FIFA Corruption Scandal
Charges and names of the people charged
Along with Hawit and Napout, the following officials were charged:
Ariel Alvarado – FIFA disciplinary committee member and former Panamanian Football Chief
Rafael Callejas – Former President of Honduras – and its football association
Brayan Jimenez – Guatemala FA chief and member of the FIFA committee for fair play and social responsibility
Rafael Salguero – Former FIFA executive committee member and Guatemala Football Chief
Hector Trujillo – General Secretary of Guatemala FA
Reynaldo Vasquez – former El Salvador FA President
Manuel Burga – FIFA development committee member and former Peru FA president
Carlos Chavez – Conmebol treasurer
Luis Chiriboga – Ecuador Football President
Marco Polo del Nero – Brazil Football President
Eduardo Deluca – former Conmebol General Secretary
Jose Luis Meiszner – Conmebol General Secretary
Romer Osuna – Bolivian FIFA audit and Compliance Committee member
Ricardo Teixeira – former Brazil FA Chief
The new indictment
Recently, the US court and Department of Justice unsealed more than 96- count indictment against 16 officials which includes big names such as current Presidents of organizations like CONCACAF and CONMEBOL.
The charges are built majorly around the schemes by several top ranked officials to receive kickbacks from sports marketing companies which amounted to more than $200mn. The officials who are charged are mostly responsible to oversee football in all of South America and Central America. The Swiss authorities arrested two members of executive committee Alfredo Hawit and Juan Ángel Napout, in Zurich recently.
Hawit is the current president of CONCACAF, the confederation that regulates the football activities in North and Central America and the Caribbean. Napout is the president of CONMEBOL, the South American soccer confederation.
The FIFA Corruption scandal has taken a big turn recently, with US charging 16 officials with various charges of corruption. The scandal which was supposed to be localised to the FIFA body is now becoming a geopolitical disaster for FIFA and its President Sepp Blatter.
Here is more information on the ongoing fresh arrests as US Department of Justice issued more arrest warrants against officials regarding the FIFA Corruption Scandal.
What is FIFA?
The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is the premier organization that governs the sport of football all over the world. The organization was founded in 1904 and was to oversee the football competitions between the nations of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Sweden.
It is responsible for organization of all the tournaments involving international teams, promote that organization and raise funds for smooth operation of the sport of football all over the world. In 2013, FIFA reported revenues of over $1.3 bn with net profit of $72 mn.