Switzerland’s Justice Ministry has identified FIFA vice presidents Alfredo Hawit and Juan Angel Napout as the two officials arrested Thursday in the latest raids targeting FIFA officials.

The ministry said both men opposed their extradition to the United States at their police hearings in Zurich Thursday.  Swiss officials indicate the United States suspects the men of accepting bribes worth millions of dollars.

Hawit of Honduras is president of CONCACAF, the governing body for football (soccer) in North America, Central America and the Caribbean.  Napout of Paraguay is president of South American football’s CONMEBOL governing body.

Arrests at US authorities’ request

The two are part of the latest round of arrests made at the request of U.S. authorities in the FIFA corruption scandal.  Some of those arrests took place at the same Zurich hotel where the first arrests were made in May.

The New York Times first reported Thursday that more than a dozen people were expected to face charges after the latest arrests at the Baur au Lac hotel.

The Times reported that several of the officials were from South and Central America and were suspected of involvement in racketeering, money laundering, and fraud.

FIFA has commented only that it is “aware of the actions taken today” by the U.S. Department of Justice. The U.S. government agency was also responsible for the first set of arrests. The Justice Department says it can make those arrests because FIFA officials used U.S. banks in their transactions.

Reforms discussed

FIFA officials were gathered at the hotel Thursday to discuss proposals aimed at reforming football’s (soccer’s) governing body after long-term allegations of corruption that culminated in criminal investigations by the United States and Switzerland.

On November 18, suspended FIFA president Sepp Blatter and European football chief Michel Platini lost their appeals against provisional 90-days bans by the FIFA ethics committee.

The provisional ban stops Platini from working as UEFA president and halted his candidacy for the FIFA election on February 26. Blatter is also barred from his FIFA presidential office after 17 years.

Platini’s lawyers quickly criticized a “uniquely one-sided, unjust and biased” investigation against him.

Blatter and Platini were suspended in October, engulfed by the deepening corruption scandal.
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