Call for reforms in Fifa gains momentum

New York

KNOWN as the beautiful game for the on-field spectacle, soccer has operated for decades under an ugly cloud of allegations related to match-fixing and bribery in connection with the hosting of the World Cup.

At the centre of soccer's immense global influence sits Federation Internationale de Football Association, better known as Fifa, a Swiss-based organisation that serves as the umbrella governing body for the sport.

Wednesday's revelations - a 47-count indictment brought by the US Justice Department, arrests of executives gathered in Zurich for annual meetings and a raid of affiliated offices in Miami - shook Fifa like no investigation before it.

The charges were by far the most powerful strike against Fifa - and perhaps a watershed moment for the governing body of the world's most popular sport - and intensified calls for reform to an organisation that has long drawn fans' ire over corrupt leaders and a structure …