US attorney general says more charges possible in FIFA probe

ZURICH More charges could follow in investigations of corruption surrounding football world governing body FIFA, U.S. attorney general Loretta Lynch said Monday.

So far 14 people including nine former football officials and five sports marketing executives are facing corruption charges as part of the US investigation, Lynch said.

“Substantial evidence” has been gathered so far, Lynch said.

Lynch could give no timescale on the investigations but both she and her Swiss counterpart, Michael Lauber, indicated their probes could be lengthy affairs.

“The scope of our investigation is not limited, and we are following the evidence where it leads,” Lynch said.

The Swiss probe into the bid process and election of the 2018 World Cup hosts Russia and 2022 hosts Qatar “is not even at the halfway stage,” Lauber told a news conference in Zurich.

As part of the investigation a number of apartments and houses in the Swiss Alps have been searched, Lauber said.

FIFA has been hit by a number of corruption allegations. Ahead of the FIFA congress in Zurich on May 29, seven football officials were arrested as part of a U.S. investigation, including two FIFA vice-presidents at the time.

The Zurich news conference also came after a Swiss TV report alleged FIFA president Joseph Blatter under-sold World Cup television rights to the former Caribbean Football Union (CFU) president Jack Warner.

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