FBI director on FIFA corruption scandal: The game was hijacked

The United States department of justice on Wednesday charged nine Fifa officials and five corporate marketing executives with corruption, racketeering, money laundering and wire fraud. Shortly before the indictments were announced, seven of the accused officials were arrested by Swiss authorities at a Zurich hotel, where the world body administering soccer Fifa is headquartered. The United States has alleged that some of these payments were made to influence the selection of the host country for the 2010 world cup, South Africa, but it gave out no details. The charged soccer officials include Fifa vice-president Jeffrey Webb, who is in charge of organisation's north American operations, including the US. Other FIFA officials included those running the sport in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela and those engaged with Olympics soccer tournaments.