Red Cards, Red Handed: FIFA Corruption and the Long Arm of U.S. Law Enforcement

As the 2018 World Cup kicks off, global attention is focused on the soccer fields of Russia. However, lurking behind the goalposts is a global FIFA corruption scandal that continues to reverberate, from Zurich to Asunción. On May 27, 2015, the soccer world awoke to news of a pre-dawn police raid at FIFA headquarters in Switzerland that captured seven top officials. That day, the U.S. Department of Justice rolled out a 47-count indictment against nine high-level FIFA executives and five businessmen for alleged involvement in “a 24-year scheme to enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer.” In all, nine soccer kingmakers were accused of accepting over $150 million in bribes. A second indictment, in December 2015, implicated more corrupt actors, including the heads of the North and South American soccer confederations.

How has the FIFA case changed soccer governance globally and in the Americas, where the scandal implicated the former heads of Brazil’s soccer confederation and South America’s soccer governing body, among others? What does the FIFA investigation tell us about the DOJ’s anticorruption cooperation with foreign prosecutors, and why did it get interested in FIFA in the first place? How has soccer-obsessed Latin America reacted to the corruption revelations, and the DOJ’s central role in policing a sport that has a relatively low profile inside the United States?

To answer these questions (and to deliver their World Cup predictions), the Inter-American Dialogue, the Woodrow Wilson Center Argentina Project, the Wilson Center Latin America Program, and The Bubble are pleased to present, “Red Cards, Red Handed: FIFA Corruption and the Long Arm of U.S. Law Enforcement.” Please join us on Thursday, June 21 at 11:30 a.m. at the Woodrow Wilson Center for this conversation.

Beginning at 10:00 am, there will be a breakfast reception sponsored by The Bubble, a digital media company covering Argentina and Latin America, which is celebrating the launch of its redesigned website.

Opening Remarks

Benjamin N. Gedan

Public Policy Fellow, Latin America Program, Woodrow Wilson Center (@Benjamingedan)

Commentators

Marshall Miller

Former Chief Prosecutor, Criminal Division, Eastern District of New York

Counsel, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz

Carrie H. Cohen

Former Assistant United States Attorney, Southern District of New York

Partner, Morrison & Foerster LLP

Peter Schechter

Former Director, Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, Atlantic Council

Host, Foreign Policy Podcast, Altamar (@PDSchechter)

Moderator

Michael Camilleri

Director, Peter D. Bell Rule of Law Program, Inter-American Dialogue (@Camillerimj)

 

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