Swiss police arrest FIFA executives as part of US corruption investigation

New York

 Swiss police have arrested several senior FIFA executives in an early-morning raid launched at the request of the US government, which intends to charge the football officials with corruption.

Police launched the extraordinary operation at the five-star Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich to arrest the FIFA officials and extradite them to the US to face criminal charges.

Early on Wednesday morning, Swiss officers went room to room to find their targets, the New York Times website reported.

 Members of football's governing body were meeting at the hotel to elect a new president, a process that takes place every four years.

US media reported that up to 14 executives could be arrested as part of the FBI investigation, which has been running since 2011. The charges against them include fraud, racketeering and money laundering and relate to World Cup bids as well as marketing and broadcast deals.

Officials said Fifa's powerful and secretive executive committee was targeted by the US investigation.

"We’re struck by just how long this went on for and how it touched nearly every part of what FIFA did,” a law enforcement official told the New York Times. “It just seemed to permeate every element of the federation and was just their way of doing business. It seems like this corruption was institutionalised.”

FIFA has been plagued by accusations of bribery for decades.

The arrests are a blow for Sepp Blatter, the current president who was expected to stand for re-election on Friday.

Blatter is not among those being charged, officials told CNN. However, officials seen as close to him are among those who will face charges, they said.

The raids come amid rising anger that the Zurich-based soccer body hasn’t done enough to curb a culture of wrongdoing amid a constant stream of corruption allegations that reached their peak with the awarding of the next two World Cups to Russia and Qatar.