigation that saw authorities arrest 18 officials of various soccer organizations from around the world in May, and ultimately led to Sepp Blatter’s resignation as FIFA president and the messy wave of controversy that’s embroiled the organization ever since.
Blatter is not believed to be among the arrests, though it’s unlikely that he was even at the meeting as he is currently suspended from all FIFA activities for his involvement in “dishonest” payments to UEFA president Michel Platini, who is also suspended. Former general secretary Jerome Valcke is also suspended on an unrelated charge.
New York Times reporter Sam Borden is at the hotel the arrests were made at, and reported a rather more low-key process to the arrests than what happened in May:
Last time cops used the front door. This time 8-10 plainclothes entered via side entrance on a bridge over water at side of hotel.
— Sam Borden (@SamBorden) December 3, 2015 Officers just took two men, it appears, over the bridge to the parking garage. Change from last time where they used side door.
— Sam Borden (@SamBorden) December 3, 2015 VIDEO: Hotel staff and officers lead one arrested soccer official over bridge at Baur au Lac to parking garage. pic.twitter.com/p1uo23HEum
— Sam Borden (@SamBorden) December 3, 2015 The hotel the arrests were made at on Thursday, the Baur au Lac is the same one that saw numerous FIFA officials arrested back in May when the current corruption scandal broke out was hit again ahead of a FIFA executive committee meeting aimed at approving various reform measures put forward after those arrests.
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