2015 FIFA corruption case

In 2015, United States federal prosecutors disclosed cases of corruption by officials and associates connected with the Fédération internationale de Football Association ( FIFA), the governing body of association football, futsal and beach soccer.

Near the end of May 2015, fourteen people were indicted in connection with an investigation by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI) into wire fraud, racketeering, and money laundering. The United States Attorney General simultaneously announced the unsealing of the indictments and the prior guilty pleas by four football executives and two corporations.

The investigation revolved around collusion between officials of continental football bodies CONMEBOL (South America) and CONCACAF (Caribbean, Central and North America), and sports marketing executives. The sports marketing executives were holders of media and marketing rights for high-profile international competitions including the Americas' FIFA World Cup qualifying tournaments, and showpiece tournaments CONCACAF Gold Cup and Copa América.

CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb, also serving president of the Cayman Islands Football Association, was arrested in connection with the investigation, as was former CONMEBOL President Nicolás Leoz, while two sitting FIFA Executive Committee members were also arrested: Eduardo Li of the Costa Rican Football Federation and Eugenio Figueredo, formerly of the Uruguayan Football Association. The investigation lasted several years, with the first arrest, of former CONCACAF president Jack Warner's son Daryll, made in July 2013.

In total, seven then-current FIFA officials were arrested at the Hotel Baur au Lac in Zürich on 27 May. They were preparing to attend the 65th FIFA Congress, which was scheduled to include the election of the president of FIFA. They were expected to be extradited to the United States on suspicion of receiving in bribes. There was also a simultaneous raid on the CONCACAF headquarters in Miami Beach, and later, two further men handed themselves in to police for arrest: Jack Warner and marketing executive Alejandro Burzaco. Two further arrests of FIFA officials at the hotel occurred in December 2015.

The arrests case triggered Australia, Colombia, Costa Rica, GermanyGerman football chief resigns over corruption allegations
, BBC Sports, 9 November 2015 and Switzerland to open or intensify separate criminal investigations into top FIFA officials for corruption.

Allegations

The 2015 arrests centre on the alleged use of bribery, fraud and money laundering to corrupt the issuing of media and marketing rights for FIFA games in the Americas, estimated at $150 million, including at least $110 million in bribes related to the Copa América Centenario to be hosted in 2016 in the United States. The indictment handed down by the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, alleges that bribery was used in an attempt to influence clothing sponsorship contracts, the selection process for the 2010 FIFA World Cup host, and the 2011 FIFA presidential election. Specifically, an unnamed sports equipment company – identified in multiple sources as Nike, Inc. – is alleged to have paid at least $40 million in bribes to become the sole provider of uniforms, footwear, accessories, and equipment to the Brazil national team.

In December 2010, federal law enforcement agents secured the undercover cooperation of American football executive and CONCACAF official Chuck Blazer. The FBI's New York office had begun its probe as a spin-off of an unrelated organised crime investigation, and in August 2011, IRS-CI's Los Angeles office began investigating Blazer's alleged failure to file personal income tax returns. In December 2011, IRS-CI became aware of what the FBI was up to from news reports and the two offices began a joint investigation of Blazer.

They were investigating Blazer's involvement in the bidding process for host countries for the FIFA World Cups from the early 1990s onwards. The United States is one of five countries that broadly exercise worldwide jurisdiction to tax the net income of its citizens from any source in the world. It also requires taxpayers to report and pay tax on illegal income, and exercises worldwide jurisdiction over all financial institutions with U.S.-based account holders. Blazer agreed to cooperate almost immediately after two agents approached him in New York and confronted him with proof of his tax crimes.

In December 2010, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and British Prime Minister David Cameron attended a meeting with FIFA vice-president Chung Mong-joon in which a vote-trading deal for the right to host the 2018 World Cup was discussed.

In November 2013, Blazer pleaded guilty to 10 criminal charges including wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering, and offenses involving income tax and banking. Blazer's guilty plea had aimed to stave off a more serious charge of racketeering, which carried a potential 20-year prison sentence. Blazer would later make secret recordings of meetings with FIFA officials, and allegedly carried a recording device concealed in a keyring during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The information against Blazer (the charging document used in lieu of an indictment for a plea bargain) was revealed on 27 May 2015, the same day that the arrests were made in Zurich.

In 2011, Phaedra Al-Majid, who was part of the successful 2022 Qatari World Cup Bid, came forward as a whistle-blower. She claimed that Qatar paid $1.5 million to African Football Confederation president Issa Hayatou, Ivory Coast FIFA member Jacques Anouma and Nigeria's suspended official Amos Adamu to vote for Qatar; all three denied the allegations. She later stated that she had fabricated her claims for media attention. Al-Majid co-operated with the Garcia Report.

In November 2014, she stated that she was coerced into withdrawing her allegations as she feared for her safety and due to her lack of legal representation. , she was in FBI protective custody, when she stated, "The FBI have everything... There are people who are annoyed with me or speaking out and what really irks them is that I'm a female, Muslim whistleblower... I just don't think Blatter actually intends to quit. Everything he does is very calculated. He'll try very hard to save himself, I'm sure of it."

In May 2011, ''The Sunday Times'' published claims from a whistle-blower that President of CAF Issa Hayatou had, along with fellow Executive Committee member Jacques Anouma, accepted $1.5 million bribes from Qatar to secure his support for their bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

In 2013, former FIFA President João Havelange and the Brazilian Football Confederation President Ricardo Teixeira were both found to have taken bribes worth millions of dollars. FIFA executive committee member Manilal Fernando was sanctioned with a lifetime ban for bribery and corruption.

$10 million South African payment

In the wake of the corruption case, it was reported that in 2008 the general secretary of FIFA, Jérôme Valcke was alleged to have transferred $10 million that had been given to FIFA by Danny Jordaan, president of the South African Football Association, to accounts controlled by Jack Warner, then head of CONCACAF. The payment is a key piece of the American prosecutors' indictment that accuses Warner of taking a bribe in exchange for helping South Africa secure the right to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The payment from the South African Football Association had been intended to support the development of football in the Caribbean. $1.6 million of the South African payment was used by Warner to pay personal loans and credit cards and a further $360,000 was withdrawn by people connected to Warner. The Trinidadian supermarket chain JTA Supermarkets also received $4,860,000 from the FIFA payment.

Laws used in charging

The Department of Justice has not charged anybody at FIFA with bribery. Prosecutors have instead alleged racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracies under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) Act, which was intended for use against the Mafia. In addition, officials have been charged with violations of the Travel Act. The relevant part of the law essentially says that it is illegal to engage in interstate or foreign travel, or use the mails or "any facility in interstate commerce" to promote, manage, establish or carry on an illegal activity. That activity can be illegal under either federal or state law.

Bribery is definitely included on the list of what is considered an illegal activity under the Travel Act. Any relevant transaction, even if it is only tangentially related to America, can be targeted. In one instance, a representative of First Caribbean International Bank in the Bahamas flew to New York to pick up a cheque for $250,000 (the alleged bribe) from the bribe recipient to transport it safely back to the defendant's bank account.

Swiss criminal inquiries

FIFA commissioned former United States Attorney Michael J. Garcia to investigate and report on the bidding processes behind the awarding of the 2018 FIFA World Cup to Russia and the 2022 FIFA World Cup to Qatar. In November 2014, FIFA made a copy of Garcia's report available to the Attorney General of Switzerland, who then stated that there were "grounds for suspicion that, in isolated cases, international transfers of assets with connections to Switzerland took place which merit examination by the criminal prosecution authorities".

Sepp Blatter had been president of FIFA since 1998 (until his removal in December 2015). ''The Guardian'' said that FIFA's actions would "... inevitably be viewed with cynicism given Blatter's track record of using the Swiss courts and FIFA's regulatory processes to kick problematic issues into the long grass and deflect attention onto individuals who have already left football".

In May 2015, on the same day as the arrests resulting from the FBI's investigation and in a separate action, the Swiss prosecuting authorities launched a criminal inquiry on "suspicion of criminal mismanagement and of money laundering" concerning the 2018 and 2022 bidding processes. The Swiss authorities seized "electronic data and documents" in a raid on FIFA's Zürich headquarters. The Swiss police also planned to question ten members of the FIFA Executive Committee who participated in the December 2010 votes that chose the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 world cups.

In September 2015, Switzerland began investigating a payment Blatter authorised in 2011 to the president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Michel Platini for work done between 1999 and 2002. They also launched an investigation of possible "criminal mismanagement" by Blatter in a 2005 TV rights deal he signed with Jack Warner. In March 2017, FIFA submitted 1300 pages of reports to the Swiss Attorney General's office. After investigation, in November 2021 Blatter and Platini were charged with fraud in relation to the 2 million Swiss franc payment made from FIFA funds to Platini in 2011.

Television rights

In September 2015, Swiss public television channel SRF published that Blatter would have sold the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cup rights in North America for US$600,000, a small fraction of their market value.

Torneos & Traffic (T&T) is a subsidiary of Fox International Channels since 2005 (with investments since 2002) is the same company involved in corrupt practices in the acquisition of rights to major South American football tournaments.

Indicted individuals and corporations

A total of 18 individuals and two corporations have been indicted, including nine FIFA officials and five businessmen.

Initial indictments

Individuals

Corporations

Second indictment

The December indictment included the following 16 individuals:

Timeline of events

Historical events leading to the arrests

In 2001, FIFA affiliate International Sports and Leisure went bankrupt in what were viewed in some circles as suspicious circumstances. In 2002 a FIFA whistleblower contacted British journalist Andrew Jennings relating to alleged corruption within FIFA itself.

Following investigations Swiss magistrate Thomas Hildbrand seized documents from FIFA offices in 2005 and in 2007 Jennings published a book – ''Foul'' – and broadcast the BBC
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