Fifa arrests: who are Jeffrey Webb and Eugenio Figueredo?

Jeffrey Webb

The “anointed one”. The head of Concacaf – football’s governing body in north and central America and the Caribbean – was backed by the long-serving Fifa president Sepp Blatter as his successor in 2013.

Webb has been in football since 1991, although the 50-year-old Cayman Islander’s background is in law.

He was appointed a vice president of Fifa and ascended to its executive committee, before being given a prominent role as the head of the governing body’ anti-discrimination task force in March 2013. Webb has spoken out about racism in football; going so far as to warn in March this year that no World Cup finals could be played in Russia because of a problem with racism in the country.

Read latest: Fifa officials held in Switzerland on corruption charges

Webb is not the first Concacaf president to be accused of corruption. Jack Warner resigned in 2011 amid a series of allegations that he had, among other things, asked for money destined for a national football association to be paid into his own bank account. After he stood down, Fifa said that all investigations into his affairs were shut down and he was presumed innocent.

Webb himself started an integrity report and audit into Warner, which found that Warner and Chuck Blazer – the former Fifa executive and FBI informant, whose help has reportedly led to Wednesday’s arrests – were “fraudulent in their management”.

Eugenio Figueredo

The former player. A confederation president – this time in south America – and another man who got his job after a previous incumbent – this time Nicolas Leoz – was accused of corruption. Figueredo, unlike Webb, has a background in the game: he played as a right back for Hurricane Diving Club.

He took over as head of Conmebol in 2013, where he had served for decades as vice president, after Leoz resigned citing health reasons a week before a Fifa ethics committee revealed that he had taken kickbacks. Leoz denied wrongdoing. Figueredo was replaced by Juan Angel Napout after standing down himself the following year. He had served as the Conmebol’s vice president since 1993 and is now its representative to Fifa.

According to the Uruguayan newspaper El Pais, Figueredo’s time as the head of the country’s football association was tainted by claims that he ran it for his cronies. He publicly supported his compatriot Luis Suarez, saying his ban from football – imposed after he bit a rival player at the 2014 World Cup finals – should be reduced.

The confederation the 83-year-old represents is one of the most powerful in the world because of the sheer popularity of football in South America and has produced nine of the 20 World Cup winners.