Breaking: Six top FIFA officials arrested on money laundering and racketeering charges

[Paul Rigby]

FIFA-GATE: Is It a Zero-Sum Game?

Red Line 18:33 29.05.2015 (updated 18:36 29.05.2015)

Sergey Strokan, Andrew Korybko

http://sputniknews.com/radio_red_line/20...99986.html

A major corruption scandal, involving high-ranking officials of The International Federation of Association Football, is growing into a politically charged issue to attack Russia and may distract attention from the NSA surveillance scandal in Germany.

This is what we are discussing in Red Line's section "BETWEEN THE LINE", analyzing most though-provoking publications of the week.

"Swiss authorities announced on Wednesday that it has launched a criminal investigation into the bidding contest for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups set to be held in Russia and Qatar", says an article entitled "Putin backs FIFA's Blatter amid corruption scandal" and published on Al Jazeera. "Almost simultaneously, the US Department of Justice indicted nine FIFA officials and five associated officials on corruption charges, with Swiss authorities arresting seven of the officials in Zurich where FIFA is due to hold its congress."

The article quoted Russia's President Vladimir Putin, who said that: "This is clearly an attempt to block the reelection of Blatter as president of FIFA and is an extremely serious breach of the principles of how international organizations work". The Russian President was also on record pointing out that: "This is yet another blatant attempt [by the US] to extend its jurisdiction to other states".

Yevgeny Satanovsky, President of the Institute of Middle East Studies (studio guest), Fred Weir, Moscow correspondent, Christian Science Monitor, Alexander Domrin, Professor of Law, High School of Economics and Marco Rumignani, member of Campaign for an Independent and Neutral Switzerland commented on the issue.