Swiss prosecutor begins criminal proceedings on FIFA world cup allocations

A Swiss prosecutor on Wednesday began criminal proceedings against persons unknown on suspicion of criminal mismanagement and money laundering in connection with the choice of World Cup host cities.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) suspected that irregularities occurred in the allocation of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cups of 2018 and 2022.

According to the prosecutor, it has seized data and documents stored in IT systems at as part of a so-called "collection of evidence on a cooperative basis."

Meanwhile, the prosecutor has already approached various Swiss financial institutions to obtain relevant bank documents. Once handed over, the seized files and collected bank documents will serve as evidence in criminal proceedings both in Switzerland and abroad.

Earlier on Wednesday, seven FIFA senior officials, including FIFA vice president Jeffery Webb, were arrested in Zurich and pending extradition due to United States authorities suspecting them of having received bribes totaling millions of U.S. dollars, the Federal Office of Justice of Switzerland (FOJ) said.

The criminal proceedings and arrest took place one day ahead of FIFA's 65th congress in Zurich to determine the presidency.

FIFA Spokesperson Walter de Gregorio told a press conference that FIFA President Sepp Blatter was not involved, nor would the presidential election be postponed.

"FIFA is fully cooperating as the injured party in the actions by Swiss authorities," FIFA said in a statement.

The world's largest football association said it welcomed actions that could help root out any wrongdoing in football and was pleased to see that the investigation was being energetically pursued. FIFA said it believed the investigation would help reinforce measures that FIFA had already taken to achieve fairness and transparency. Endit