Two FIFA VPs held as bribery suspects

FIFA vice presidents Juan Angel Napout and Alfredo Hawit were arrested on Thursday as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s widening bribery case that has rocked soccer’s scandal-hit governing body.

Both men have opposed their extradition to the United States at Zurich police hearings, Switzerland’s justice ministry said in a statement.

Hours earlier, Swiss police made pre-dawn raids at the luxury Baur au Lac hotel in downtown Zurich, the same place where arrests on May 27 sparked the FIFA corruption crisis.

“According to the U.S. arrest requests, they are suspected of accepting bribes of millions of dollars,” the justice ministry said.

“Some of the offences were agreed and prepared in the USA. Payments were also processed via U.S. banks.”

The bribes are linked to marketing rights for the Copa America, including the 2016 edition hosted in the United States, and World Cup qualifying matches.

Napout, who is from Paraguay, is president of the South American confederation and Hawit, who is from Honduras, leads the North American regional body known as CONCACAF.

They are the third past or current presidents of each continental body to be indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice since May in a case that has shattered the reputations of soccer leaders in Latin America.

It is a further strike by the DoJ at the heart of FIFA ahead of a key meeting of soccer’s international leaders. The arrests were made ahead of a 9 a.m. (0800 GMT) FIFA executive committee meeting which approved wide-ranging reforms to help protect against corrupt officials.

The reforms are a response to the dual American and Swiss federal investigations of corruption implicating FIFA leaders and which forced President Sepp Blatter to announce his resignation plans in June.

Fernando Sarney, a FIFA executive committee member from Brazil, said the arrests tainted what was intended to be a milestone day for the governing body to show it was committed to changing its culture.

“It was like someone had died, that was the atmosphere inside,’ Sarney told reporters after the meeting. “Everybody was surprised, the feeling was like it’s happening again, that it’s something we think is personal.” 

On May 27, the U.S. Department of Justice named two more FIFA vice presidents Napout and Hawit’s predecessors, Eugenio Figueredo and Jeffrey Webb, respectively among 14 soccer and marketing officials indicted.