Swiss arrest top global soccer officials in US, Swiss corruption cases

Highlights:

* Nine FIFA officials, five corporate executives indicted

* Seven top soccer figures arrested in Switzerland

* High-ranking officials in Switzerland for FIFA Congress

* Swiss criminal probe related to Russia, Qatar World Cups

Walter De Gregorio, FIFA Director of Communications and Public Affairs listens during a news conference at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, May 27, 2015. Six soccer officials were arrested in Zurich on Wednesday and detained pending extradition to the United States over suspected corruption at soccer's governing body FIFA, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice said in a statement. [Photo/Agencies]

ZURICH - Swiss police arrested some of the most powerful figures in global soccer on Wednesday, announcing a criminal investigation into the awarding of the next two World Cups and plunging the world's most popular sport into turmoil.

In addition to the Swiss criminal probe, nine football officials and five sports media and promotions executives face extradition to the United States on corruption charges involving more than $150 million in bribes, US authorities said.

Those arrested did not include Sepp Blatter, the Swiss head of FIFA, but included several just below him in the hierarchy of the wealthiest and most powerful sports body on earth.

Of those 14 indicted by the US Department of Justice, seven officials of soccer's governing body FIFA, including FIFA vice president Jeffrey Webb, were arrested in Zurich. Four people and two corporate defendants had already pleaded guilty to various charges, the department said.

The Miami, Florida, headquarters of CONCACAF, the soccer federation that governs North America, Central America and the Caribbean, were being searched on Wednesday, the DoJ said.

"As charged in the indictment, the defendants fostered a culture of corruption and greed that created an uneven playing field for the biggest sport in the world," said FBI Director James Comey. "Undisclosed and illegal payments, kickbacks, and bribes became a way of doing business at FIFA."

The arrests by plain-clothes Swiss police were made at dawn at a plush Zurich hotel where FIFA officials are staying ahead of a vote this week where they have been expected to easily anoint Blatter for a fifth term in office.

"DIFFICULT MOMENT"

FIFA said the arrests were a "difficult moment" but Blatter would not step down and upcoming World Cups would go ahead as planned.

Separate from the US investigation, Swiss prosecutors said they had opened their own criminal proceedings against unidentified individuals on suspicion of mismanagement and money laundering related to the awarding of rights to host the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Data and documents were seized from computers at FIFA's Zurich headquarters, the Swiss prosecutors said.

The US Department of Justice named those arrested in its case as: Webb, Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, FIFA vice-president Eugenio Figueredo, Rafael Esquivel and José Maria Marin.

The DoJ said the defendants included US and South American sports marketing executives alleged to have paid and agreed to pay "well over $150 million in bribes and kickbacks to obtain lucrative media and marketing rights to international soccer tournaments".

"The indictment alleges corruption that is rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted both abroad and here in the United States," US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement.

"It spans at least two generations of soccer officials who, as alleged, have abused their positions of trust to acquire millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks," she said.

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