Why is the United States prosecuting leaders of FIFA, the international soccer governing body, for corruption?
Most of the 14 people indicted are not Americans and, after all, football and basketball are much more popular here.
But the scheme has many links to the United States, authorities say.
The suspects planned their crimes in the United States, used the banking system to pay bribes and “planned to profit from their scheme in large part through promotional efforts directed at the growing U.S. market for soccer,” U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said Wednesday.
For example, $110 million in bribes changed hands in bringing Copa America, a soccer tournament usually held in South America, to the United States in 2016, Lynch said.
Corruption within FIFA affected where World Cups would be held, such as the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, she said.
That pricked the ears of many U.S. soccer fans who’ve been wondering how the United States spent millions trying to land the 2022 World Cup but lost to the tiny nation of Qatar. The United States isn’t investigating how that happened, but the Swiss authorities, in a parallel investigation, are.
“This is a U.S. case,” David Zirin, sports editor for The Nation magazine, said Wednesday on CNN.
Here are some key reasons the U.S. Department of Justice is looking into the world of soccer.
Chuck Blazer
Chuck Blazer, an American, was the No. 2 man in CONCACAF, the FIFA-affiliated governing body for North America and the Caribbean. The organization has its headquarters in Florida, Zirin said.
Blazer had found himself in a bind. He hadn’t paid his taxes for many, many years and was looking at serious prison time.
So he became a wire-wearing informant who provided documents and recordings of meetings with FIFA colleagues that hinted at not-so-kosher dealings, law enforcement officials said.
And with him as a cooperating witness, American officials set out to see whether corruption touched tournaments held in the Americas.
Blazer was not among the 14 people whose indictments were unsealed Wednesday.
However, he’d already been indicted in 2013 on corruption charges, along with three other people, and has pleaded guilty. However, the Justice Department didn’t unseal that indictment until Wednesday.
Blazer had amassed $11 million in unreported income, said Richard Weber, director of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division.
Michael Garcia:
The World Cup is a big deal. It comes around every four years, and when it does, it’s the biggest sporting spectacle on the planet.
When FIFA awarded the 2018 games to Russia and followed that with the even more head-scratching choice of Qatar in 2022, critics and other governments cried foul. They smelled shenanigans. They wanted a transparent account of the bidding process to see if Qatar and Russia cut any corners.
FIFA brought in Michael Garcia, a onetime U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. He was tasked with looking into the behavior of the two nations.
He spent 19 months scrutinizing the bids to host the two tournaments.
By the time he was done, his findings stretched to 350 pages.
So what did FIFA do?
It suppressed the report, released a puny 42-page summary — and cleared itself of any wrongdoing in November.
Garcia hit back. He labeled FIFA’s findings on his report “incomplete and erroneous.”
James Comey and Loretta Lynch:
As we mentioned earlier, Garcia is a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. The guy who held that job before him? James Comey.
He’s the current FBI director. And the developments today are a result of a three-year FBI investigation.
Then there’s the second New York connection: Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
She oversaw the case in Brooklyn before she was appointed to lead the Justice Department.
But why did U.S. authorities start looking into FIFA to begin with?
When FIFA cleared itself of wrongdoing, the FBI wasn’t ready to do the same.
It wanted to know whether any of the allegations of bribe-taking and kickbacks by FIFA officials took place on American soil.
Jeffrey Webb
One of the people facing charges now is Jeffrey Webb, a Cayman Island native.
He was Blazer’s superior at CONCACAF. He’s also the FIFA vice president.
Prosecutors said those arrested accepted bribes and kickbacks totaling more than $100 million, from the early 1990s until now.
Webb “used his position of trust to solicit bribes from sports marketing executives,” acting U.S. Attorney Kelly T. Currie of the Eastern District of New York said
In return, they provided media, marketing and sponsorship rights to soccer matches in the Americas.
But can the U.S. actually go after FIFA officials?
Yes. Because it is …
The United States of America:
The United States brought charges against the suspects because the plots were allegedly hatched on American soil.
“According to U.S. request, these crimes were agreed and prepared in the U.S., and payments were carried out via U.S. banks,” the Swiss Office of Justice said.
Prosecutors also say they think the broad reach of U.S. tax and banking regulations aid their ability to bring the charges.
In addition, U.S. authorities claim jurisdiction because the American television market, and billions paid by U.S. networks, is the largest for the World Cup.
