Two more senior FIFA officials arrested in Zurich

GENEVA

Two high-ranking FIFA officials suspected of accepting millions of dollars in bribes have been arrested in Zurich, the Swiss Justice Ministry announced Thursday.

Vice presidents Alfredo Hawit and Juan Angel Napout were arrested at the request of U.S. authorities.

“They are being held in custody pending their extradition,” the ministry said in a statement. “According to the U.S. arrest requests, they are suspected of accepting bribes of millions of dollars.”

Both Honduran Hawit, who is president of the Concacaf, the association for the Caribbean and North and Central America, and Napout, the Paraguayan president of Conmebol, South America’s confederation, are opposing extradition, the statement added.

They were arrested at the Baur au Lac hotel, where they were staying for a FIFA executive committee meeting, early Thursday morning.

Other senior FIFA officials are also believed to have been arrested in raids around the city.

According to Swiss authorities, Hawit and Napout are alleged to have taken kickbacks in return for marketing rights to football tournaments in Latin America and World Cup qualifying matches.

The money is said to have been processed through banks in the U.S.

Extradition hearings on the U.S. warrants are due to be held by the end of Thursday.

In May, police swooped on the same luxury hotel to arrest members of football’s world governing body in a corruption investigation that has rocked the sport.

They included two - Jeffrey Webb and Jose Maria Marin - who have since been transferred to the U.S. Another five are fighting extradition and their appeals against the Justice Ministry’s orders are ongoing.

Those arrests came as U.S. officials announced charges against a total of 18 people in an investigation into more than 20 years of corruption in which football executives allegedly rigged World Cup bids and took bribes in exchange for highly valuable marketing and broadcast contracts.

Hawit took control of Concacaf following Jeffrey Webb’s indictment while Napout’s two predecessors as Conmebol president were also indicted in May.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter is under investigation by Swiss authorities in a separate inquiry and has been suspended from his post.