December 10 – Loretta Lynch, the US attorney general whose stunning raft of corruption-linked indictments has plunged world football into disgrace, has indicated her organisation will show no let-up in its pursuit of FIFA and its six confederations.
Lynch has been at the forefront of a US Department of Justice investigation into corruption, which erupted in May when 14 people were indicted and which escalated last week when a further 16 high-profile officials were charged over a $200 million bribery, fraud and money-laundering scheme, with two FIFA vice presidents arrested in Zurich.
CONCACAF has seen its past three presidents indicted while CONMEBOL has lost virtually an entire generation of federation leaders.
“You have to judge people by their actions and see how the next round of leadership handles this responsibility because it is a responsibility both in terms of CONCACAF in particular, CONMEBOL also, but FIFA as a larger organisation,” Lynch said during an appearance at Chatham House, the international think tank, in London. “People have to be vigilant, and the organisation has to be prepared to take action itself in terms of holding its leaders accountable.”
The US has expressed particular disappointment that one of the FIFA vice presidents detained – CONMEBOL President Juan Angel Napout – “sought to portray himself as an agent of reform” while at FIFA.
“It is incumbent upon FIFA to ensure they have the appropriate screening processes, and that they have enough of a view of the specific methodologies that they need to adopt, that regardless of where they come from, there are methodologies and compliance mechanisms that will make the organization stronger,” said Lynch.
On Monday the Swiss government will answer a question in parliament about whether the Swiss federal objective is to close FIFA down completely and if this is the aim, how much pressure and co-operation with the US is going in to achieve this objective.
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