While NATO’s top officials are concerned that Russia may use its nuclear weapons amid growing war fears, Russia’s Foreign ministry tells the US to “stop attempts to make justice far beyond its borders.”
Early Wednesday, Swiss police complied with the US request to arrest nine senior officials at FIFA, football’s governing association, as part of an investigation of alleged bribe-taking and backstage agreements.
The 2010’s vote to give the hosting seat of the 2018 World Cup to Russia forms part of one of the two corruption investigations launched on Wednesday.
Russian officials responded to the arrests saying they see a US conspiracy behind the whole corruption scandal. It became suspicious to the Russians that the US, a country so distant from soccer, has initiated the investigation now.
The next FIFA World Cup tournament is due to be held in Russia in summer of 2018, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has been overseeing the process of preparation for the tournament personally.
However, Russian officials are sure that Russia has nothing to do with the investigation and corruption claims made by the US. No Russians were arrested on Wednesday.
“I see no threat to Russia or any problems,” Vitaly Mutko, the Russian sports minister, told The New York Times in a telephone interview from Zurich, where FIFA officials gathered for an annual meeting.
“There have already been many investigations into alleged corruption in the awarding of the World Cup,” Mutko said, adding that Russia would comply with Swiss law in any investigation regarding the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Russia could yet become a target
However, Swiss prosecutors then made it clear that Russia could yet become a target of a new investigation.
The Attorney General of Switzerland said investigators had also raided FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich on Wednesday, seizing a number of documents related to the vote in December 2010 to award Russia as well as Qatar the rights to host the next two global football tournaments.
The seized documents would be used as evidence in “criminal proceedings 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,” the Swiss Attorney General said in a statement.
That means that in the nearest future, the next investigation’s target might become Vitaly Mutko. In 2009, Mutko was elected to the FIFA’s Executive Committee, which helped him lead a campaign for Russia to secure the right to host the 2018 FIFA tournament.
Since then, the decision to award Russia as well as Qatar was widely questioned. After Russia’s involvement in Ukraine’s conflict, the US and its European allies have sought to isolate Russia, and the Kremlin believes the West has intentions to take the 2018 World Cup away based on “groundless” claims.
“Russia will hold the biggest world cup ever”
On April 1, a group of 13 US senators urged FIFA and FIFA President Joseph Sepp Blatter to remove Russia as host of the 2018 FIFA World Cup because of its aggression in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea.
In the letter, the 13 Democratic and Republican US lawmakers told Blatter that allowing Russia to host the event “inappropriately bolsters the prestige” of Vladimir Putin’s government “at a time when it should be condemned,” according to the Associated Press.
However, less than three weeks later, Joseph Sepp Blatter met with Putin in Sochi, the 2014 Winter Olympics host city, and responded to the letter written by senators, saying that “if politicians are not too happy that we are taking the World Cup to Russia, I always say to them, ‘Well, you can stay home, and in Russia we will hold the biggest world cup ever.’”
According to a transcript on the Kremlin website, Putin responded promising that “we [Russia] will at the very least achieve one objective and will organize this big event in Russia.”
On December 2 2010, Russia was chosen as the location for the 2018 World Cup, beating out England, a joint bid by Belgium and the Netherlands, and another joint bid by Spain and Portugal.
Are UK and US trying to take over the two World Cups?
A scandal of that scale in FIFA is unprecedented. However, the chances that Russia is going to be removed as the host of the 2018 World Cup are very low.
The issued accusations described the way the votes to award South Africa to be the host of the 2010 World Cup had been bribed in depth. It included a former vice-president of FIFA and Trinidad and Tobago politician, Jack Warner, who is not a part of FIFA anymore.
According to the US press, Department of Justice built the case against FIFA based on testimonies and information obtained from the ex-head of CONCACAF (?onfederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football), Charles Blazer.
The 69-yeard-old Blazer is terminally sick and has begun cooperating with authorities since 2011. Apart from testifying, he secretly recorded his meetings with the colleagues from FIFA. Among those who Blazer invited to London for meetings were the members of Russia’s committee – Vitaliy Mutko and Alexander Sorokin, however, it is unknown whether they accepted the invitation or not.
It must be pointed out that there were precedents when a World Cup host refused the right to host the tournament (Columbia in 1986). However, no World Cup host has ever been removed from hosting.
There have been numerous corruption scandals in FIFA, which led to purging the ranks of the football association, however, the way FIFA operates has always remained intact.
If Blatter manages to hold on to his seat, the chances there will be a re-vote to select the hosts for the two upcoming World Cups are extremely low.
One way or another, British bookmakers have started accepting bets on possible alternative hosts of the World Cups. The UK and the US are currently the front-runners.
