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FIFA Fraud Allegations Reach Miami – And Bruise Latin America's Image

FBI agents haul boxes of potential FIFA scandal evidence out of the CONCACAF offices in Miami Beach Wednesday morning.
Credit C.M. Guerrero / El Nuevo Herald
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El Nuevo Herald
FBI agents haul boxes of potential FIFA scandal evidence out of the CONCACAF offices in Miami Beach Wednesday morning.

The soccer world is in shock today because of a massive corruption scandal involving the sport’s international governing body. The case reaches into Miami – and the accusations deal a big blow to soccer’s image in this hemisphere.

Early Wednesday, FBI agents raided the Miami Beach offices ofCONCACAF. That organization oversees international soccer in North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The bust was part of a larger investigation into FIFA, the Switzerland-based organization that governs soccer worldwide. The U.S. has indicted nine FIFA officials and five corporate executives for an alleged $150 million bribery scheme -- which may have steered the 2022 World Cup to Qatar -- as well as racketeering and money laundering.

Almost all of the accused are from Latin America and the Caribbean -- includingCONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands and FIFA executive RafaelEsquivelof Venezuela. Other Latin American countries involved are Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago, Nicaragua, Uruguay and Paraguay. A former U.S. FIFA and CONCACAF official has already pleaded guilty.

Also indicted was Miami sports marketing boss Aaron Davidson. Until last year his firm, Traffic Sports USA, owned the Fort Lauderdale Strikers pro soccer team.

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Tim Padgett is the Americas editor for Miami NPR affiliate WLRN, covering Latin America, the Caribbean and their key relationship with South Florida. He has reported on Latin America for almost 30 years - for Newsweek as its Mexico City bureau chief from 1990 to 1996, and for Time as its Latin America bureau chief in Mexico and Miami (where he also covered Florida and the U.S. Southeast) from 1996 to 2013.