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Russia says arrests of FIFA officials not to affect 2018 World Cup

Xinhua, May 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

The arrests of several high-ranking officials of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) will not affect preparations for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Russian Sports Minister said Wednesday.

"Many of them had no relation to the 2018 World Cup bidding campaign. They were not Executive Committee members and did not take part (in the bidding campaign)," Vitaly Mutko was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Mutko, a member of the FIFA Executive Committee, denied that Swiss police had questioned him over the alleged criminal mismanagement and money laundering in connection with the choice of World Cup host cities.

"It is fine if they would question me. It is hard for me to comment on anything yet. I personally have not been questioned yet," he said.

Earlier in the day, 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.

The bribery suspects, representatives of sports media and sports promotion firms, are alleged to have been involved in schemes to make payments to the soccer functionaries - delegates of FIFA and other functionaries of FIFA sub-organizations - totaling more than 100 million U.S. dollars.

Meanwhile, FIFA spokesman Walter De Gregorio said that the 2018 FIFA World Cup will be held in Russia as planned.

The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier Wednesday that Moscow currently has no comment on the case. Endi