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U.S. authorities are investigating outgoing FIFA President Sepp Blatter as part of a corruption inquiry that has thrown world soccer’s governing body into an unprecedented crisis, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
Citing unnamed officials, the newspaper reported that Blatter, who abruptly announced his resignation Tuesday just days after being elected head of the organization, was now a focus of the federal probe into widespread graft allegations at FIFA.
The report comes as Interpol issued wanted-person alerts for six people on Wednesday, including two former FIFA officials and four corporate executives. It listed them on the request of U.S. authorities in connection to charges of racketeering and corruption.
A source close to FIFA told Reuters it was Blatter's advisers who had told him he must quit. Critics pointed to the widening criminal probe, disquiet among sponsors, and pressure from European soccer body UEFA as possible reasons.
The former FIFA officials are ex-vice president Jack Warner, who is also the former president of North American regional body CONCACAF, and former executive committee member Nicolás Leoz.
The others are Alejandro Burzaco, Hugo Jinkis and Mariano Jinkis, who are among soccer officials and sports media and promotion executives hit with U.S. graft charges involving more than $150 million in bribes, and Jose Margulies, a Brazilian citizen who headed two offshore companies that were involved in the broadcasting of soccer matches.
The Red Notices issued by Interpol are not international arrest warrants.
However, they are used by the international policing organization to inform its member countries that an arrest warrant has been issued for an individual by a judicial authority that seeks the location, detention and extradition of the listed suspects.
The latest developments come one week after the soccer world was rocked by news of U.S. corruption charges and a separate criminal investigation by Switzerland into the awarding of the next two World Cups, due to be held in Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.
Blatter has not been directly implicated in the parallel U.S. and Swiss probes.
However, the unidentified U.S. law enforcement official cited by the New York Times said authorities were ”hoping to win the cooperation of some of the FIFA officials now under indictment and work their way up the organization” in a bid to build a case against Blatter.
Nine FIFA officials and five business executives were indicted by the U.S. last Wednesday on corruption charges, with seven arrested in Zurich ahead of FIFA's annual congress on Friday.
During that gathering of world soccer’s highest-ranking officials, Blatter was elected to serve a fifth term as FIFA president, with the 79-year-old holding off the challenge of Jordan's Prince Ali bin Al Hussein.
Prince Ali withdrew his bid after gaining 73 votes to Blatter's 133 in the first round of voting. The Jordanian Football Association said it was studying FIFA rules to see whether they allow for the possibility of Prince Ali succeeding Blatter without going to an election first. But Prince Ali stopped short of confirming he would run again. Asked if there should be a fresh start at FIFA, he told Britain's Channel 4 News: "I'm willing to help."
Blatter also sought to distance himself from the corruption charges, blaming the actions of individuals. But on Tuesday, with the criminal probe seemingly implicating top aides, Blatter opted to quit.
“I cherish FIFA more than anything and I want to do only what is best for FIFA and for football,” Blatter said at a hastily arranged news conference in Zurich.
“FIFA needs a profound overhaul. I have decided to lay down my mandate at an extraordinary elective Congress.
“I will continue to exercise my functions as FIFA president until that election.”
Domenico Scala, head of FIFA's independent audit and compliance committee, said there would need to be four months notice for any new presidential election.
No sooner had Blatter announced his decision to resign than English Football Association chairman Greg Dyke raised the possibility that the controversial vote that awarded Qatar the tournament could be rerun.
“If I was the Qatari organizers I wouldn't sleep very well tonight,” the former TV executive told British media.
In response, Qatar Football Association's president Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Bin Ahmed Al Thani said in a statement that Qatar had been cleared of any wrongdoing in the FIFA-commissioned report on corruption allegations by former U.S. attorney Michael Garcia.
“Having already cooperated fully with Mr. Garcia's investigation — and been subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing — we welcome the Office of the Swiss Attorney General (OAG) conducting its own work into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups,” the statement said.
Furthermore, Qatar's Foreign Minister Khaled al-Attiyah said there was no way Qatar would be stripped of its right to host the cup because it had had the best bid.
"It is very difficult for some to digest that an Arab Islamic country has this tournament, as if this right can't be for an Arab state," he told Reuters in an interview in Paris. "I believe it is because of prejudice and racism that we have this bashing campaign against Qatar."
Garcia was appointed by FIFA in 2012 with the priority of probing the controversial 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding contests.
He resigned in 2014 after a FIFA judge cleared the World Cup bids, based on his findings — which were never fully released.
At the time, he claimed the judge's decision contained “numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations” of his investigation.
Meanwhile, Switzerland's attorney general has confirmed that it is not investigating Blatter as part of its investigation into the bidding process for the World Cups set to be held in Russia and Qatar.
Al Jazeera and wire services
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