FIFA: legal storm before the elective FIFA Congress in Zurich (SUI) on 29/05/2015

Eugenio Figueredo (Uruguay) and Jeffrey Webb (Cayman Islands), two of the eight current FIFA vice-presidents, and five other leading figures in international football were arrested in Zurich (Switzerland), following extradition requests made by United States on 27/05/2015. All this on the eve of the opening of the FIFA Congress (28 and 29/05/2015), whose agenda includes, in Item 17, the election of president the international federation for the 2015-19 period.

These seven senior executives represent half of the 14 people indicted by the federal court in Brooklyn (New York, USA) for "extortion, financial fraud and money laundering and other offenses, in the context of cases dating over the last 24 years whose goal was to get rich through corruption in international football," on 27/05/2015. They allegedly have solicited and received over $150m in bribes and kickbacks.

The FIFA Ethics Committee suspended 11 people (among the 14 indictments) from any activity related to football at the national and international levels on 27/05/2015.

The election for the presidency of FIFA pits the…