ZURICH/MIAMI, (Reuters) – Swiss authorities extradited to the United States the first of seven current and former FIFA officials arrested in a corruption investigation while world soccer’s governing body hired a New York-based crisis communications firm to help handle multinational probes and try to restore its tarnished image.
Swiss authorities did not name the extradited official, but the news came six days after a source told Reuters that Jeffrey Webb – one of seven current and former FIFA executives arrested in Switzerland in May – had agreed not to fight his extradition.
Webb and the others have been swept up in a U.S.-led probe into allegations of bribery, fraud and money laundering, including possible corruption in the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments to Russia and Qatar, respectively.
The allegations have roiled the world’s most popular sport, prompting FIFA President Sepp Blatter to say he plans to step down and raising uncomfortable questions for the body’s corporate sponsors.
The hiring of Teneo, a crisis communications and advisory firm “to work across operational and reputational priorities” as a FIFA spokeswoman explained it, represents the organization’s latest attempt to contain the fallout from the scandal.
Teneo’s executives include a number of people who have worked on World Cup bids, among them its president, Doug Band, who was a director of a U.S. campaign to host the tournament in 2022. The U.S. bid lost out to Qatar in a vote of FIFA executive committee members that is now one subject of the U.S. and Swiss investigations.
