Probe opened into award of 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups

Zurich, May 27:

Swiss federal prosecutors on Wednesday opened criminal proceedings related to the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, throwing world football governing body FIFA into deeper crisis only hours after six officials were arrested and 14 indicted in a separate United States corruption probe.

Meanwhile, FIFA has announced that Friday’s presidential election would go ahead as planned with Sepp Blatter running for a fifth term, according to espnfc.com.

Importantly, Blatter was not named in either investigation and FIFA ruled out a re-vote of the World Cups won by Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.

The Swiss prosecutors’ office said in a statement that they seized “electronic data and documents” from FIFA headquarters.

The Swiss police said they will question 10 FIFA executive committee members who took part in the World Cup votes in December 2010. (IANS)