FBI cracks down on ‘uncontrolled power’ FIFA

"The only hesitation in using that term is that it is almost insulting to the Mafia because Mafia would never have been so blatant, overt and arrogant in its corruption."

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal made the remarks at a hearing on the U.S. Soccer Association in July last year. So much so, FIFA had been wielding uncontrolled power by resorting to bribes and threats.

FIFA, however, came to face off an organization that is not influenced by bribes and threats. It is the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. In collaboration with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the FBI has investigated FIFA behind the scene for five years. They launched the probe after receiving materials in 2009 on corruptions committed by North America's soccer governing body "CONCACAF" from Andrew Jennings (72), an investigative reporter from Scotland.

After FIFA arrested seven FIFA officials for the charges of corruptions and irregularities in collaboration with the Swiss police on May 27 last year, FBI investigation was made public.

The U.S. law enforcement authority has indicted a total of 24 (including two legal entities) as of now, and had five of them convicted. After his re-election as FIFA president in 2002, Jennings asked former President chief Jeff Blatter (80) if he had received bribes, and revealed the world of FIFA’s corruptions and irregularities through his 2006 book entitled "Foul! Secret World of FIFA."

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