Blatter, Valcke not involved in corruption probe - Fifa spokesman

Fifa president Sepp Blatter and its general secretary Jerome Valcke are not implicated in a corruption probe underway into the vote for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, the organisation's spokesman said on Wednesday.

"The general secretary and the president are not involved in this," spokesman Walter DeGregoria told a hastily-arranged press conference.

He also said that the Fifa Congress to vote for who would be its president for the next four years would go ahead as planned in Zurich on Friday.

The announcements followed the dawn arrests of several top football officials in a Zurich hotel and a Swiss police raid on Fifa headquarters as part of a probe into the votes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup which went respectively to Russia and Qatar.

Soccer's governing body Fifa called the arrest of six of its leading figures on bribery charges a "difficult moment" but said President Sepp Blatter would not step down and that the next World Cups would go ahead as planned in Russia and Qatar.

"It is certainly a difficult moment for us," spokesman Walter De Gregorio said. "It is a hard time for us. But this is good for Fifa. It confirms that we are on the right track. It hurts. It's not easy. But it's the right way to go."

De Gregorio added that the election of the Fifa president, which is expected to return Blatter for a fifth term, would proceed this week as scheduled, saying the arrests were unrelated to the vote.

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.

Those arrested did not include Blatter, the Swiss head of football's multi-billion dollar governing body Fifa, but included several of those just below him in the hierarchy of the wealthiest and most powerful sports body on earth. 

In addition to the Swiss criminal probe, at least six football officials and a number of sports media and promotions executives would face extradition to the United States to face corruption charges involving more than $100 million in bribes.

Those arrested did not include Sepp Blatter, the Swiss head of football's multi-billion dollar governing body Fifa, but included several of those just below him in the hierarchy of the wealthiest and most powerful sports body on earth.

The arrests by plain-clothes 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.

Swiss prosecutors said they had opened 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 Qatar and the 2022 World Cup in Russia.

Data and documents were seized from computers at Fifa's Zurich headquarters. A spokeswoman for Fifa declined to comment.

The Swiss Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) did not immediately identify which officials were arrested pending extradition to the United States, but media reports said they included Jeffrey Webb and Eugenio Figueredo, both Fifa vice-presidents.

The officials were suspected by US investigators of having received or paid bribes totalling millions of dollars, the Swiss FOJ said, while the media and promotions executives were accused of paying the kickbacks.

"The US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York is investigating these individuals on suspicion of the acceptance of bribes and kickbacks between the early 1990s and the present day," the statement said.

"The bribery suspects - representatives of sports media and sports promotion firms - are alleged to have been involved in schemes to make payments to the soccer functionaries - delegates of Fifa and other functionaries of Fifa sub-organizations - totalling more than US$100 million."
 

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