FIFA released its 2014 financial report, and it shows how the organization profited off the World Cup that cost Brazil billions.

The 2014 World Cup generated $4.8 billion in revenue for FIFA compared to $2.2 billion in expenses. Over the four-year cycle, the event turned a $2.6 billion profit.

FIFA made $2.4 billion in TV rights fees, $1.6 billion in sponsorships, and $527 million in ticket sales.

Much of FIFA's World Cup spending went to participating teams and confederations ($476 million) and TV production costs ($370 million). FIFA contributed $453 million to the local organizing committee between 2011 and 2014, and gave Brazil a $100 million "legacy" payment after the tournament.

However, FIFA didn't contribute to the real costs of staging the tournament — stadiums and transportation infrastructure.

The tournament cost an estimated $15 billion, a significant portion of which was public money. Brazil spent $3.6 billion building and renovating 12 stadiums for the tournament. Less than a year later, some of those are turning into white elephants. The $300 million Arena Amazonia in Manaus, for example, held just 11 events in the five months after the tournament.

Widespread protests related to World Cup spending erupted across the country in 2013.

Here were FIFA's costs and expenses for the tournament:

The 2014 World Cup accounted for 85% of FIFA's revenue between 2011 and 2014. During the period the organization made a $338 million profit.

We've reached out to FIFA for comment.

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A director at the World Bank says he's considering suing Microsoft after his 13-year-old son was able to spend $4,500 on characters in soccer video game FIFA over several months without him realising.

Writing on Medium, Jeremy Hillman says that when checking his credit card bill recently, he noticed four unexplained charges of $109 from Microsoft. "After a meltdown of sobbing and tears," his son revealed that he had used Hillman's credit card details saved on the Xbox to buy optional add-on player packs for FIFA. And after calling Microsoft in an attempt to get a refund, he discovered there were "more than $4,5000 of charges for virtual FIFA players going back several months."

Hillman, who works as director of corporate communications at the World Bank, says that Microsoft refused to refund him the money his son spent on the game.

Here's the message an "escalation analyst" from Microsoft sent Hillman:

Our policy states that all purchases are final and non-refundable. A purchase confirmation email was sent to email: XXXX.XXXX@hotmail.com [Hillman's son] each time a purchase was made because that is the email that was designated as a contact email on the billing profile …….. you are responsible for any material that a user of your Services account accesses or is denied access to (including as a result of your use or non-use of Parental Controls). You acknowledge that use of our settings is not a substitute for your personal supervision of minors that use your Services account.

"Losing $4,5000 for many families would be a life-changing disaster," Hillman writes. "For us it is very upsetting and means we'll have to tighten our belts and forgo some luxuries but we will recover relatively quickly."

Nonetheless, he's still angry with Microsoft, questioning why there were no automatic checks on how much could be spent in the game, or why there was no option to have it request the card details be re-entered for each purchase (Hillman entered them himself initially to pay for the game). He also says the "treatment we have had at the hands of Microsoft has been appalling," keeping them waiting for more than a week despite earlier assurances.

The issue of parental controls on payments has been a hot topic in recent years. Apple has previously been criticised after media reports of children spending hundreds— or even thousands — on their parents' cards. It's possible to lock down iOS devices so card details need to be reentered if it's 15 minutes after the last purchase, however.

"If Microsoft wanted to spare thousands of parents from the frustration, anger and sometimes, serious financial consequences then it could find hundred ways to do it," Hillman concluded. "If there's a lawyer out there that wants to start a class-action against Microsoft and force them into compensation and adopting a better policy I'll happily sign up."

A Microsoft spokesperson told Business Insider that the company is "aware and [is] investigating the case internally." When asked whether Microsoft's controls on in-game purchases are adequate, the spokesperson responded with the following statement:

We continually evaluate feedback from parents and the Xbox Live community, and acknowledge and investigate concerns around alleged unapproved purchases made with their parents’ or caregivers’ payment accounts. This is why we provide parents with tools in parental controls to block premium content purchasing on the accounts of their children and teens. However, purchases made using a parent’s payment account are legitimate transactions under the Xbox Live Terms of Use. We encourage parents to use the many platform and service features we make available to prevent unapproved charges.

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London (AFP) — FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali bin Al Hussein accused Sepp Blatter of turning the presidency into a personal fiefdom as he unveiled his manifesto for the role on Monday.

Ali, FIFA vice-president for Asia, told AFP in a phone call from Cairo, where he is attending the Confederation of African Football congress, that an unfair system of patronage had taken root under Blatter.

"National associations have to feel that it's not a matter of an executive president going and supporting national associations on an ad hoc basis, but that they have their rights, they own this association and that they should get the support they need across the board in a case-by-case fashion," said the Jordanian royal.

Ali, Dutch football federation chief Michel van Praag and former Portugal winger Luis Figo are all vying to unseat 79-year-old Blatter, who will seek a fifth term in office in the May 29 election in Zurich.

Ali's manifesto contains several thinly veiled swipes at Blatter, including claims national associations have become dependent on his "personal approval" and a charge that World Cup revenues have been distributed "at the whim of the FIFA president".

He also warns that "drastic action" is required to restore the world governing body's credibility following corruption allegations over the decision to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively.

When he launched his campaign in February, Ali spoke of a "culture of intimidation" within FIFA and he believes the fear of losing favour may yet influence national association representatives when they vote in the election.

"Obviously there is that fear. I have to be honest about that," he said.

"The reason being is that many national associations around the world really depend specifically on FIFA funding, even though I don't believe it's where it should be in any case.

"Their fear is that there may be punishments in that respect even down to confederations levels, where all of a sudden things are not going very well for them."

Stadium promise

Ali, president of the Jordanian Football Association, added: "When it comes down to the election, we also need to discuss with the electoral committee how things are conducted, that it's a proper, secret ballot.

"I do have my concerns about the system that's in place right now, where possibly people could know who the voter is at the end of the day."

Figo's manifesto included proposals to increase the size of the World Cup to up to 48 teams, but Ali, 39, believes that all stakeholders should be consulted before any changes are brought in.

"I'm a bit surprised because promises are being made to increase the number of participating countries in the World Cup and at the same time, in 2022, to shorten the actual time of the World Cup," he said.

"To me it doesn't seem like there's a practical study of how things should be done and we owe it to the whole footballing world to do things in a responsible manner."

The 14-page manifesto outlines Ali's vision for a "virtuous circle of development, football and commercial success supported by a FIFA that is a service organisation and a model of good governance".

His proposals include increased investment in women's and youth football, as well as a pledge that every member association will have "a national stadium worthy of that title".

He also wants to overhaul FIFA's international ranking system, describing it as "flawed", and calls for "a full and open debate" on the introduction of video technology.

Blatter is the overwhelming favourite to win the election, but Ali said he was not yet thinking of withdrawing from the race in order to throw his support behind Van Praag or Figo.

"I can't predict what will happen before May 29 and I'm just focused on national associations, on talking to them, on learning from them and if I'm elected president, on delivering on the promises made," he said.

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A television crew was arrested, interrogated and had its equipment deleted and destroyed by Qatari authorities while filming a documentary about the 2022 World Cup.

A reporter, cameraman, camera assistant and driver were denied permission to leave the Gulf state for five days after capturing footage of labour camps there for a program called "The Selling of Football: Sepp Blatter and the Power of Fifa."

•Sepp Blatter apologises for Qatar World Cup

In an incident that raised questions about mega-wealthy Qatar’s attitude to scrutiny of the death and abuse of migrant workers building the infrastructure for it to stage the World Cup, the crew from Germany’s biggest television network was only allowed to return home following intense lobbying by their own country’s ambassador.

ARD journalist Florian Bauer and his team were investigating the squalid living and employment conditions of construction workers a year on from the Qatari government’s pledge to tackle what has been denounced by human rights organisations as modern-day slavery.

Bauer admitted travelling to Doha without permission to film after his requests to do so were either ignored or denied by several government agencies, as well as being rejected by World Cup organisers.

The sports politics specialist, who had been granted the required permit on each of his previous visits to the country, questioned whether the authorities and Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy were cracking down on those trying to hold the regime to account.

“I can only assume that this time they thought, ‘We don’t want to have the same story in terms of labour camp-visits’,” Bauer told Telegraph Sport.

• World Cup 2022 final in Qatar will be on December 18

“After five-and-a-half weeks of contacting the National Human Rights Committee, the embassy of Qatar in Germany, and so on and so forth, asking all of them for the shooting permit, we actually acknowledged they don’t want to give us one.”

Bauer and his team were arrested on March 27, a day after arriving in Qatar, and were held for 14 hours before being released at 4 a.m. the following morning.

Admitting he was “scared”, Bauer said: “There were interrogations by people from the intelligence service who said if I didn’t co-operate with them, it would work badly for me.”

The crew was physically unharmed, which could not be said for its equipment.

Bauer added: “Everything was deleted: phone, hard drives. A laptop got destroyed, got opened by I don’t know who.”

A Qatar 2022 source denied it was trying to stifle reporting of working conditions in the country, which Bauer admitted were of a high standard when it came to projects the Supreme Committee oversaw.

The source said it rejected his filming request because it had already granted one to a sports reporter from the same network, and also said it had not wanted to be the sole commentator on labour camps not under its direct jurisdiction.

The Telegraph was awaiting a response on Tuesday from a government spokesman on why the NHRC, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Interior and representatives for the Emir himself did not grant Bauer permission to film.

Qatar’s minister of labour and social affairs admitted on Monday that the country’s failure to ensure decent accommodation for its bulging migrant workforce was a “mistake” he was working to fix.

Representatives of British broadcasters, who did not want to be named, have admitted deliberately omitting to tell the Qatari authorities if they plan to film labour camps when they travel there amid fears their application would be rejected.

Bauer said he was particularly “outraged” by his own snub because his previous reports about the country had not been unbalanced.

He added: “They knew that I’m not biased. Nevertheless, they weren’t giving me an invitation letter and that makes me think about, ‘Hey, what’s the Supreme Committee thinking about this? Why are they not more open?’”

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Just a week before the FIFA presidential election, two reform candidates who opposed Sepp Blatter have pulled out of the race. 

Dutch football executive Michael van Praag withdrew his candidacy and threw his support behind Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan. 

Luís Figo, the Portuguese legend who played for many of Europe's biggest clubs, also dropped out. In a post announcing his decision on Facebook, Figo unloaded on FIFA in remarkable fashion.

He called the election "a plebiscite for the delivery of absolute power to one man," Blatter.

He basically called the election process a sham designed to keep Blatter in power:

Does anyone think it's normal that an election for one of the most relevant organizations on the planet can go ahead without a public debate? Does anyone think it's normal that one of the candidates doesn't even bother to present an election manifesto that can be voted on May 29? Shouldn't it be mandatory to present such a manifesto so that federation presidents know what they're voting for?

That would be normal, but this electoral process is anything but an election.

This (election) process is a plebiscite for the delivery of absolute power to one man - something I refuse to go along with.

That is why, after a personal reflection and sharing views with two other candidates in this process, I believe that what is going to happen on May 29 in Zurich is not a normal electoral act.

And because it is not, don't count on me.

Blatter, who has been president since 1998, is widely expected to win the election in a landslide. He's so confident that he'll be reelected that he didn't even bother publishing a platform. 

Figo said that he witnessed corruption first hand during the election.

"I traveled and met extraordinary people who, though they recognized the value of much that had been done, also concurred with the need for change, one that cleans up FIFA's reputation as an obscure organization that is so often viewed as a place of corruption," he wrote. "But over the past few months I have not only witnessed that desire (for change), I have witnessed consecutive incidents, all over the world, that should shame anyone who desires soccer to be free, clean and democratic."

He also referred to the organization under Blatter as a "dictatorship."

Here's Figo's Facebook post in full:

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Zurich (AFP) - Prince Ali bin al Hussein on Monday accused FIFA president Sepp Blatter of leading an administration of waste that ignores ethics as he stepped up a leadership battle ahead of a vote this week.

"The situation is now urgent," the Jordanian prince said in a video appeal to the 209 member federations who will vote for a FIFA president on Friday.

The 79-year-old Blatter is strong favourite to win a fifth four year term but has never faced such a strong challenge.

"It is clear that things have to change. The conspicuous waste, the self-serving policies and controversial leadership style of FIFA today have disempowered our national associations, hurt our sport and cost us our dignity," said the 39-year-old prince who was until last month a FIFA vice president.

Without mentioning the scandals that have tainted FIFA since the award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, respectively, the prince said: "Corporate and social responsibilities have been neglected, ethics have fallen by the wayside.

"Decisions about the game have been taken unilaterally and sponsors have left."

The prince said national associations and ordinary footballers "are beginning to pay a very real price for this."

"With each day that passes the situation worsens and FIFA's ability to serve us and our sport is further eroded. The situation is now urgent."

"We have to eliminate as far as possible the politics of the way things are conducted and bring everybody together for the service of the game.

The prince promised to focus on developing football and to bring "commercial success" with more decision making by national associations.

Prince Ali has strong support from Europe's UEFA in Friday's vote but other continents have given strong public backing to Blatter.

UEFA president Michel Platini on Monday gave public backing to the prince's bid and said Blatter had "lied" when he made a pledge in 2011 that his term starting then would be his last.

Despite the controversies under his leadership, Blatter has developed FIFA into a machine that earns $5 billion over the four years between its flagship World Cup event.

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Authorities in Zurich on Wednesday arrested several high-ranking FIFA officials on racketeering and corruption charges and will most likely extradite them to the US, The New York Times reported.

The charges relate to more than $150 million in alleged bribes and kickbacks from the 1990s to today.

"The individuals indicted were expected to uphold the rules that kept soccer honest. They instead corrupted the business to enrich themselves," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a press conference on Wednesday.

In an extensive statement, the US Department of Justice accused the officials in the international soccer governing body of a "24-year scheme to enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer."

Four men, including former top-ranking FIFA executive Chuck Blazer, have already pleaded guilty.

The DOJ's indictment charges 14 defendants with racketeering, wire fraud, money-laundering conspiracies, and other offenses.

"This is the World Cup of fraud and we're issuing FIFA a red card," Richard Weber, IRS chief of criminal investigation, said at a press conference.

Seven FIFA officials are currently in custody, and the DOJ is now pursuing more arrests.

US officials say guilty pleas were also given by Daryan Warner and Daryll Warner, the sons of former senior FIFA official Jack Warner of Trinidad and Tobago, and Jose Hawilla, an executive of the Brazil-based sports marketing firm Traffic Sports. US officials say Hawilla has agreed to forfeit over $151 million.

The men face maximum jail terms of incarceration of 20 years for "the RICO conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice charges."

FIFA officials are in Zurich for the congress where FIFA president Sepp Blatter on Friday will face a challenge from Jordan's Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein in a presidential election for the organization. The election will go forward as planned, FIFA officials said in a news conference.

Swiss prosecutors also announced on Wednesday that they had opened criminal proceedings into the two next World Cups — the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Both tournaments will still take place as planned, officials said Wednesday in a news conference.

The Swiss attorney general has seized documents related to the case, according to a statement. The documents will be used in criminal proceedings in Switzerland and abroad.

The Swiss investigation is independent from the one by the US attorney's office that resulted in the arrest of the FIFA officials in Zurich. In the Swiss case, FIFA is considered the injured party, FIFA spokesman Walter de Gregorio said at a news conference.

"The timing may not be obviously the best but definitely FIFA welcomes this process and cooperates fully with the attorney general of Switzerland and the federal office of justice," Gregorio said. "In this case, FIFA is the damaged party. This leads to the fact that there were no searches within the offices of FIFA, the people of the federal attorney are here, we cooperate with them, we provide all the information requested by them, and this is for our own interest."

Gregorio noted that Blatter was not involved in the Swiss procedure.

The Times, citing anonymous law enforcement officials, said the US federal charges spanned two decades of misconduct in soccer's world governing body. Officials told The Times that the US investigation was ongoing and that Blatter had not been cleared of wrongdoing. He was not one of those arrested Wednesday.

The DOJ explains the bribery scheme in its press release:

One key way the enterprise derives revenue is to commercialize the media and marketing rights associated with soccer events and tournaments. The organizing entity that owns those rights – as FIFA and CONCACAF do with respect to the World Cup and Gold Cup, their respective flagship tournaments – sells them to sports marketing companies, often through multi-year contracts covering multiple editions of the tournaments. The sports marketing companies, in turn, sell the rights downstream to TV and radio broadcast networks, major corporate sponsors and other sub-licensees who want to broadcast the matches or promote their brands.

The revenue generated from these contracts is substantial: according to FIFA, 70% of its $5.7 billion in total revenues between 2011 and 2014 was attributable to the sale of TV and marketing rights to the 2014 World Cup. ... Two generations of soccer officials abused their positions of trust for personal gain, frequently through an alliance with unscrupulous sports marketing executives who shut out competitors and kept highly lucrative contracts for themselves through the systematic payment of bribes and kickbacks.

The FOJ says that, in return for the bribes, various people and entities at the center of the investigation received "media, marketing, and sponsorship rights in connection with soccer tournaments in Latin America." The statement continues, saying "these crimes were agreed and prepared in the US, and payments were carried out via US banks."

The Times reports that these FIFA executives were charged: Jeffrey Webb, Eugenio Figueredo, Jack Warner, Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Rafael Esquivel, José Maria Marin, and Nicolás Leoz. Sports marketing executives Alejandro Burzaco, Aaron Davidson, Hugo Jinkis, and Mariano Jinkis are also expected to be charged, along with José Margulies, who authorities say was an intermediary who facilitated illegal payments.

Here is the full FOJ statement:

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FIFA's director of communications and public affairs Walter De Gregorio said in a press conference in Zurich on Wednesday that the World Cup in Russia in 2018 and the World Cup in Qatar will still go ahead, despite two separate corruption probes into football's governing body that has seen the arrest of several high-ranking FIFA officials on racketeering and corruption charges.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland said in a statement on Wednesday it had opened up criminal proceedings "against persons unknown on suspicion of criminal mismanagement and of money laundering in connection with the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 football World Cups."

A separate probe has been opened up by the US Attorney's office which resulted in the arrest of nine FIFA officials and five corporate executives on Wednesday on charges of racketeering conspiracy and corruption which dates back to the 1990s, and could result in their extradition to the US. Officials are being investigated by US authorities on the suspicion and acceptance of bribes and kickbacks for tournaments in the US and Latin America — including marketing, sponsorship, and media deals — that could total more than $100 million.

“The indictment alleges corruption that is rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted both abroad and here in the United States,” US Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said in a statement. 

The Swiss and US law enforcement have co-ordinated on the proceedings, to avoid possible collusion, but these are not joint investigations.

Speaking at FIFA's press conference on Wednesday, De Gregorio said in the Swiss case, FIFA is considered the "injured party." He added: "The timing may not be obviously the best but definitely FIFA welcomes this process and cooperates fully with the attorney general of Switzerland and the Federal Office of Justice."

Asked by a member of the press whether there should be a re-vote over where the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will be held, De Gregorio responded: "Russia and Qatar will still be going ahead."

Pressed further by another journalist who asked how FIFA could categorically say those tournaments would still go ahead, De Gregorio said: "What do you expect from us? You start to speculate [that for] Qatar and Russia [we will] have to re-do voting. Russia and Qatar will be played. That is fact today. Not more and not less."

FIFA officials are in Zurich for the FIFA Congress where FIFA president Sepp Blatter faces a challenge from Jordan's Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein in a presidential election on Friday. Blatter has not been charged, Gregorio confirmed, adding that FIFA does not plan to postpone either the Congress or the election following the events on Wednesday.

The bidding process surrounding the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups has been mired in controversy, which has seen members of FIFA's executive committee have been suspended following accusations they were given cash in exchange for voting for Qatar.

But a FIFA report published last fall, which has still yet to be published in full, from independent investigator and former federal prosecutor Michael Garcia into the alleged vote-buying, concluded there had not been enough wrong-doing to question the bidding process. It meant that Qatar and Russia would not face any sanctions from FIFA.

Garcia subsequently resigned from his role as FIFA independent investigator in December, protesting the way the governing body had handled the report, saying the 42-page summary FIFA did publish in November by German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert contained "numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of facts and conclusions."

Several World Cup sponsors including Visa and Coca-Cola came out last year castigating FIFA's handling of its investigation into the bidding process.

Business Insider has contacted all the World Cup sponsors for comment on today's arrests, but at the time of writing, only a spokesman from Hyundai had responded, saying it would "not be making any comment at this time."

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Authorities arrested more than a dozen people on Wednesday as part of an investigation of corruption within FIFA, soccer's world governing body, The New York Times reported.

And the man who reportedly helped the FBI build its case is a former top-ranking FIFA executive from New York City. The New York Daily News published an investigation in November about the involvement of former FIFA executive committee member Chuck Blazer in the corruption case, and BuzzFeed wrote about the "swindling suburban soccer dad" in June.

Blazer was "one of the most powerful men in world soccer" before he left FIFA in 2013 amid an ethics investigation, according to SB Nation, which noted that Blazer most likely cooperated with the FBI's FIFA investigation to avoid prison time.

Blazer has pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, wire-fraud conspiracy, money-laundering conspiracy, income-tax evasion, and failure to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR), according to a US Department of Justice statement released Wednesday. He forfeited nearly $2 million and agreed to pay another undetermined amount when he is sentenced.

It is unclear whether Blazer made a deal with investigators and what his sentence will be.

Those arrested on corruption charges on Wednesday include some of FIFA's highest-ranking officials. While FIFA President Sepp Blatter was not among those arrested, officials told The Times that the investigation was ongoing and that Blatter had not been cleared of wrongdoing.

The arrests came as FIFA officials gathered in Zurich for their annual meeting. Arrested officials are expected to be extradited to the US, according to The Times. Authorities accuse the officials of accepting millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks from the 1990s to today.

While authorities have not confirmed Blazer's role in the case, Blazer is suspected of being a key player in the investigation.

How Blazer rose to the top of international soccer

Blazer's rise within FIFA was meteoric. Blazer first got involved in soccer when his son started playing in 1976, according to an extensive BuzzFeed profile of him. He started coaching the team and became more deeply involved in the sport, despite never having played himself. He eventually graduated from his roles in youth soccer and moved up the ranks of state and national soccer organizations.

Blazer was elected executive vice president of the United States Soccer Federation in 1984. He lost his spot within the USSF in 1986 when he failed to get reelected, but then he cofounded a new professional league called the American Soccer League, which eventually merged with another league after only two seasons, BuzzFeed reported.

Blazer met a man named Jack Warner in 1984 when they were both serving at Concacaf, FIFA's governing body for soccer in North America and the Caribbean. The pair became friends at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, according to BuzzFeed. Blazer persuaded Warner to run for president of Concacaf and later ran the campaign. When Warner won, he appointed Blazer general secretary in charge of the confederation's daily operations.

Blazer reportedly knew a lot about the business side of soccer and was an audacious salesman, making him a good candidate for reviving soccer in America.

Ken Bensinger wrote in BuzzFeed: "[Blazer] helped win Major League Soccer's first real TV contract, and [last year] the MLS inked a $720 million TV deal. The US national team, which he helped promote, is now a World Cup mainstay, ranked higher than powers such as France and the Netherlands. And more people in America are playing soccer than any team sport save basketball."

Blazer eventually got a spot on FIFA's executive committee, the first American to do so in nearly 50 years, and helped turn FIFA into a "profit machine," according to BuzzFeed.

How Blazer became an FBI informant

Blazer reportedly turned on Warner when he realized that he might be linked to alleged ethics violations by the former Concacaf president. Warner was among those arrested Wednesday and charged with racketeering and bribery offenses, according to the Department of Justice.

Blazer most likely turned Warner in to ethics investigators to avoid being labeled a fellow conspirator once the accusations against Warner became so damning that it seemed likely he would be indicted, according to the Daily News.

The FBI and the IRS reportedly persuaded Blazer to cooperate by telling him they knew he had been evading taxes for decades.

To help the FBI build its case, Blazer took a keychain with a tiny microphone embedded in it around with him to meetings with FIFA officials, according to the Daily News. Some of these meetings took place at the London Olympics in 2012. Blazer reportedly emailed the officials the FBI was targeting and arranged to meet them at the games.

Blazer's lavish lifestyle

Blazer himself was reportedly enjoying the perks of his position. The Daily News wrote about the millions of dollars he charged to credit cards to fund his extravagant lifestyle, which reportedly included a Trump Tower apartment just for his cats.

From 1996 to 2011, Blazer made $15.3 million in commission from sponsorships and TV rights, revenue from match tickets, and sales of luxury-suite rentals, parking, and venue concessions, according to the Daily News. Blazer is accused of hiding the money in shell companies. He also earned millions more for his position with Concacaf.

Concacaf reportedly paid thousands of dollars for fancy apartments and a Hummer for Blazer, who racked up millions in personal expenses that Concacaf paid for.

Blazer was known for eating at expensive restaurants frequented by celebrities and flying on private jets. He had a luxury condo in the Bahamas and had met Vladimir Putin, Hillary Clinton, Pope John Paul II, and Nelson Mandela, according to BuzzFeed.

Concacaf investigated Blazer, BuzzFeed reported, and in 2013 found that he defrauded the confederation.

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FIFA spokesman Walter De Gregorio believes Wednesday morning's arrests of several senior FIFA officials on racketeering and corruption charges is an opportunity to clean up the football governing body. 

"This for FIFA is good," De Gregorio said in a news conference from Zurich. "It’s not good in terms of image, it’s not good in terms of reputation, but in terms of cleaning up, everything we did in the last four years, this is good." 

The organisation is facing two separate criminal investigations: One from the Swiss Attorney General regarding the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and the other from the US Department of Justice, which resulted in the arrest of nine FIFA officials and five corporate executives on Wednesday. 

An indictment from the US Department of Justice has charged 14 people with racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracies in connection with their participation in a "24-year scheme to enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer." 

“The indictment alleges corruption that is rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted both abroad and here in the United States,” US Attorney General Lynch said in a statement. 

FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, was not charged and a presidential election scheduled for Friday will go ahead as planned. 

"The stress factor is higher today than yesterday but [Blatter] is relaxed," De Gregorio said of the president's reaction to the arrests. De Gregorio later clarified that Blatter is "not dancing in his office," but that he is fully cooperating with the investigation.

The arrests were carried out at 6 a.m. local time by Swiss authorities at the Baur au Lac hotel. 

Despite the corruption probe, De Gregorio said the World Cup in Russia in 2018 and the World Cup in Qatar will still go ahead.

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ZURICH (AP) — Swiss federal prosecutors opened criminal proceedings related to the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, throwing FIFA deeper into crisis only hours after seven soccer officials were arrested and 14 indicted Wednesday in a separate U.S. corruption probe.

FIFA, meanwhile, said Friday's presidential election would go ahead as planned with Sepp Blatter going for a fifth term. Blatter was not named in either investigation.

FIFA also ruled out a revote of the World Cups won by Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.

The Swiss prosecutors' office said in a statement they seized "electronic data and documents" at FIFA's headquarters on Wednesday as part of their probe. And Swiss police said they will question 10 FIFA executive committee members who took part in the World Cup votes in December 2010.

The Swiss investigation against "persons unknown on suspicion of criminal mismanagement and of money laundering" again throws into the doubt the integrity of the voting.

The announcement came only hours after seven soccer officials were arrested and detained by Swiss police pending extradition at the request of U.S. authorities after a raid at a luxury hotel in Zurich.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement that two current FIFA vice presidents were among those arrested, Jeffrey Webb and Eugenio Figueredo. The others are Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Rafael Esquivel and Jose Maria Marin.

"The indictment alleges corruption that is rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted both abroad and here in the United States," Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said in the statement. "It spans at least two generations of soccer officials who, as alleged, have abused their positions of trust to acquire millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks."

The Swiss prosecutors' office said the U.S. probe was separate from its investigation but that authorities were working together.

The U.S. case involves bribes "totaling more than $100 million" linked to commercial deals dating back to the 1990s for soccer tournaments in the United States and Latin America, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice said. The Justice Department said the corruption is linked to World Cup qualifying matches and the Copa America — South America's continental championship.

Dozens of soccer officials are in Switzerland for the FIFA congress and presidential election, where Blatter is widely expected to win re-election at the helm of the governing body of world soccer.

"He is not one of the ones arrested. He is not involved at all," FIFA spokesman Walter de Gregorio told The Associated Press. "We are trying to find out more from the police."

Blatter had been scheduled to attend a meeting of the Confederation of African Football in a different downtown Zurich hotel, but he canceled his appearance.

Blatter's only opponent in Friday's presidential election, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, said it was "a sad day for football," but declined to comment further.

The arrests were made at the lakeside Baur au Lac Hotel in downtown Zurich, long favored as a place for senior FIFA officials to stay. It was the stage for intense lobbying for votes ahead of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting decisions in December 2010.

The North American regional body, known as CONCACAF, reported itself to U.S. tax authorities in 2012. Then based in New York, the organization had not paid taxes over several years when its president was Warner and secretary general was Chuck Blazer of the United States.

Warner, who is from Trinidad and Tobago, left soccer in 2011 to avoid FIFA sanctions in a bribery scandal during that year's presidential election. Blazer left in 2013 and has pleaded guilty to charges, the Justice Department said in Wednesday's statement.

Warner's successor as CONCACAF leader and FIFA vice president is Webb, who is from the Cayman Islands and was staying at the Baur au Lac this week.

The Swiss Federal Office of Justice said in its statement that U.S. authorities suspect the six arrested officials of having received or paid bribes totaling millions of dollars and that the crimes were agreed to and prepared in the U.S., and payments carried out via U.S. banks.

"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 (FIFA delegates) and other functionaries of FIFA sub-organizations - totaling more than USD 100 million," the FOJ statement said.

A statement in German added that the probe involved tournaments in the United States.

International media gathered at the street entrance of the Baur au Lac in scenes reminiscent of the World Cup votes won by Russia and Qatar more than four years ago.

Then, former President Bill Clinton was inside meeting FIFA voters who later rejected the American bid in favor of Qatar, and Britain's Prince William was part of the losing English bid team.

Suspicions of vote-buying and wrongdoing in those bidding contests have dogged FIFA ever since.

___

AP Sports Writer Rob Harris contributed to this report.

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"Last Week Tonight" host John Oliver did a 13-minute segment on FIFA on his HBO show Sunday night.

It was masterful.

He touched on nearly every contemporary criticism of the organization, ripping them for everything from 2014 World Cup costs to Qatar's abysmal human-rights record.

The litany of things he talked about:

• The $270-million stadium in Manaus— an Amazon outpost without a professional team and no need for a giant soccer stadium.
• FIFA reaping the profits of the World Cup while leaving Brazil with the costs.
• FIFA forcing Brazil to repeal a public-safety law that banned the sale of alcohol in stadiums: "FIFA seemed anxious to protect Budweiser from a law designed to protect people."
• FIFA's tax-exempt status as a nonprofit, even though it has $1 billion in the bank: "When your rainy-day fund is so big you've got to check it for swimming cartoon ducks, you might not be a nonprofit anymore."
• FIFA's propaganda film.
• Sepp Blatter saying the way to boost interest in women's soccer is by having the players wear tighter shorts.

The best part of the 13-minute segment was about the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Here's Oliver talking about the heat and bribes:

"You are hosting the World Cup somewhere where soccer cannot physically be played. That's like if the NFL chose to host the Super Bowl in a lake."

"There are now allegations that some FIFA executives took bribes to put the World Cup in Qatar. And I hope that's true, because otherwise it makes literally no sense."

Here's the full video:

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Several top officials at FIFA, soccer's world governing body, were hit with corruption charges on Wednesday.

Authorities showed up to a five-star hotel in Zurich, Switzerland, where FIFA was having its annual meeting, to make the arrests.

In an extensive statement, the US Department of Justice accused the officials of a "24-year scheme to enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer." 

The DOJ's indictment charges 14 defendants with racketeering, wire fraud, money-laundering conspiracies, and other offenses. The charges relate to more than $150 million in alleged bribes and kick-backs from the 1990s to today.

Swiss authorities announced on Wednesday that they had launched their own investigation independent of the DOJ case. Swiss prosecutors said they had opened criminal proceedings into the awarding of the next two World Cups — the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. 

Rumors of improper dealmaking have long swirled around FIFA and many observers weren't surprised by the charges of alleged corruption. 

Alexandra Wrage, a governance consultant who has previously worked with FIFA, told The New York Times that the organization is "byzantine and impenetrable." That foundation appears weaker this morning.

Here's a rundown of both investigations:

• The DOJ said in an extensive statement about its investigation that it believes FIFA officials conspired to "solicit and receive well over $150 million in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for the official support of sports marketing executives," who allegedly "shut out competitors and kept highly lucrative contracts for themselves through the systematic payment of bribes and kickbacks."
• The DOJ explained how this works: "One key way the enterprise derives revenue is to commercialize the media and marketing rights associated with soccer events and tournaments. [FIFA and CONCACAF, the governing body of soccer in North America and the Caribbean] sell them to sports marketing companies, often through multi-year contracts covering multiple editions of the tournaments. The sports marketing companies, in turn, sell the rights downstream to TV and radio broadcast networks, major corporate sponsors and other sub-licensees who want to broadcast the matches or promote their brands."
• The indicted defendants include nine FIFA officials and four sports marketing executives.

• Former FIFA Executive Committee member Chuck Blazer reportedly helped the FBI build its case against the defendants. He has pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, income tax evasion and failure to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR).

• Blazer was the right-hand man of one of the defendants, former FIFA vice president Jack Warner. Blazer reportedly knew about some shady deals Warner was involved in and was suspected of laundering money from FIFA himself.
• The Swiss investigation into two upcoming World Cup tournaments is independent of the one by the US Attorney's office. In the Swiss case, FIFA is considered the injured party. There's been speculation that bribes or other unethical actions might have influenced the awarding of tournaments.
• The 2018 and 2022 World Cups will reportedly proceed as planned.

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Adidas has become the first World Cup sponsor to publicly respond to the news Wednesday morning that FIFA was subject to two separate corruption probes, which resulted in the arrests of several high-ranking officials.

The German sportswear company stopped short of being critical of football's governing body, but instead encouraged FIFA to maintain ethical and compliance standards.

Adidas' statement in full, sent to Business Insider via email, reads:

The Adidas Group is fully committed to creating a culture that promotes the highest standards of ethics and compliance, and we expect the same from our partners. Following today’s news, we can therefore only encourage FIFA to continue to establish and follow transparent compliance standards in everything they do.

Adidas is the world’s leading football brand and we will continue to support football on all levels.

FIFA is subject of two separate criminal investigations: One from the Swiss Attorney General regarding the voting process for the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and the other from the US Department of Justice, which resulted in the arrest of nine FIFA officials and five corporate executives on Wednesday.

An indictment from the US Department of Justice has charged 14 people with racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracies in connection with their participation in a "24-year scheme to enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer."

In a press conference held in Zurich earlier today, FIFA's spokesman Walter De Gregorio said this morning's arrests offer an opportunity to clean up the organization.

He added: "This for FIFA is good. It's not good in terms of image; it's not good in terms of reputation, but in terms of cleaning up everything we did in the last four years, this is good."

Business Insider has contacted all of the other FIFA World Cup sponsors for comment on today's arrests. The only other sponsor apart from Adidas to respond was automaker Hyundai, which said it would "not be making any comment at this time."

Last year, several World Cup sponsors, including Visa and Coca-Cola, came out publicly criticizing FIFA's handling of its investigation into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

SEE ALSO: FIFA: The World Cups in Russia and Qatar will still go ahead

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The US Department of Justice's corruption charges against nine FIFA officials and five corporate executives is one of the most meaningful steps ever taken to clean up soccer's international governing body.

The most staggering part of the arrests isn't that there is some sort of single, shocking allegation here that will topple FIFA.

It's that these allegations, as broad and all-encompassing as they seem, are related only to a corner of the larger soccer universe.

The scope of the investigation is important. The bribery and corruption charges, which the DOJ says involved more than $150 million over 21 years, are almost exclusively related to tournaments in North America (organized by Concacaf) and South America (organized by Conmebol) that are second- and third-tier competitions in the grand scheme of things.

We're talking about bribery related to Concacaf World Cup qualifiers, the Concacaf Gold Cup, the Concacaf Champions League, the Copa América Centenario, the Conmebol Copa América, the Conmebol Copa Libertadores, and the Copa do Brasil. The host selection for the 2010 World Cup and the 2011 FIFA presidential election are the only FIFA events mentioned that exist outside the Americas.

There are no charges related to similar continental tournaments in Europe, Africa, or Asia, much less the controversial bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. All nine current and former FIFA executives who got arrested are from the Americas, including Concacaf president Jeffrey Webb.

The reason for this, if the reports are to be believed, is that disgraced ex-Concacaf official Chuck Blazer served as an informant who allowed the FBI important access to the inner workings of the continent's main governing body. In a statement, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch called FIFA's alleged corruption "rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted." If she is to be believed, it stands to reason that Africa, Europe, and Asia are no more or less corrupt than the Americas.

The DOJ didn't touch the widespread corruption allegations related to the 2022 World Cup, which include an allegation from a whistle-blower who says she witnessed three different FIFA executive committee members taking $1.5 million bribes from the Qataris at a conference in Angola before the vote.

After the arrests, a FIFA representative said it was a "good day" for FIFA. He said the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar would go on as planned, as would Friday's presidential election. The implication is that FIFA need only root out its bad apples and then get back to business as usual. But what these allegations depict is a system of corruption, not just a few corrupt individuals. The DOJ points out that "two generations of soccer officials abused their positions of trust for personal gain."

If this is happening across continents and generations in the Americas, it's fair to speculate whether it is happening everywhere.

Acting US attorney Kelly Currie put it best. "After decades of what the indictment alleges to be brazen corruption," she said, "organized international soccer needs a new start — a new chance for its governing institutions to provide honest oversight and support of a sport that is beloved across the world, increasingly so here in the United States."

We've reached out to FIFA for comment.

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Swiss authorities arrested several high-ranking FIFA officials on Wednesday with the intention of extraditing them to the US to face federal corruption charges, as first reported by The New York Times.

While those arrested include some of the highest-ranking soccer officials in the world — including current FIFA Vice President Jeffrey Webb and former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner — FIFA President Sepp Blatter was not among them.

At a press conference Wednesday, a FIFA representative said Blatter is not involved in the scandal.

But Blatter is not totally in the clear yet, according to one of the Times reporters who broke the story.

Reporter Michael S. Schmidt, who was present during the arrests in Zurich, was a guest on "CBS This Morning" when he was asked if Blatter is in the clear.

"No, I don't think he is in the clear," Schmidt told CBS. "I think there are some people in the justice department that want to see what comes of today's indictments. Do any of these executives want to cooperate and what kind of information can they give the government? At that point, the government will look back and reassess and see who else they can go after."

The allegations so far are limited to officials from governing bodies in North America (Concacaf) and South America (CONMEBOL). However, the breadth of the charges, if true, paint a picture of widespread and deeply rooted corruption that is present in FIFA in general. The one person sitting atop FIFA's iron throne is Blatter.

FIFA's presidential election, which Blatter is widely expected to win, is scheduled to take place on Friday.

At a press conference, Loretta Lynch, the US attorney general, said authorities would continue to investigate alleged coconspirators.

Here are Schmidt's comments on "CBS This Morning."

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The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that the arrests of officials with the soccer governing body FIFA appeared to be an illegal attempt by the United States to impose its laws on foreign states.

"Without going into details about the charges that have been brought up, we point to the fact that this is another case of the illegal extraterritorial application of U.S. laws," the ministry said in a statement on its website.

It said it hoped the arrests will not be used to tarnish FIFA's image and will not cast a shadow on the organization's decisions, including personnel decisions.

"Once again, we urge Washington to stop trying to set itself up as a judge far outside its borders and to follow the generally accepted international legal procedures," the ministry said.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly)

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FIFA officials insist that Russia and Qatar will still hold the next two World Cups, despite new allegations that executives for the powerful soccer association received bribes in exchange for granting hosting rights to those countries.

But that hasn’t stopped bookmakers from speculating about which nations could nab the tournament rights if an investigation into FIFA turns up more dirt on the bidding process. 

Irish bookmaker Paddy Power made England the 11/10 favorite to host the 2018 World Cup, should Russia lose the right to do so. Spain and Portugal come in second place with 5/4 odds, followed by the Netherlands and Belgium, which are both 9/2 favorites.

The field of potential replacements widens beyond Europe for the 2022 World Cup. Should Qatar lose its hosting rights, the United States is the 5/4 favorite to take over the tournament, according to Paddy Power.

Other top contenders include Australia (7/4), South Korea (11/2) and Japan (13/2). The bookmaker is also placing on odds on who the next FIFA president will be and how many of soccer executives arrested on Tuesday will go to jail.

British gaming company Ladbrokes also made the U.S. and Australia the odds-on favorites to replace Qatar in 2022, The Independent reported. Currently, however, the bookmaker still gives Qatar 1/6 odds of holding on to the hosting rights.

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WARSAW (Reuters) - European soccer's governing body UEFA has called for Friday's FIFA presidential election to be postponed, secretary general Gianni Infantino told reporters on Wednesday.

"We strongly believe the FIFA Congress should be postponed with new FIFA presidential elections to be organized within the next six months," he told reporters at the Sheraton Hotel.

The world's most popular sport was plunged into turmoil on Wednesday after U.S. and Swiss authorities announced separate inquiries into the activities of soccer's ruling body.

Incumbent Sepp Blatter is standing for re-election to the FIFA presidency against Jordan's Prince Ali bin Al Hussein.

Earlier on Wednesday, seven of the most powerful figures in global soccer faced extradition to the United States on corruption charges after their arrest in Switzerland.

The Swiss authorities also announced a criminal investigation into the awarding of the next two World Cups being hosted in Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.

U.S. authorities said nine soccer officials and five sports media and promotions executives faced corruption charges involving more than $150 million in bribes.

Infantino, reading from a prepared statement, added: "UEFA shows this FIFA the red card. Today's events are a disaster for FIFA and tarnish the image of football as whole. UEFA is deeply shocked and saddened by them.

"These events show that once again corruption is deeply rooted in FIFA's culture. There is a need for the whole of FIFA to be rebooted and for a real reform to be carried out.

"The upcoming FIFA Congress risks turning into a farce and therefore the European associations will have to consider carefully even if they should attend this Congress...

"The UEFA member associations are meeting tomorrow (Thursday) ahead of the FIFA Congress. At that point, the European associations will decide on what further steps need to be taken to protect the game of football.

"The members of the European executive committee are convinced that there is a strong need for a change through the leadership of this FIFA and we strongly believe that the FIFA Congress should be postponed."

UEFA president Michel Platini declined to comment when asked by Reuters about Wednesday's developments.

(Reporting by Toby Davis, writing by Ken Ferris, editing by Pritha Sarkar)

SEE ALSO: FIFA's 'byzantine and impenetrable' empire is wobbling

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Several high-ranking FIFA officials were arrested on racketeering and corruption charges in Zurich on Wednesday.

Nine current and former FIFA officials are accused of taking more than $150 million in bribes related to tournaments in North and South America.

While the indictment doesn't mention the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, and FIFA says the tournaments will go on as scheduled, these charges have revived calls for a re-vote for the heavily criticized 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The host nations for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were voted on by 22 members of FIFA's executive committee in December of 2010. In the five years since the vote, a significant portion of those voters have faced serious corruption allegations.

Two of those 22 voters, Jack Warner and Nicolas Leoz, were were arrested Wednesday on corruption charges. Additionally, three other members of the 2010 FIFA executive committee — Mohammed Bin Hammam, Ricardo Terra Teixeira, and Chuck Blazer — all resigned in disgrace amid corruption allegations since 2010.

The details:

• Jack Warner — One of the nine executive committee members arrested on Wednesday and one of the 22 voting members of the 2010 FIFA executive committee. Warner was suspended in 2011 for offering bribes for FIFA presidential votes, and he was also accused of accepting money for his 2022 World Cup vote for Qatar. The indictment alleges that Warner accepted bribes from a sports marketing company before awarding Conacacaf Gold Cup rights, among other charges.
• Nicolas Leoz— Another member of the executive committee who voted on the 2022 World Cup who was also arrested on corruption charges in Zurich. The incident alleges that he accepted bribes for the Copa America and Copa Libertadores rights.
• Mohammed Bin Hammam— Dropped out of the FIFA presidential race in 2011 after he allegedly bribed 25 Caribbean Football Union members for votes with $1 million, which was distributed by Warner. In 2012, amid investigations of bribery, Hammam resigned shortly before the Fifa Ethics Committee found him guilty of "repeated" violations of the ethics code and banned him for life. In 2014, the Sunday Times claimed that Hammam paid Warner $450,000 in advance of the 2010 vote on the 2022 World Cup and another $1.2 million afterward. 
• Ricardo Terra Teixeira— Was found guilty in 2012 of accepting bribes in the 1990s for the World Cup. 
• Chuck Blazer— A FIFA executive-turned-FBI informant who helped with the corruption arrests on Wednesday. He had previously pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, wire-fraud conspiracy, money-laundering conspiracy, income-tax evasion, according to a U.S. Department of Justice statement released Wednesday.

In addition to those five, 10 other members of the 2010 executive committee board are wanted for questioning by Swiss authorities as part of a separate investigation into the 2018/2022 bidding process. Those executives: Issa Hayatou, Angel Maria Villar Llona, Michel D'Hooghe, Senes Erzik, Worawi Makudi, Marios Lefkaritis, Jacques Anouma, Rafael Salguero, Hany Abo Rida, and Vitaly Mutko.

Llona, D'Hooges, Makudi, and another 2010 executive member, Franz Beckenbauer, were all probed in 2014 over a corruption inquiry. Hayatou was also accused of bribery over the 2022 World Cup vote.

To pile onto the increased perception that the 2010 executive committee was corrupt, only 22 members of that committee were even allowed to vote for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups because of corruption charges. There are typically 24 members of the committee, but two of the members, Reynald Temarii and Amos Adamu, were suspended and denied votes over corruption charges prior to the World Cup voting in 2010.

The corruption arrests only add to the controversy surrounding the 2022 Qatar World Cup. In addition to scheduling conflicts for players, there are several reports about inhumane working conditions for modern-day "slaves" helping build the infrastructure for the World Cup. A campaign by the International Trade Union Confederation, Play Fair Qatarm and NewFifaNow claims, "more than 62 workers will die for each game played during the 2022 tournament."

While the FIFA arrests didn't go after corruption related to the 2022 World Cup specifically, they drew the integrity and legitmacy of the executive committee that picked Qatar further into question.

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