And The World Cup for Corruption Goes to...FIFA

FIFA faces a crippling crisis after Swiss authorities arrived unannounced at a five star Zurich hotel and arrested top FIFA officials early Wednesday morning as the United States Justice Department issued an indictment charging 14 current and former FIFA officials for what it called "widespread corruption" during the past two decades. The charges include bribes totalling more than $150m over 24 years.

Egypt was amongst the countries that jockeyed in 2004 for the chance to host the prestigious World Cup Tournament, with the outcome residing with FIFA’s executive committee. According to American officials the vote went to the highest bidder with South Africa offering $10 million dollars to a committee member for his vote.

The Justice Department and prosecutors for the Eastern District of New York declared that this was just the beginning, illustrating the FIFA body as if it were a notorious mafia. “This is the beginning of our effort, not the end. We are looking into individuals and entities in a variety of countries,” Kelly Curries, the acting US attorney for the district said.

Main image courtesy of Philipp Schmidli.