FIFA Congress Bomb Threat Confirmed by Police: Latest Details and Reaction

Swiss police have confirmed a bomb threat was received at the FIFA Congress ahead of Friday's presidential election.

Sepp Blatter is looking to retain his presidency for a fifth term against Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan.

The bomb threat comes after a difficult week for FIFA, in which nine officials and five corporate executives were indicted on corruption charges of "racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies," as reported by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Continue for updates.

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Zurich Police Confirm Bomb Threat at FIFA Congress

Friday, May 29

Amanda Davies of CNN reported the bomb scare with a quick tweet: "Zurich Police confirm bomb threat at #FIFACongress."

Philipp Schmidli/Getty Images

Richard Conway of the BBC reported a comment from FIFA: "A bomb threat was received... in consultation we decided to search the room. The premises have been cleared and we can start again."

On Wednesday, Swiss authorities executed a raid on the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich, following separate investigations into FIFA corruption by American and Swiss authorities. Part of these investigations focused on the bidding process leading to Russia and Qatar receiving the 2018 and the 2022 World Cups, respectively, per Matt Apuzzo, Stephanie Clifford and William K. Rashbaum of the New York Times.

As highlighted by David McKenzie of CNN, Blatter is not one of the officials currently under investigation:

Blatter declared the investigations a "turning point" in FIFA's history during Friday's congress, as reported by Paul Kelso of Sky News. FIFA is "fully cooperating" with both investigations, according to its official statement.

Raad Adayleh/Associated Press

Prior to reports of the bomb threat, Owen Gibson of the Guardian reported a group of Palestinian protesters "burst in shouting 'red card for FIFA' before being bustled away by security."

The congress continues, with the result of the election likely to follow soon.

Blatter or Prince Ali need to achieve a 105 majority vote from the 209 FIFA member associations in attendance to confirm victory.