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
Battle of Nuremberg (2006 FIFA World Cup) Deco, and Van Bronckhorst were sitting together on the sidelines after being sent off, the latter two having a discussion, both being teammates at FC Barcelona. Commentator Gary Bloom referred to the scene as the "Bad boys' corner". In the aftermath of the match, referee Ivanov was criticised by FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who suggested that Ivanov should have given himself a yellow card for his poor performance during the match. Blatter later regretted these words and promised to apologise officially. When Portugal faced England in the subsequent quarter-final, they were without the suspended Deco and Costinha. Portugal managed to