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2015 FIFA corruption case

Historical events leading to the arrests[edit]
In 2001, FIFA affiliate International Sports and Leisure went bankrupt in what were viewed in some circles as suspicious circumstances.[60] In 2002 a FIFA whistleblower contacted British journalist Andrew Jennings relating to alleged corruption within FIFA itself.[61]

Following investigations Swiss magistrate Thomas Hildbrand seized documents from FIFA offices in 2005[60] and in 2007 Jennings published a book – Foul – and broadcast the BBC Panorama documentary "The Beautiful Bung: Corruption and the World Cup".[61] Panorama later aired the "Fifa and Co" documentary in 2007, which contained an allegation of soliciting a bribe against Jack Warner and a court judgement that Jérôme Valcke had lied in FIFA business dealings.[62] These reports led the FBI to contact Jennings in 2009.[61]

On 29 November 2010 the BBC broadcast FIFA's Dirty Secrets, a second documentary by Jennings.[61] This was aired just days before the results of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup bids in Zurich, Switzerland. Following the bidding process, FIFA announced that Russia and Qatar had won the rights to stage the 2018 and 2022 World Cups respectively. The result immediately caused controversies, as Russia is accused of a high level of racism in football and because of its involvement in the Ukrainian crisis. After it was announced that Russia would host 2018 FIFA World Cup, Dr Rafał Pankowski, a head of UEFA FARE Monitoring Centre, accused the Russian Football Union of downplaying racist chants in stadiums.[63] The annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014 led to several British and American politicians calling on FIFA to overturn its decision of hosting the 2018 World Cup in Russia.[64] Criticism from a number of media outlets, sporting experts, and human rights groups also highlighted problems such as Qatar's limited football history, the high expected cost, the local climate, and Qatar's human rights record.[65] Since in summer temperature will reach more than 50 °C (122 °F) in Qatar, it was announced on 24 February 2015 that a winter world cup would go ahead in favour of the traditional summertime event.

In 2011, former MI6 spy Christopher Steele began providing information and sources to the FBI, which helped advance the investigation.[66]

In May 2011 a whistleblower, later revealed to be Phaedra Almajid who was a member of the Qatari bid team for the 2022 World Cup, claimed that money was paid to FIFA's executive committee in order to buy votes.[67] However, she retracted these claims in July 2011,[68] later claiming that she had been coerced into making these retractions.[26]

On May 2013, former CONCACAF executive Chuck Blazer was arrested (and later indicted) on bribery charges. Jack Warner and Blazer were suspended from FIFA at around the same time.[69] Then on 17 October 2014 FIFA announced that the Garcia Report into alleged bribery during the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup bids could not be released in full for legal reasons. Garcia later claimed that a summary of the report that was released misrepresents his findings.[70]

Arrests[edit]
On the morning of 27 May 2015, seven FIFA officials were arrested just before the start of the 65th FIFA Congress.[71] Two days later Sepp Blatter comfortably defeated Prince Ali bin Hussein to remain as President of FIFA. David Gill threatened to resign his newly elected role as FIFA Vice-President and member of the FIFA Executive Committee.[72]. copied from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_FIFA_corruption_case '''In total,41 arrests have now been made with both irganizations and individuals being arrested[73][74] Within these arrests 14 people have been convicted. Out of these 14, there are 12 individuals and 2 organizations.[75]. They were all charged with things like "racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracies". [76][77] These investigations are still going on and more arrests is definitely not out he window with Washington, D.C., Attorney General Loretta Lynch[78] stating that they know there are more corrupt officials and organizations and they will not rest until they are caught, " You will not escape our focus,". [79]'''

May 2015[edit]
On 27 May 2015, during the FIFA annual meeting at the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich, authorities charged 14 officials, including nine current or former FIFA executives, including FIFA vice-president Jeffrey Webb. All faced extradition to the United States. On the same day, the Swiss attorney general's office said that other FIFA executives were being questioned on suspicion of "criminal mismanagement" and money laundering.[80]