FIFA corruption investigation: A look at the key players

By Houston MitchellAssistant Sports Editor

May 27, 2015 11:26 AM PT

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Nine soccer officials and five sports marketing or banking executives have been indicted in New York on various charges alleging they corrupted the sport by participating in a scheme in which the officials accepted bribes for their assistance in winning the rights to broadcast and/or market some of international soccer’s top events. A look at the targets of the indictments:

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Jeffrey Webb (Cayman Islands)

Szilard Koszticsak / Associated Press

Webb, 50, is a vice president of FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, and has been president of CONCACAF, which manages the sports in North and Central America and the Caribbean, since 2012. In 2013, he was appointed chairman of FIFA’s anti-discrimination task force. In September 2014, he called for public release of the Garcia Report, which investigated the bidding process for the right to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments. Those competition went to Russia and Qatar, respectively.

Eugenio Figueredo (Uruguay)

May 1, 2014 photo of Eugenio Figueredo, president of CONMEBOL, the South America soccer confederation, speaks during a news conference in Bal Harbour, Fla.. Figueredo is among seven soccer officials that were arrested and detained by Swiss police on Wednesday, May 27, 2015, at the request of U.S. authorities after a raid at Baur au Lac Hotel in Zurich.

Alan Diaz / Associated Press

Figueredo, 83, was president of Uruguay's soccer federation from 1997 to 2006, and was vice president of CONMEBOL, South American soccer’s governing body, from 1993 to 2013.

Jack Warner (Trinidad and Tobago)

Former FIFA vice president Austin Jack Warner, gestures as he leaves the office of the Sunshine Newspaper which he owns in Arouca, East Trinidad. Warner, who was also the former President of Concacaf, was named among current and former Fifa officials indicted by the United States Justice Department following a three-year investigation into in a corruption and bribery scandal.

Alva Viarruel / EPA

Warner, 72, was a FIFA vice president and president of CONCACAF until May 2011. FIFA’s ethics committee began proceedings against Warner in connection with three separate charges of corruption and/or bribery. He was suspended and then resigned on May 29, 2011. His resignation brought an end to the investigation. “The presumption of innocence is maintained,” FIFA said in announcing his departure. In 2013, CONCACAF’s integrity committee published a report charging that Warner committed fraud against the organization and FIFA and had misappropriated funds from FIFA.

Eduardo Li (Costa Rica)

May 17, 2011 of president of the Costa Rican football Confederation Eduardo Li. Eduardo Li was among several soccer officials arrested, arrested on May 27, 2015, suspected of receiving bribes worth millions of dollars.

Rodrigo Arangua / AFP/Getty Images

Li, 56, is the president of Costa Rica's soccer federation and was in charge of 2014’s Under-17 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica. He was scheduled to become a member of FIFA's executive committee this week.

Julio Rocha (Nicaragua)

Rocha, 64, is FIFA’s development officer, the former president of the Nicaraguan soccer federation and the former president of the Central American Football Union.