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
United States 2022 FIFA World Cup bid Clinton remarked "The FIFA people were in a mood to give it to people who didn’t have it. I think they wanted to make soccer a world sport." David Downs, president of Univision Sports, was executive director of the bid. The United States previously hosted the FIFA World Cup in 1994, as well as the FIFA Women's World Cup in 1999 and 2003. The American bid was being organized by USA Bid Committee, Inc. The executive director of the bid was David Downs, CEO of Univision sports. Other members include U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati, Major League Soccer Commissioner Don