2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding to be investigated, documents seized

Swiss legal authorities have announced that criminal proceedings have opened "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 statement from Swiss authorities read:

"Today, on Wednesday 27 May 2015, the Office of the Attorney General has seized data and documents stored in IT systems at the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) as part of a so-called 'collection of evidence on cooperative basis'.

"That means that the party in possession of the data, in this case, FIFA, delivers the requested data to law enforcement authorities, or gives assistance in securing the data, thus facilitating an efficient and swift procedure.

"The collection of relevant bank documents had already been ordered beforehand at various financial institutes in Switzerland. The files seized today and the collected bank documents will serve criminal proceedings both in Switzerland and abroad.  

"In the Swiss criminal proceedings, opened by the OAG on 10 March 2015, it is suspected that irregularities occurred in the allocation of the FIFA World Cups of 2018 and 2022.

"There are also suspicions of money laundering through Swiss bank accounts. Subsequently to today’s seizure of files, the OAG and the Swiss Federal Criminal Police will be questioning 10 persons who took part in voting on the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups as members of the Executive Committee in 2010.

"These persons should be questioned as persons providing information.” 

OUR VIEW: The fact that FIFA have triggered this investigation themselves comes across as another move to control a very damaging situation. Sepp Blatter lodged the complaint after German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert's summary of Michael Garcia’s 430-page investigation into the bidding process, which was described by the American attorney as "...materially incomplete and [containing] erroneous representations".

It seems certain that there was serious wrongdoing during the bidding process but FiIFA director of communications and public affairs Walter De Gregorio says that the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will go ahead as planned in Russia and Qatar. The FIFA Presidential election is also expected to go ahead as planned.