FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is the global governing body of the sport of Association Football (soccer). Amongst much else, FIFA is responsible for organising the FIFA World Cup.
The president of FIFA is Gianni Infantino, who replaced Sepp Blatter who was president at the time of a corruption scandal.
Corruption scandal
In recent years, FIFA has been the subject of various accusations of corruption (some proven). This has not been helped by the decision to hold the 2022 World Cup tournament in Qatar, a small, oil-rich state with little footballing tradition and no indigenous grass.
On May 27, 2015, fourteen FIFA officials and marketing executives were indicted by the United States Department of Justice. The soccer officials charged are Jeffrey Webb, Eduardo Li, Eugenio Figueredo, Jack Warner, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Rafael Esquivel, José Maria Marin and Nicolás Leoz; all from the Americas, including CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb; charges include racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy.
The Justice Department and prosecutors for the Eastern District of New York forcefully declared that their investigation had only just begun and pledged to rid the international soccer organization of systemic corruption. [1] In a statement, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch called FIFA's alleged corruption "rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted." If she is to be believed, it stands to reason that Africa, Europe, and Asia are no more or less corrupt than the Americas. [2]
"Swiss authorities say they have also opened a separate criminal investigation into FIFA's operations pertaining to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids". [3]
External links
- How the Indicted Officials Fit Into FIFA.
- FBI searching South Florida offices linked to FIFA in soccer scandal.
