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 money the country spent on their unsuccessful bid for the 2022 World Cup, following the corruption allegations. Xenophon said that "It appears corrupt and highly questionable behavior goes to the core of FIFA...Australia spent almost $46 million on a bid we were never in the running for because bribes were being taken for votes. Now we hear that bribes may have been made to fix the result for who will head up FIFA." The President of the German Football Association, Theo Zwanziger called for an investigation into the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid. Zwanziger said that "There is a