The Raid

Paris in Milan. With its manicured private gardens along Lake Zurich, a lobby adorn not just with art, but with nineteenth century European tapestries, its rooms can run into the thousands of dollars a night. It is as much a hotel as it is a parade of wealth, power and privilege. Another important fact, the Borlock is the place FIFA executive stay when they're in down visiting the organization's headquarters. Just a short ten minutes or so dry from the hotel,

you'll find FIFA House, as the headquarters is called. It couldn't be more different than the ritzy Bora Lack Hotel. A modern steel and glass structure, FIFA House is a fortress. It was built two thirds underground, almost as if FIFA meant it to be impenetrable, almost as if FIFA had something to hide. The headquarters was built on the watch of longtime FIFA president sept Bladder, who like to say, and I quote, places where people make decisions should only

contain indirect light. So why have I taken you on this architectural tour of Zurich Because this is where that two thousand and ten meeting between Chuck Blazer and Age from the FBI and the I R S would lead us. I'm Connor Powell. This is episode two the Raid. On the morning of May two thousand and fifteen, just as the sun was coming up over Zurich, soccer's most powerful men were gathered in the Barlock Hotel for a meeting

later that day at FIFA House. Unbeknownst to them, to New York Times reporters had taken up seats in the hotel's lobby, tipped off that something big was about to go down. We told the gentleman behind the front desk that we were there for a breakfast meeting and wouldn't be all right if we waited, and he said sure, that's Sam Borden, a long time sports journalist now with ESPN.

Sam doesn't normally wear a suit, but he told me he decided that spring morning he should the boar Lock he thought was the type of place where men wait in the lobby should look the part boarding and investigative reporter Michael Schmidt, where they're on assignment for The New York Times. They knew something important was about to happen, something that would rock the cloistered world of international soccer.

Then it began, and about six six am, all of a sudden, a group of a dozen, maybe eighteen sixteen eighteen men walk into the lobby. It became very clear that something was going to happen. Wearing jeans, dark sweatshirts and sneakers, this pedestrian mix of Swiss police and American FBI agents couldn't have looked more out of place, and yet the hotel was now firmly in their control. They go to the front desk and they show a whole bunch of paperwork to the gentleman behind the front desk.

Presumably these are arrest warrants. And obviously at this point there's sort of a commotion in the lobby because there's like one, maybe two people working this early morning shift for the hotel, and now all of a sudden, there's several dozen police officials in the lobby. Schmidt sent a tweet to his thousands of followers. It read Swiss law enforcement getting room numbers for FIFA executives. They are heading

upstairs to arrest. Schmidt and Borden were recording the initial moments of the most significant corruption takedown in international sports history, and yet it was a surprisingly civilized affair. I'm sitting there and I'm just watching the elevator looking to see, Okay, when an elevator leaves the lobby, I'll be able to tell what floor it goes to by looking at the

numbers above the doors. And at some point the elevator starts moving and I see that it's going to I think it was either the third of the fourth floor. So I go up to the third of the fourth floor and I follow several police officials as they go down the hall. You know from existence, would follow them

and they knock on the door. I was sort of expecting it to be like something you would see from a movie, where these guys would be like in you know, uniforms and you know, riot gear and carrying like big guns and to sort of kick the door in, And it was not like that at all. I remember thinking in the moment that if you were sleeping in the room next door, I don't know that you would have been woken up. Sam Borden went on to describe the raid in a way I've never heard a police raid described.

It was very pleasant, as pleasant as law enforcements demeanor might have been. It was a rude awakening for the seven FIFA officials whose hotel doors received those polite knocks. These lords of soccer had entered the Barlock hotel expecting to enjoy the protections that come with great privilege. Now they were being marched out in the harsh morning light, indicted criminals, using whatever they could to shield themselves from the public's glare. We saw several of those FIFA officials

led from the hotel. I think it was the hotel staff trying to protect their appearance, if not their dignity, with white hotel sheets. Word of the dawn raids spread quickly around the world as newspapers, TV stations, and social media reported the arrest. Major corruption crackdown going down right now. Arrest made around the world this morning was like something out of a crime thriller. High ranking officials from FIFA, the sports governing body, arrested in an overnight rate in Switzerland,

the result of a sweeping FBI investigation. The US Justice Department accuses them of corruption and bribe taking, involving tens of millions of dollars. The raid was the culmination of a US federal case years in the making, an investigation that had largely stalled until the I R s Flip Chuck Blazer that fateful November day outside Trump Tower in Manhattan. The allegations hardly came as a surprise to long time FIFA critics, but the fact that it was breaking out

in the open was, in a word, shocking. FIFA had operated with impunity for decades, and yet as significant as these arrests were, the scope of the scandal was only just coming into focus. Now. You might ask yourself, why did it take so long to do something about FIFA and its corrupt leadership. Part of the answer is and how absolutely huge soccer is as a sport, and how important it is to the leaders of FIFA's member nations.

The same leaders who are vying to host big tournaments like the World Cup are the ones who would have to take enforcement action against FIFA. Let me try to offer some perspective. Yeah, it's the products ultimate gay. Soccer is a popular game if you live in the United States. It's hard to a's just how popular it is. Some fans describe it as a religion, or at least as important as religion, and they're not kidding. Here's a comparison. About a hundred and three million people watch the Super

Bowl in two thousand and eighteen. That same year, some three and a half billion people, if you can believe it, watch the World Cup tournament, with more than a billion alone tuning in for the final match between Croatia and France. It will be some concin on the shows and they say to nights from all the champions of the world. Well,

it's possible you weren't one of them. It's likely you know someone who did, especially if you know someone who lives in Europe, Asia, South America, or Africa, pretty much the entire rest of the world where soccer is king. Imagine then the power one has to oversee a sport of that magnitude as you already know. FIFA runs the World Cup, along with a host of other related tournaments, but the organization thinks of itself as something more, almost divine.

But FIFA, it's our responsibility to develop the game for future generations and to protect its integrity. That's part of FIFA's mission statement from a few years ago. You can find it on their website, and it's well, absolutely absurd. Football is the hart and soul of FIFA. It's debatable whether soccer the game or the lessons it imparts, or even a top priority. Money and the making of money and the finding ways the stuff that money into offshore

bank accounts. That seems to be far more important for soccer's ruling elite. And here's how the FIFA machine is structured. FIFA governs the sport internationally and organizes the Men's and Women's World Cup tournaments, which are held be four years. FIFA hosts several smaller tournaments as well. Collectively, they bring in more than four billion dollars in revenue, pretty good money for an organization that doesn't run any leagues, just

a few tournaments every couple of years. FIFA is for the most part, an association of countries There are currently two hundred and eleven members, which means FIFA is actually larger than the United Nations because while the country, like the United Kingdom, is part of the u N, Wales, England and Scotland are all separate members of FIFA and

each has one vote in our democratic system. FIFA is separated into six regional confederations, each with its own staggering history of corruption, but most of our story will focus on the Big three UEFA, the European Confederation CONKI, CAALF, the North American one and came Bowl, South America's umbrella organization. As the guardians of the global game, it is on duty to serve the world of football. At the top

of FIFA is the President and the Executive Committee. These are really the lords of soccer, several of whom in two thousand and fifteen were arrested at the Barlock Hotel. In theory, they set the vision and craft the strategy for FIFA and the global soccer community. In reality, for the most part, they treat the sport like their own personal fiefdoms and FIFA like their own private piggy bank. And on the long list of crooked soccer officials, Jack

Warner is a standout. He's the former president of Conka caffeine buddy to Chuck Blazer. He also sent that email to Blazer you heard about an episode one that caused Blazer's meltdown. For years, Warner was one of the sports most powerful executives and its most corrupt. Warner's story is almost unbelievable, and it serves as an illustration of what FIFA really was and how business really got done. The honor guards snapped to attention as the frail South African

anti apartheid leader exited the Gulf Stream jet. It was the spring of two thousand and four and Nelson Mandela was unwell. He struggled to walk down the plan's short staircase and then across the tarmac to where a small podium was waiting. Mandela, the Nobel Prize winning activists, managed only a few words, but the excited crowd of politicians and locals didn't seem to care as they yelled at his nickname, my Diba Madba. At eighty five years old,

Mandela was exhausted. He hadn't slept on the twenty four hour flight from South Africa to Trinidad and Tobago. He really didn't want to be there, but his country needed him once again. And for Jack Warner, feva's powerful vice president, that was leverage. Now. At this time, Mandela hadn't been traveling anywhere under doctor's orders, but will I insisted, so South Africa, for the sake of the World Cup bid, essentially had doctors to make the trip across the ocean.

That's journalist Losana Liebird, who's been reporting on Conker Calf for more than a decade. South Africa was on the cusp of winning the right to host the two thousand and ten World Cup, the first African nation to do so. Four years earlier, South Africa had been the bookmaker's favorites to win the two thousand and six World Cup bid. After losing out unexpectedly, the pressure was on their leaders to deliver Mandel's visit to Trinidad and Tobago was seen

as key to securing Jack Warner's all important support. He was just one of twenty four voters, but Warner was known as a kingmaker within FIFA. If Mandela could woo the kg FIFA executive, South Africa would be one very crucial step closer to hosting the two thousand and ten World Cup. It was far from a done deal. As a member of FIFA's executive committee, Warner had already been

to Morocco. In Egypt, Warner, along with Chuck Blazer and other FIFA executives, had been wined, dined, and nearly bribed. In Marrakesh, they were given fine China handmade rugs and offered one million dollars for their votes. While in Cairo, Warner asked for seven million dollars from the Egyptians. They

turned them down. Instead, the Egyptians organized the fifty car motor Kid to the Pyramids of Giza, where the four thousand year old Sphinx was fired with speakers and announced I have waited thousands of years a host of FIFA World Cup. The stunts didn't work, and here's why Warner was an ambitious politician. He saw an opportunity at home

that went beyond money. Bringing the legendary Mandela to Trinidad and Tobago with Bolster Warner politically in a way money couldn't, and also illustrated the extent of his power in FIFA's world. If Warner said jump, even South Africa's most famous Son was forced to say how high South Africa's gamble appeared to have worked. Once the votes were counted. The two thousand and ten FIFA Bold Cup will be organized people South Africa's moment. The country, indeed the continent, was at

the center of the world. A nation it text to everyone said it was Mandela magic that bagged them the tournament. To the outside world, it seemed as if Mandela's charm, personal determination and strength of character had one over Warner, who along with Blazer, helped secure South Africa's victory. But after investigators raided the Barallac Hotel in May of two thousand and fifteen, an entirely different, darker story emerged. It's the ten million dollar question. Was this historic moment the

result of a ten million dollar bribe? A defining moment in football? The twenty ten World Cup on African soil for the first time and attended by Nelson Mandela, the former president, synonymous with the end of apartheid in South Africa. Now its legacy is at risk. US prosecutors alleged South African football officials paid a ten million dollar bribe to secure the rights to host the tournament. Warner wasn't moved

by Mantella. Warner was bribed. It's emerged the money was first transferred to FIFA in Switzerland, then to Trinidadian and former FIFA Vice president Jack Warner. The FBI says they tried to disguise the bribe. South African officials insisted the payment made to FIFA was above board and was supposed to support the development of soccer among the African diaspora in the Caribbean. Here's the South African sports minister at

the time. The fact that a payment of ten million rand's u S dollars was made to an approved program above bot does not equate to bribery. But the money accepted by FIFA and then approved for payment by its General Secretary Jerham Valc wasn't paid to Conquer CALF or any other legitimate soccer organization in the Caribbean. Instead, it

was paid directly to Jack Warner. Here again, as journalist Losana Liberd Warna didn't make a habit of Levigini's position for the benefit of curry Ben Football or Tronadad and Tobago football as much as he tried to pay in that picture. As we've seen our particularly with the investigations within the US. He leveraged his positioned the suit himself financially. Here's the BBC confronting Jack Warner trying to get to

the bottom of the bribery scandal. He turns with a ten million dollars Warner, Where did the ten million dollars go to? Can you tell us warm projects? Mr? Warner? When confronted, Warner couldn't account for the money, but journalists later uncovered documents that showed FIFA's payments went straight into accounts controlled by Warner. In Trinidad and Tobago. Nearly five billion dollars came through here and there's not a football pitching side. Once it was paid to Warner, the money

just disappeared. This type of brazen bribery was common, and not only with Warner but throughout FIFA. Our problems here always went well beyond Jack Warner, and I would say that the corruption that we saw with Jackuana was really only a symptom. It was always stage handled in Zurich. It was set up for him the profit off of because that's all we are to FIFA really just votes. The votes like Bird refers to, are of course for

world cup bids. Jack Warner left FIFA in disgrace in two thousand and eleven, kicked out, as you heard in the previous episode, for trying to fix the presidential election in favor of Mohammed bin Hamm. But Warner's exit didn't change much. In fact, his successor at Conker Calf, Jeffrey Webb, tried as hard as he could to replicate Warner's predatory ways.

It's January two thousand and fourteen and the car cynical as Hanka Capps, new president, stride to the podium, he radiates stylish sophistication with perfectly tailored suits and a designer watch collection. Jeffrey Webb didn't just shine in the room, he commanded it. On this night, he was getting honored by the United Nations for his work to raise awareness about HIV AIDS, just one of the many initiatives he had launched when he took control of Conker Calf the

North American Soccer Confederation. I have the mindset that you know what the game can can embark society. That's Webb. But it was Webb's dual promise of confronting racism and soccer. We are not going to to rid racism from from our society, but we must read it from from our game and of cleaning up corruption, we must move the clouds and allow the sunshine in. It's a new Day for CONCO. That added gravitas and legitimacy to his debonair appearance.

Long before Webb became the head of Conkercalf and a FIFA Vice president, he was appointed to its Internal Audit Committee, where he had defended Set Bladder against rumors of corruption in two thousand and two. Webb builds a reputation as a reformer and was even talked about as a successor to Bladder by the time he took over Conka Caffe in two thousand and twelve. The Cayman Island native embodied the style and substance that so many FIFA officials before

him had only pretended to represent. Even with his two million dollar a year Conka caff salary, frequent use of private jets, and love of nightlife, Webb appeared to be exactly what soccer needed after Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer's scandalous tenure. But not everyone saw Webb as a savior of global soccer. Certainly not Jose Avila. Avila was one of soccer's most important dealmakers and the owner of the

sports marketing firm Traffic Group. Jose ah Vila got his start as a sports announcer covering Brazilian soccer in the nineties seventies. He built a small media empire with TV stations and newspapers, then went into sports marketing. Traffic Group came to dominate the lucrative contracts with FIFA's American and

Latin American football confederations. When the man known as the Boss of Brazilian football first met Jeffrey Webb in London in two thousand and twelve, all the sports marketing mogul saw was another crooked FIFA official, albeit a well dressed one. If a Vila wanted access to conker cops lucrative regional tournaments, Webb demanded he pay him a jaw dropping on every deal he made. Even by FIFA's greedy standards, it was a stunning request. A Vila had been paying bribes for

more than twenty years. He knew he'd have to pay one. He just hoped to talk Web down a little bit. A few months later after their initial London meeting, Abilla's firm wired one million dollars to web. The hands in the cookie jar might have changed, but they were as greedy as ever. After his meeting with the FBI and I R S agents outside of Trump Tower in two thousand and eleven, Chuck Blazer, Warner's right hand man turned FBI informant, was asked to do what pretty much every

government snitches asked to do. At some point where a wire, Blazer had already outlined FIFA shady inner workings for the FBI, mapping out years of corruption. He not only connected the dots, Blazer showed federal agents how soccer system of illegal payments were made and who made him now. The FBI wanted Blazer to record his conversations with dodgy soccer officials, but there was just one problem. Blazer was physically too big

to wear a wire. When he moved, the wire disconnected and his sweat threatened to short circuit the listing device. I swear I'm not making this up. The FBI instead came up with another plan and inserted a microphone inside a small key fob. The idea was he would place his keys on the table during a conversation. Blazer hated the idea. I mean, he really loathed it. He argued

and fought with his FBI handlers. He insisted it was beneath a man of his importance and taste to toss keys on a table, which, considering the types of places he frequented, expensive New York steakhouses and Michelin Star type restaurants,

it wasn't exactly wrong. And yet as Blazer sat down at a table and a five star restaurant in London and the closing days of the two thousand and t of Summer Olympics with Jose Avila, the same man Jeffrey Webb would later squeeze, they're the key fob sat waiting for the two crooks to talk. Avila had been at the center of soccer corruption ever since he founded his

sports marketing company, Traffic Group. The Brazilian Mogul started paying bribes in the late eighties and never stopped regularly doling out cash to win the rights to organize some of FIFA's premiere events, including Conka Caps Gold Cup Tournament and come Bols Copa America. Advertisers and broadcasters who wanted deals with the coveted Copa America and Copa du Brazil tournaments had to go through traffic because they had exclusive marketing rights.

That's from a CNN investigation. By the way, among the many FIFA officials, a Vila bribed or Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer. At first, the bribes were relatively small, a few hundred thousand dollars, but as the advertising revenue rule, so did the payoffs. Byteen avlan Co conspirators had agreed to pay one d million dollars in bribes for a

COPA Medica contract spread among eleven different FIFA officials. As Blazer and a Vela sat chatting that summer day in two thousand and twelve, Blazer pressed Avila to talk about a six hundred thousand dollar payment the Brazilian had made to Blazer back in two thousand and three. Blazer had requested the money years earlier as a loan. It was the type of loan both men knew would never get paid back. As they sat there in London talking, the

fob recorded every word. A Villa said he couldn't remember the payment. He stalled suspicious maybe, but he promised Blazer he would look into it. The Brazilian had avoided implicating himself for now, But Blazer had told the FBI all about how a Vela operated, and now the FEDS were tracking the moguls every move. So who is Jose a Vila? At sixty nine years old, a Vila had built a fortune buying and selling the rights to broadcast soccer games.

He had almost sold his stake in Traffic Group, but when the two thousand and eight financial crisis hit, his two hundred and eighty million dollar paid a just disappeared overnight. Now, five years later, he was once again ready to get out. Sports marketing was getting more competitive and the payoffs were getting larger and more difficult to facilitate. A Villa didn't want the hassle anymore. He had already made a ton of money, more than he knew what to do with.

Welcome to Miami and May of two thousand and thirteen, the Brazilian businessman arrived in Miami, hoping to add a four thousand square foot beach side home to his already impressive stable of properties. Then his hotel phone rang and the front desk asked him to come down to the lobby. Avila was surprised it was six in the morning. What came next terrified him. In the lobby was an FBI agent, Jared Randall, introduced himself and asked if Avila had ever

tried to bribe soccer officials. Then Agent Randall listed off several names, Nicholas Leo's, Ricardo to Shara, and Chuck Blazer. Stunned, Avila pleaded ignorance. After a short conversation, Randall thanked him and left. Avila had just lied to the FBI, and the FBI knew it. Chuck Blazer had provided federal investigators with documents and receipts of wire transfers detailing hundreds of thousands of dollars and bribes he had received from a

villa and traffic group. Now, this is another key moment in the two thousand and fifteen FIFA case that led to the raid at the Borlak. There was a whole group of people that paid bribes, There's a whole group of people that assisted and facilitated the movement of those bribes, and then there's a whole bunch of people that accepted

those bribes. That's former I R. S. Special Agent Amy Schabillion pointing out that bribery in the twenty century requires a lot of people to facilitate illegal payments, particularly bribes paid by wire transfer, which is how many of FIFA's illegal payments were made. Even though their originate, let's say, from Switzerland, and they end up in Uruguay, they still have to come through the US. The US financial system

is the foundation of global finance. Just about every payment made in the world touches an American bank, which means the US government has jurisdiction in just about every case of financial corruption. So if you ever wondered how the FBI and the I r S got involved in a global SoC or bribery scandal, well it's because the crooks at FIFA used the U S system to make their payments,

giving the Department of Justice jurisdiction. And once Jose ah Vila lied to FBI agent Jared Randall that early morning in Miami, the FBI had all it needed to arrest him. A few days later, the FBI did just that. Not surprisingly, the multi millionaire who spent his life frolicking among the rich and famous, chose the flip just like Chuck Blazer, rather than risk spending the rest of his life in a US prison. After his arrest, A Villa took up residence in an apartment in New York City as he

worked with investigators. FIFA's corruption the most well known secret and global sports would soon be printed in black and white and held up by America's Attorney General for the whole world to see. They were expected to uphold the rules that keeps soccer honest and to protect the integrity of the game. Instead, they corrupted the business of worldwide soccer to serve their interests and to enrich themselves. You'll hear that and more in the next episode of The

Lords of Soccer. The Lords of Soccer Al FIFA Stole the Beautiful Game is an Inside Voices Media production in conjunction with I Heart Radio. The series was written and executive produced by Gary Scott and me Connor Powell. Logan Heftell and Katie mcmurran provided the sound design with assistance from j. C. Swaddick and Jake blue Note. Alec Cowen is our associate producer and Jeffrey Katz was our story editor. Our fact checker is Alexa O'Brien and thanks to Miles Gray,

who produced the series for I Heart Radio. If you have any comments or questions, please reach out You can find us on Twitter. I'm at Connor M Powell and Gary is at Gary Robert Scott. And if you have any stories about FIFA, let us know. If you like what you hear, please give us a shout out at the hashtag Lords of Soccer