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
England 2006 FIFA World Cup bid decided to make their own bid, losing the support of UEFA president Lennart Johansson in the process. As a result, England put its support behind Sepp Blatter in 1998, rather than rival Johansson, for the FIFA presidency. Blatter had, however, already publicly supported South Africa's bid. The FA went on to make a series of misinformed decisions to the detriment of the bid. This including FA chief executive Graham Kelly and chairman Keith Wiseman unsuccessfully attempting to remove the Scottish Football Association's David Will from the FIFA executive and replace him with Wiseman, culminating in both Kelly and Wiseman being