Twelve more FIFA officials were arrested Thursday in a pre-dawn operation led by United States officials in Switzerland, the New York Times reported.
Some of the arrests were made at the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich, the same luxury hotel where the other FIFA officials were arrested in May on corruption, according to the report. Authorities were looking to arrest senior soccer officials—current and former—on racketeering, money laundering and fraud charges.
The new charges are expected to hit South and Central American soccer organizations hard, especially since among those arrested were FIFA vice presidents and executive committee members Alfredo Hawit, of Honduras, and Juan Angel Napout, of Paraguay, officials told the news outlet. Hawit heads the Concacaf, a regional confederation of North and Central Caribbean, while Napout is the president of the South American confederation Conmebol.
It wasn’t clear who else was charged, but Swiss law enforcement officials told New York Times that embattled FIFA President Sepp Blatter and his deputy, Jerom Valcke, were not included in the list.
FIFA confirmed to BBC Sports that some of its officials were arrested following “actions” by U.S. authorities, but has yet to release other details.
The arrests came just hours before the members of FIFA’s executive committee were due to meet to discuss governance reforms before their February congress, when the suspended Blatter is expected to be replaced, according to New York Times.
According to the report, between 40 to 50 soccer officials, including FIFA administrators Markus Kattner and Marco Villiger, attended a lavish dinner at an upscale restaurant in the city on the eve of the arrests.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch had already announced in September that she expects more arrests after new evidence were discovered in connection with the wide-ranging investigation that has already upended soccer’s international governing body.
The Guardian quoted Lynch, who said, “The scope of our investigation is not limited and we are following the evidence where it leads. We do anticipate pursuing additional charges against individuals and entities.”
The football world was thrown into crisis in May following the dramatic arrests and indictments that include racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering. At least 14 people, including FIFA VP Jeffrey Webb, were arrested in the same Zurich hotel on the eve of FIFA’s congress to re-elect Blatter as president.
At the time, Lynch said “at least two generations of soccer officials” had “abused their positions of trust to acquire millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks.” Authorities uncovered more than a dozen different schemes stemming from marketing deals dating back to the 1990s in the United States, Brazil and Latin America, totaling to about $100 million.
The corruption crisis has already taken its toll on the world football’s governing body. Early this week, FIFA announced a £67 million financial loss in 2015, due to a drop in income amid the huge legal bills following the scandal.
Due to the ongoing investigations, FIFA has yet to replace its corporate partners, which include Emirates, Sony, Castrol, Continental, and Johnson & Johnson, according to The Guardian. In addition, the organization is struggling to pay the team of American lawyers that Blatter had brought in to handle the indictments of those who were arrested in May.
