Roundup: FIFA crisis continues amid deepening investigations

Following Sepp Blatter' s surprise resignation on Tuesday, there has been much speculation seeking to explain why the 79 year-old decided to step-down from FIFA' s helm, a position he has held since 1998.

The reason Blatter gave just four days into his four-year term in a press conference held in FIFA' s Zurich headquarters is straight-forward: "FIFA needs a complete overhaul...I do not feel that I have a mandate from the entire world of football."

According to Tribune de Geneve, the incumbent Swiss head is not officially targeted by the American Department of Justice (DOJ), the same authority which indicted nine top FIFA officials and five corporate executives on allegations of fraud, bribery and money laundering last week.

Seven of these officials were arrested by Swiss police at their Zurich hotel on May 27 on the request of U.S. authorities, a day before FIFA's 65th two-day congress took place.

According to Switzerland' s Federal Office of Justice (FOJ), six out of the seven have contested their extradition to the U.S., giving American authorities 40 days to submit a formal extradition request.

Analysts now believe that the investigation is entering its second phase, whereby prosecutors will attempt to convince one of the indicted to cooperate so as to avoid a heavy prison sentence.

There is a precedent to this within the troubled federation, as former FIFA executive committee member Chuck Blazer secretly pled guilty to bribery charges in 2013, and subsequently helped U.S. prosecutors build the case which shook the football body to its chore last week.

In a document published on Wednesday by DOJ, it is revealed that Blazer, along with other members of the committee, had accepted bribes relating to World Cup attributions in both France and South Africa.

According to The Guardian, after Blatter won last Friday' s election against his sole challenger Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, the Swiss finally came to terms with investigators' promise that more indictments were to follow.

Shortly after last week' s tumultuous events, Blatter' s right-hand man and FIFA secretary general Jerme Valcke found himself suspected of bribery accusations.

According to an article published by Le Temps, citing American media, Valcke is suspected of transferring 10 million US dollars to accounts managed by FIFA's former vice president Jack Warner to seal the deal on South Africa's 2010 World Cup candidacy, an allegation FIFA has denied.

Observers believed this development to be the tipping point which prompted Blatter' s resignation, as he "knew that this affair was going to poison his fifth mandate."

According to the New York Times, the inevitability of indictments was clear to U.S. authorities many months prior to the arrests, adding that the congress in Zurich was the ideal opportunity to strike as it avoided going through warrant and extradition formalities in several different countries.

Once the details of the arrests were worked out in conjunction with Swiss authorities, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch gave the final go-ahead, according to officials.

Switzerland had also opened an investigation into the Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 World Cup biddings, though these investigations were separate from those carried out by American authorities.

Instigated on March 10 of 2015, a penal procedure was opened by Swiss authorities as suspicions of money laundering and unethical behaviour relating to World Cup attributions were investigated.

According to a media report, the FBI has also started probing into any wrongdoing that may have happened in the bidding process for the Russian and Qatari World Cups.

Though still leading FIFA until a successor is elected in an extraordinary congress to be held sometime between December 2015 and March 2016, Blatter' s future remains uncertain as investigations pry ever-deeper into a federation marred by controversy and opacity. Endi