FIFA President Sepp Blatter facing criminal proceedings

It seems that all hell is breaking loose in and around FIFA, which has been rocked by the corruption scandal. Now in a blow straight to the heart of the organization, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) has also opened criminal proceedings against FIFA president, Sepp Blatter. The criminal proceedings will be looking into the misappropriation and mismanagement of FIFA’s money and how Mr. Blatter benefited from it.

FIFA has always been embroiled in controversy, and it was only a matter till it all came out. However, the level of corruption that is rife in the governing body of Football has astonished everyone. Many people have laid the blame firmly on the feet of Sepp Blatter and have even suggested that he is the mastermind behind the entire operation. The OAG interrogated Mr. Blatter after the meeting of the FIFA Executive Committee, and cancelled his subsequent news conference as a result.

All Guns Blazing

The OAG are definitely not wasting time and went straight for the jugular, by searching and seizing all available data that was found in Blatter’s office at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich. The authorities in Switzerland have also declared that they had taken FIFA vice president, Michel Platini, into questioning as they found a ‘disloyal payment’ that was in the region of 2 million Swiss Francs, which was paid to Platini by Blatter in February of 2011. It is well known that Michel Platini is expected to be next in line to take over from Blatter as the president of FIFA.

The law in Switzerland specifically states that a payment will be classified as disloyal, if it is found to be made against the best interests of the employer, which was in this case was FIFA itself. FIFA stated that the payment was made from FIFA funds and it was “allegedly made for work performed between January 1999 and June 2002.”

Fresh Allegations Surface

The latest allegations against Blatter on Friday didn’t look good, since they are related to the World Cup broadcasting contracts that were signed with Jack Warner in 2005, who is a disgraced former FIFA vice president. The OAG stated that there are suspicions regarding the implementations of the agreements and it could be that Mr. Joseph Blatter acted against the best interests of FIFA and violated his fiduciary duties as well.

Blatter’s lawyer was quick to dismiss any such allegations and released a statement, saying that the contract was properly negotiated and prepared, and there was no mismanagement of funds during the agreement. The U.S. government had recently indicted no less than 14 people from FIFA who were charged with wire fraud, money laundering and racketeering, and despite all that negativity, only a few days later Blatter was controversially re-elected as FIFA president on May 29.

Blatter announced to the world on June 2, 2015 that he will be resigning from his post due to the ongoing corruption scandal but will remain in office until there is a successor who can be elected in his place. In early September, Loretta Lynch, the United States Attorney General arrived in Zurich and revealed that additional charges would be coming as part of the investigation launched by the Justice Department.

FIFA also acknowledged the events that occurred on Friday and stated that the organization facilitated Friday’s interviews as part of its cooperation with the OAG.