Before dawn on Thursday, Swiss authorities began a fresh series of arrests in the FIFA corruption scandal that has rocked soccer’s international governing body this year. By the end of the day, 16 current and former FIFA officials are expected to be charged by the United States Department of Justice with various counts of racketeering, money laundering, and fraud.
Just hours later in Zurich, the FIFA reform committee unveiled a comprehensive, long overdue plan for reform, calling for, among other things, term limits, increased diversity, integrity checks, and greater efficiency and transparency.
Read more: FIFA Has Many Problems, But It Could At Least Fix Its Sexism
The proposal, which was unanimously approved by the FIFA executive committee, still needs to be approved by FIFA Congress; that vote will occur on February 26, the same day the election for the new FIFA president will take place.
According to the reform parameters, the number of women on FIFA’s 36-person executive committee will increase from one to six, and the president of FIFA will be limited to three four-year terms, as opposed to the 17 years that the embattled Sepp Blatter, who is in the middle of a 90-day suspension because of an ongoing criminal investigation, has served.
While the reforms presented by Francois Carrard, the head of the FIFA reform committee, were a step in the right direction, observers questioned the commitment to transparency when Carrard would not even disclose his own salary.
Carrard asked how much he makes as chair of FIFA's reform committee. "I am paid by the hourly rate of local Lausanne attorneys."
— Miriti Murungi (@NutmegRadio) December 3, 2015
“These reforms are moving FIFA towards improved governance, greater transparency and more accountability,” FIFA’s acting president Issa Hayatou said in a statement. “They mark a milestone on our path towards restoring FIFA’s credibility as a modern, trusted and professional sports organisation. This signals the beginning of a culture shift at FIFA.”
It has been clear for decades that FIFA has needed a culture shift, as the governing body has been inundated by accusations of ethical misconduct, including bribery, human rights violations, and match fixing.
The United States Department of Justice, Internal Revenue Service, and other federal government agencies have spent years investigating FIFA, and promised this spring that they would rid the organization of its “systemic” corruptions. In May, after a raid at the same hotel in Switzerland that authorities entered Thursday, many top FIFA officials were arrested and 18 were charged. The indictments renewed a call for FIFA to reform its internal and external operations, and this summer, a new reform committee was established.
Before that committee met this week, World Cup sponsors, such as Adidas, McDonald’s, and Visa, wrote a letter to FIFA demanding “independent oversight” of the reform process, and stating that “[t]ransparency, accountability, respect for human rights, integrity, leadership, and gender equality are crucial to the future of FIFA.”
But Thursday morning’s arrests, coming just hours after a series of meetings that left the reform committee “upbeat,” served as “a high-profile reminder that despite the organization’s promises of reform, soccer’s top officials remain under intense legal scrutiny by the investigation,” the New York Times wrote.
From @SamBorden, a quick look at one of the FIFA arrests this morning in Zurich https://t.co/0KUQZ5YEx6 pic.twitter.com/VAMkybHHQo
— NYT Sports (@NYTSports) December 3, 2015
Two of the top officials arrested on Thursday were Alfredo Hawit, president of the confederation for North and Central America and the Caribbean, and Juan Ángel Napout, president of the South American confederation. It’s been reported that “those individuals were accused of accepting millions of dollars in bribes related to the sale of marketing rights for World Cup qualifying matches and soccer tournaments in Latin America.” Many of Thursday’s charges are expected to be focused on South and Central American soccer leaders. The DOJ has scheduled a press conference for 1:30 p.m. ET on Thursday.
“FIFA became aware of the actions taken today by the U.S. Department of Justice,” FIFA said in a statement. “FIFA will continue to cooperate fully with the U.S. investigation as permitted by Swiss law, as well as with the investigation being led by the Swiss Office of the Attorney General.”
Update:
The DOJ issued a press release naming all 16 FIFA officials that were indicted. The release states that the defendants have been charged “with racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies, among other offenses, in connection with their participation in a 24-year scheme to enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer.”
“The Department of Justice is committed to ending the rampant corruption we have alleged amidst the leadership of international soccer — not only because of the scale of the schemes, or the brazenness and breadth of the operation required to sustain such corruption, but also because of the affront to international principles that this behavior represents,” U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said. “The message from this announcement should be clear to every culpable individual who remains in the shadows, hoping to evade our investigation: You will not wait us out. You will not escape our focus.”