FIFA leadership with corruption, bribery, and vote-rigging related to the election of FIFA president Sepp Blatter and the organization's decision to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, respectively. These allegations led to the indictments of nine high-ranking FIFA officials and five corporate executives by the U.S. Department of Justice on charges including racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering. On 27 May 2015, several of these officials were arrested by Swiss authorities, who were launching a simultaneous but separate criminal investigation into how the organization awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Those among these officials who
61st FIFA Congress Julio Grondona, retorted "We always have attacks from England which are mostly lies with the support of journalism which is more busy lying than telling the truth...It looks like England is always complaining...I say will you leave the FIFA family alone, and when you speak, speak with truth." The President of the Mali Football Federation, Hammadoun Kolado Cisse, announced his desire for FIFA's General Assembly rather than the FIFA Executive Committee to make the final decision on which countries host the World Cup. Cisse said that "If every country can vote on who hosts the event, that will cut down