By Andrew Martin, Tariq Panja And Vernon Silver | Bloomberg From Tico Times

A picture taken on March 24, 2015 in Vienna shows Jeffrey Webb, president of CONCACAF and the Cayman Islands Football Association giving a press conference. Webb was among several football officials arrested on May 27, 2015, suspected of receiving bribes worth millions of dollars. Joe Klamar/AFP
Jeffrey Webb gave a glowing self-assessment in April at the annual meeting of Central and North American football chiefs. Under his leadership, Webb said, the regional group had become a “case study” in rooting out corruption.

“We have created a culture of transparency and accountability within our confederation,” he told the delegates gathered at Atlantis Paradise Island, a Bahamian resort with 11 swimming pools and stunning ocean views.

Last week, as part of a 47-count indictment, U.S. prosecutors offered a much different portrait of Webb and his organization, known as Concacaf. According to the indictment, Concacaf’s leadership was corrupt before Webb took office, and the bribe-taking flourished during his tenure despite his frequent pronouncements of reform.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter gestures after being re-elected following a vote to decide on the FIFA presidency in Zurich, on May 29, 2015. Michael Buholzer/AFP
‘Ideal successor’

A burly 50-year-old from the Cayman Islands, Webb took over the scandal-plagued organization in 2012. It’s one of six regional football federations that operate under the umbrella of FIFA, the global football body. The former Cayman Islands banker and member of FIFA’s internal audit committee had become a favorite of Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, FIFA’s president. Blatter suggested Webb would be his ideal successor.

That was before last week’s indictment, which alleges the same person orchestrated bribes for both Webb and his Concacaf predecessor, Jack Warner. The person is identified as a high-ranking executive at the sports marketing firm Traffic Sports USA and is described as co-conspirator #4. Webb is accused of seeking a bribe from Traffic, negotiated by co-conspirator #4, just prior to becoming Concacaf president.

After he was elected, Webb hired co-conspirator #4 as his general secretary, the No. 2 post. Those and other details in the indictment match Concacaf’s current general secretary, Enrique Sanz, who worked at Traffic before being hired by Webb as general secretary in 2012.

The indictment alleges that Webb and co-conspirator #4 disguised one bribe by funneling the money through an overseas company that makes football uniforms and balls.

In a statement released Friday, Traffic Sports said it would “continue to cooperate fully with authorities” in connection with the allegations against FIFA and company officials. “At this moment, it is otherwise unable to comment on the matter.”

Jack Warner, former chairman of FIFA’s organizing committee, participates in a press conference in Cairo on Sept. 23, 2009. Cris Bouroncle/AFP
One of those officials, Traffic Sports USA President Aaron Davidson, pleaded not guilty on Friday. Davidson is accused of participating in three schemes to bribe football officials for media and sponsorship rights.

Sanz, the former Traffic executive now at Concacaf, wasn’t charged or mentioned by name in the indictment; following the allegations, the confederation put him on a leave of absence. He could not be located for comment, though he previously has defended Traffic’s deals with Concacaf as legitimate.

In an April interview, Sanz said he was shocked when Webb offered him the job of Concacaf general secretary.

“When he got elected, he called me one day and said, ‘Let’s chat,’ ” Sanz recalled. “He offered to me if I was interested, and I said, ‘Yeah, I’m interested.’ ”

Webb was arrested in Zurich, where he was attending FIFA meetings leading up to its presidential election, and could not be located for comment.

The night before the bust, he seemed oblivious to what was about to happen to him. After a dinner hosted by his confederation, Webb arrived at his hotel across town. He and his wife strode into Zurich’s Baur au Lac hotel and across its marble-floored lobby toward the grand staircase.

Following his arrest, some of his colleagues stuck by Webb. “We all have dark sides to us,” said Cheney Joseph, president of Grenada’s football association. Joseph once competed against Webb, then 23 and playing for the Cayman team, and the two became friends. “But I genuinely believe that Jeff Webb — I don’t believe his intention was to profit from football as an individual.”

Joseph suggested that Webb and others in the Caribbean have been targeted by rivals within Concacaf. “Wherever Jeff is now sitting, he’s contemplating, ‘Why was I so nice and naive?’ Jeff Webb is not doing anything different to what others, yet to be named, have done.”

Blatter didn’t voice support for Webb after his arrest — silence that cost him the votes of some Caribbean football leaders. Had Blatter’s only challenger not conceded, it would’ve helped force him into a second round of balloting Friday before his re-election as FIFA president.

Warner, who was among those indicted, said in a statement that he had not been questioned and “have been afforded no due process.” He added: “I reiterate that I am innocent of any charges.”

After he was released from jail, Warner threatened to reveal information about Blatter and others.

“If I have been in FIFA for 30 years and I have been thiefing all the money, who give me the money?” Warner asked his supporters gathered in Trinidad. After one blurted out, “Blatter!” Warner asked, “And why it is he ain’t charged?”

To read the whole article go to: http://www.ticotimes.net/2015/06/01/fifa-arrests-transform-blatter-heir-into-face-of-football-scandal