Watch Jeffrey Webb praise Fifa's 'democratic process' hours before being arrested on corruption charges
The Fifa vice president is one of seven executives facing extradition to the US
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Your support makes all the difference.Just hours before he was marched out of his hotel room in Zurich facing extradition to the US, Fifa vice president Jeffrey Webb told reporters he was looking forward to the organisation's upcoming election on Friday, praising "the democratic way".
Webb, who became vice president in 2012 and is also the president of Concacaf (Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football), is one of seven high-ranking Fifa officials arrested in Switzerland on corruption charges.
Hours earlier, Webb told reporters that Friday's election for a new Fifa president, with the incumbent Sepp Blatter expected to be re-elected once more, was "great for Fifa, it's good for Fifa.
"I think it's a democratic way and I think it gives an opportunity for member associations to exercise their right, so I think it's good."
Asked whether Fifa presidential candidate Prince Ali bin al-Hussein could defeat Blatter, Webb said, "I think he has a chance, of course he has a chance."
Webb was arrested in an early morning raid by Swiss police at the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich, escorting Webb and the other six executives out peacefully.
In a statement, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) said the US charges related to alleged widespread corruption in Fifa over three decades worth more than $100 million.
The New York Times reported the charges as including wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering, and named the 14 indicted Fifa officials.
“We’re struck by just how long this went on for and how it touched nearly every part of what Fifa did,” one Swiss law enforcement official told the Times. “It just seemed to permeate every element of the federation and was just their way of doing business. It seems like this corruption was institutionalized.”
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