Russia bribed football officials for the right to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday in the first explicit accusations of wrongdoing following years of suspicion.
FIFA has been dogged by claims of corruption since 2010, when the global football governing body voted to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar. Since the wide-ranging FIFA corruption scandal erupted in 2015, the U.S. government has accused a total of 45 people and various sports companies of more than 90 crimes and of paying or accepting more than $200 million in bribes.
Trinidad’s long-serving FIFA official Jack Warner “was promised and received” bribe payments totaling $5 million to vote for Russia, the U.S. Justice Department said in a superseding indictment. Guatemala’s Rafael Salguero was promised a $1 million bribe to vote for Russia, according to the March 18 indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.
Salguero pleaded guilty to multiple corruption charges in 2016 and was banned from FIFA while Warner, who faces charges in the United States, is currently battling extradition to the U.S. from his native Trinidad.
The Kremlin on Tuesday denied that Russia won the World Cup hosting bid through bribes.
The U.S. indictment also said that a former Brazilian FIFA member and a late Paraguayan official received payment of bribes in exchange for voting for Qatar’s bid.
“The profiteering and bribery in international soccer have been deep-seated and commonly known practices for decades,” William F. Sweeney Jr, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York field office, said in a statement on Monday which announced the charges.
“Over a period of many years, the defendants and their co-conspirators corrupted the governance and business of international soccer with bribes and kickbacks, and engaged in criminal fraudulent schemes that caused significant harm to the sport,” he said.
“Their schemes included the use of shell companies, sham consulting contracts and other concealment methods to disguise the bribes and kickback payments and make them appear legitimate.”
Vyacheslav Koloskov, the honorary president of Russia’s Football Union, dismissed the charges and said they came too late.
“The World Cup has been over for two years now. Those who need to have read this [indictment] and forgotten about it,” he told Russia’s Championat.com sports news website.
AFP contributed reporting to this article.
(c) The Moscow Times
“The World Cup has been over for two years now. Those who need to have read this [indictment] and forgotten about it,”
If they had forgotten about it, you wouldn’t be commenting on it. I very much doubt the US have forgotten about it. Uncovering Russian corruption and cheating everywhere is a full time job.
My God, I swear that “bribe” was the primary word that popped into my mind when I first saw FIFA and mafia land mentioned in one sentence back when this was first announced. Both are extremely corrupt entities, down to the bones.
Both have the deepest pockets in the world, why should we be surprised. It’s exactly the same with the World Cup in Qatar
In the case of Qatar corruption was a dead give away. What footballer would go to Qatar in the summer and play in 45 degree heat? I suppose they would certainly have home field advantage….Sweden would be fukkd, lmao!
Iceland even more. LMAO
“The Kremlin on Tuesday denied that Russia won the World Cup hosting bid through bribes.”
Really? Then maybe Moskovia got the bid through having nice roads? Nice food? Maybe nice hotels? Nice water? Nice democratic freedoms? No racism?
Yeah right……….
Having that honest guy Blatter on side, would also have helped.
It’s kind of funny to see all the time here on UAToday that we are always right and then the rest of the world catches up with us about 4 years later….:))….
They know before us, but are too fucking spineless to do anything about it. Look at what Russia have got away with. War crimes in Syria, murder in Europe, murder in the UK, invasion of other countries. How are they punished? By getting reinstated into a human rights organisation.
Appeasement begets more bad behavior. The Moskali must be treated like children.
They are training in a big sauna 😂