OT: US DOJ indicts 14 high ranking FIFA Officials - UPDATE: Sepp Blatter resigns

Don't know how many of you are following this, but arguably the single most important sporting organization on the planet is directly in the crosshairs of the United States Department of Justice, and it appears that the DOJ might actually succeed in bringing them down.

Wall Street Journal -- New York Times -- ESPN -- CNN - BBC

Honestly, I'm not really sure where to begin with this. It is widely, widely known that FIFA has been a corrupt organization for a while, but apparently the one lead that led to this whole thing was when Chuck Blazer, former FIFA, CONCACAF, and US Soccer bigwig flipped and turned into a FBI informant in recent years.. He apparently went so far as to wear a wiretap to the 2012 London Olympics when there with FIFA Officials, and hand delivered a paper trail to the FBI piecing everything together.

So why is the FBI so involved? Well, there's this statement released by Swiss authorities on the matter:

By order of the Federal Office of Justice (FOJ), six soccer officials were arrested in Zurich today (Wednesday) and detained pending extradition. The US authorities suspect them of having received bribes totalingin the USD millions.

The six soccer functionaries were arrested today in Zurich by the Zurich Cantonal Police . The FOJ's arrest warrants were issued further to a request by the US authorities. The US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York is investigating these individuals on suspicion of the acceptance of bribes and kick-backs between the early 1990s and the present day. The bribery suspects – representatives of sports media and sports promotion firms – are alleged to have been involved in schemes to make payments to the soccer functionaries – delegates of FIFA (Fdration Internationale de Football Association) and other functionaries of FIFA sub-organizations –totaling more than USD 100 million. In return, it is believed that they received media, marketing, and sponsorship rights in connection with soccer tournaments in Latin America. According to the US request, these crimes were agreed and prepared in the US, and payments were carried out via US banks.

Mind you, all of this is happening right as the annual FIFA meetings are being held in Switzerland, hence why they were arrested there, and are awaiting extradition to the United States to face charges. Speaking of which, here are those people:

The indictment names 14 people on charges including racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. In addition to senior soccer officials, the indictment is also expected to name sports-marketing executives from the United States and South America who are accused of paying more than $150 million in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for media deals associated with major soccer tournaments, according to one government official briefed on the matter.

Those people include nine FIFA officials:

• Jeffrey Webb (Cayman Islands) - President of CONCACAF, member of FIFA Executive Committee
• Eugenio Figueredo (Uruguay) - President of CONMEBOL, member of FIFA Executive Committee
• Jack Warner (Trinida and Tobago) - President of CONCACAF from 1990 to 2011, former FIFA vice-president
• Eduardo Li (Costa Rica) - President of the Costa Rican Football Federation, CONCACAF representative to FIFA
• Julio Rocha (Nicaragua) - President of the Nicaraguan Football Federation, FIFA development officer
• Costas Takkas (Cayman Islands) - Former general secretary of the Cayman Islands Football Association
• Rafael Esquivel (Venezuela) - President of the Venezuelan Football Federation since 1988, member of the FIFA disciplinary committee
• Jos Maria Marin (Brazil) - President of the Brazilian Football Confederation from 2012 to 2015, president of the 2014 FIFA World Cup committee
• Nicols Leoz (Paraguay) - President of CONMEBOL from 1986 to 2013

And five sports marketing execs:

• Alejandro Burzaco (Argentina) - CEO of Torneos y Competencias, which owns various sports television channels and broadcasted Argentine domestic football matches from 1992 to 2009, and the 2006 World Cup
• Aaron Davidson (United States) - President of Traffic Sports USA, which organizes and handles marketing for a variety of CONCACAF soccer events, like World Cup Qualifying and the Gold Cup. Chairman of the Board of the North American Soccer League, the soccer tier below MLS
• Hugo Jinkis (Argentina) - President of Full Play, which owns some sort of rights (I am unclear which ones) to hundreds of South American soccer matches
• Mariano Jinkis (Argentina) - CEO of Full Play, which owns some sort of rights (I am unclear which ones) to hundreds of South American soccer matches
• Jos Margulies (Unknown) - Margulies is somehow involved with Traffic Sport

One name notably absent from this list. Sepp Blatter, the President of FIFA. Conveniently, there's an upcoming election in the coming days where Blatter is expected to win election for his 5th term. The reason for this is that he's running essentially unopposed. I say essentially, because there was opposition, but, as former Presidential hopeful, Luis Figo told the AP recently, "he refuses to go along with an election process that is designed ''for the delivery of absolute power to one man'' - indicating Blatter, the current FIFA president.". Now, FIFA still plans to go forward with the election in the coming days, but now they're going to have to do it with ongoing pressure from Non Governmental Organizations, such as Transparency International releasing statements such as the following calling for his immediate resignation:

Cobus de Swardt, Managing Director of Transparency International said:

"The warning signs for FIFA have been there for a long time. FIFA has refused to abide by many basic standards of good governance that would reduce the risk of corruption.

"These scandals have taken place under Sepp Blatter's watch of FIFA, which spans almost two decades. For the sake of the fans, and good governance of football, it is time for him to step down. The elections for president are not credible if they are tainted with these allegations by the highest prosecuting authorities.

"Blatter must stand down and new elections called to mark a new era of FIFA leadership. At the same time there must be full disclosure of all potential conflicts of interest and the pay of the executive committee members. Their hands need to be clean and seen to be clean."

For the record, FIFA has remained steadfast that everything is normal and they will proceed with the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in Russia and Qatar as planned. Yes, the same Qatar that is using slave labor to build the infrastructure for said events, and is arresting any reporters who dare try to investigate anything that's going on.

And dare I finish without posting this scathing review from John Oliver from March:

UPDATE: Ding dong the witch is dead.

Roughly 36 hours after John Oliver publicly put the pressure on FIFA sponsors to tighten the screws on the organization and force a change with the following video, that exact scenario has apparently happened.

So yeah, I guess this means we'll be seeing Mr Oliver coming out on Sunday dressed in the gaudiest of Adidas apparel head to toe chowing down on as much Dollar Menu McDonalds crap as he can washing it all down with the sweet sweet victory taste of a Bud Light Lime. Should be fun to watch.