Fifa Congress Opens as Sponsor Concerns Grow Over Arrests

Football's governing body Fifa is due to open its annual congress despite warnings from sponsors that they may review ties over the arrest of senior officials on corruption charges. Visa says it will reassess its sponsorship unless Fifa makes changes. Coca-Cola and Adidas voiced concern. The European football body Uefa will decide whether to boycott Friday's vote for the next Fifa president. Seven top Fifa officials were arrested on corruption charges on Wednesday. Fifa provisionally banned from football-related activity 11 of the 14 people charged by the US authorities on Wednesday. They are accused of racketeering, fraud and money laundering. But it said the election on Friday - in which Fifa president Sepp Blatter is seeking a fifth term - would go ahead.

'Disastrous image'

Commenting a day after the arrests, UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told the BBC there was "something deeply wrong at the heart of Fifa and international football needs to reform, needs to get its act together".

French Foreign Secretary Laurent Fabius said the arrests were "giving a disastrous image" to Fifa. It "would make sense" to delay Friday's vote, he told French Inter radio, to "see what is true and not and then the authorities can adjudicate".

Mr Blatter, who has not been named in the investigations, issued a statement on the US case, saying: "Such misconduct has no place in football and we will ensure that those who engage in it are put out of the game."

He is due to make his first appearance since the arrests at Fifa's annual congress in the Swiss city of Zurich on Thursday. However, he has already cancelled an appearance at a medical conference which his spokesman said was "for obvious reasons".

Swiss prosecutors have also opened a separate investigation into the bidding process for the World Cup tournaments in 2018 in Russia and 2022 in Qatar.
'Highest standards'

Fifa's key sponsors have faced increasing calls to put pressure on Fifa as corruption allegations have mounted.
Credit card giant Visa said: "We expect Fifa to take swift and immediate steps to address these issues. Should FIFA fail to do so, we have informed them that we will reassess our sponsorship"
Coca-Cola said: "This lengthy controversy has tarnished the mission and ideals of the Fifa World Cup"
Adidas said it was "fully committed to creating a culture that promotes the highest standards of ethics and compliance, and we expect the same from our partners"
McDonald's, a second-tier sponsor, said the latest developments were "extremely concerning" and it was closely monitoring the situation
Hyundai Motor told the BBC it was "extremely concerned about the legal proceedings being taken against certain FIFA executives and will continue to monitor the situation closely"

Fifa's main sponsors are afforded exposure in stadiums and have the right to use Fifa trademarks in advertising.

Uefa reacted to the latest events by saying they were "a disaster for Fifa and tarnish the image of football as a whole".

It said corruption was deeply rooted in Fifa's culture.

The European body said Friday's congress risked becoming a "farce" and that the vote should be postponed. (BBC)