News broke early on Wednesday morning that seven serving FIFA officials had been arrested at a hotel in Zurich by Swiss authorities under suspicion of their involvement with briberies reaching figures of $100m over two decades, Sky Sports reported.
FIFA vice-president Jeffery Webb was among the seven taken into custody, but Sepp Blatter is not involved, which was confirmed in a press conference held by the world football governing body a few hours after the news surfaced.
Since the arrests, it was later announced that criminal proceedings had been opened over the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids and, as reported by ESPN, all 10 members of the FIFA Executive Committee involved in the 2010 bidding will be questioned.
The crisis has happened just two days before Friday’s presidential election.
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While FIFA announced in a statement that they were ‘pleased’ such an investigation was taking place for the ‘good of football’, Twitter users have been quick to voice their views, and many have taken to to the social media site to vent their anger over the current situation.
Have a look at the best reactions on Twitter to the FIFA scandal below…
I’m pumped for absolutely nothing of note changing and football being exactly the same after this. What a time to be alive.
— James Maw (@JamesMawFFT) May 27, 2015
Brass balls from de Gregorio in that #FIFA press conference….was just waiting for him to call someone an Ostrich to top it off… — James Masters (@Masters_JamesD) May 27, 2015
Funny how #FIFAarrests take over Twitter, whilst human rights abuses & thousands of dead workers in #Qatar just don’t seem to matter …
— Dario Brentin (@sportingbalkans) May 27, 2015
Has anyone close to Blatter actually been arrested? Or is it just enemies, potential rivals and those linked to a World Cup he doesn’t want? — James Corbett (@james_corbett) May 27, 2015
Chuck Blazer, football’s equivalent of Sonny “The Bull” Gravano, on a mobility scooter?
— John Brewin (@JohnBrewinESPN) May 27, 2015
US official: “Undisclosed and illegal payments, kickbacks, and bribes became a way of doing business at FIFA” http://t.co/dg6cA23GWj — Rob Harris (@RobHarris) May 27, 2015
Fifa: US Attorney Kelly Currie alleges “brazen corruption”: “Let me be clear: this indictment is not the final chapter in our investigation”
— David Conn (@david_conn) May 27, 2015