FIFA announced Friday that three former top officials arranged to pay themselves more than $80 million over the past five years, including promises of tens of millions of dollars in payments that were quietly approved last May only days after the indictments of a host of top FIFA executives on corruption charges.
In a statement, lawyers hired by FIFA to investigate the organization said that the three officials — the former president Sepp Blatter and his former deputies Jérôme Valcke and Markus Kattner — had mounted a “coordinated effort” to enrich themselves through a series of raises, bonuses and other payments.