It’s not just the World Cup: FIFA’s other corruption scandal adds up to $100 million

LIMA, Peru — FIFA’s corruption scandal is not just about the World Cup.

In fact, the Copa America, the Western Hemisphere’s premier soccer tournament, is no less infected by alleged graft.

One hundred million dollars' worth, to be precise.

That’s according to the 164-page US Justice Department indictment that led to the arrest of seven top soccer officials in Switzerland on Wednesday. 

It lists in painstaking detail a series of bribes and kickbacks relating to the broadcasting and other commercial rights associated with the Copa America starting in the early 1990s.

But the highlight is a total of $100 million allegedly paid under the table to Latin American soccer bigwigs in 2013 for TV rights to forthcoming Copa America editions.

They include Chile 2015, Brazil 2019, Ecuador 2023, and a special one-off centenary version of the World Cup-style event to be played in the United States in 2016.

The tournament, which launched in 1916, is the longest continuously running international soccer competition in the world. It pits together South America’s top 10 national sides plus two teams invited from other parts of the world, including the US three times in the last 20 years.

The cash was allegedly paid by Datisa, a joint venture between Traffic, a Sao Paulo sports rights company, and Full Play, an opaque marketing company.

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Almost all 14 soccer big shots indicted by the Justice Department are from Latin America and the Caribbean, including former heads of CONMEBOL, South America’s soccer federation, and of the CBF, Brazil’s powerful national association.

Based in Paraguay, CONMEBOL and its executives have been keeping a low profile since Wednesday’s bombshell arrests. But in a statement, the organization stressed it supported “truth, ethics and transparency” in soccer, and said it backed the Swiss and US investigations into FIFA and itself. 

That soccer administration in Latin America is rotten is hardly a new charge here. Across the region, hated executives have grown rich — often inexplicably so — while grassroots soccer has been neglected and ramshackle stadiums have been overtaken by violence. 

But the idea that someone might actually do something about it has shocked many — and rekindled hope.

Romario, a Brazilian soccer goal machine turned senator, summed up the mood of many by calling for a “real inquest” into the CBF.

He may, just may, be getting his wish. Both Brazil and Argentina, South America’s soccer superpowers, launched their own probes following the Zurich swoop.

In Brazil, officials raided Rio-based company Klefer Marketing Esportivo. And in Argentina, the tax agency launched an investigation into three local executives indicted by the US, for dodging taxes on lucrative transfers of star players to European clubs.

More from GlobalPost: Here's what FIFA's corporate partners are saying about the indictments