FIFA Officials Arrested On Charges Of Bribery And Corruption

05:38

May 27, 2015

A FIFA logo sits next to the entrance to the FIFA headquarters on May 27, 2015 in Zurich, Switzerland. Swiss police on Wednesday raided a Zurich hotel to detain top FIFA football officials as part of a US investigation into corruption. (Philipp Schmidli/Getty Images)

Seven top FIFA officials were arrested this morning at a luxury hotel in Zurich, Switzerland, where soccer's international governing body was gathering for its annual meeting.

The arrests, on charges of accepting bribes and kickbacks dating back many years, were made at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Also today, Swiss federal prosecutors announced that they have opened an investigation into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, which went to Russia and Qatar respectively.

Here & Now's Robin Young gets the latest on the charges, and how they're rippling through the soccer world, from WBUR reporter Curt Nickish, who is in Switzerland.

Reporter

Curt Nickisch, business and technology reporter for WBUR. He tweets @CurtNickisch.

This segment aired on May 27, 2015.