It was a swift and carefully orchestrated operation. Before dawn, top officials of the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) were filing out of a luxury Swiss hotel with plainclothes security officers ordering them around.

The men were then shepherded into waiting cars and whisked away.

FIFA oversees football, the world’s number one sport and the body has for years been mired in corruption and has battled corruption allegations.

The New York Times reports that as leaders of FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, gathered for their annual meeting, more than a dozen plain-clothed Swiss law enforcement officials arrived unannounced at the Baur au Lac hotel, an elegant five-star property with views of the Alps and Lake Zurich. They went to the front desk to get keys and proceeded upstairs to the rooms.

The arrests were carried out peacefully. One FIFA official, Eduardo Li of Costa Rica, was led by the authorities from his room to a side-door exit of the hotel. He was allowed to bring his luggage, which was adorned with FIFA logos.

Backed by an F.B.I. investigation,  the fingered FIFA officials are being accused of widespread corruption in FIFA over the past two decades, involving bids for World Cups as well as marketing and broadcast deals.

The investigations had been going on for three years, several sources say.

The indictment names 14 people on charges including racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. In addition to senior soccer officials, the indictment is also expected to name sports-marketing executives from the United States and South America who are accused of paying more than $150 million in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for media deals associated with major soccer tournaments, according to one government official briefed on the matter.

FIFA is as much a financial empire as it is a sports behemoth with more than $1.5m sitting in its cash reserves. However, the body has long been accused of poor financial management and a culture of kick-backs. Its executive committee operates with outsize power. FIFA has for years functioned with little oversight and even less transparency, writes the New York Times. Alexandra Wrage, a governance consultant who once unsuccessfully attempted to help overhaul FIFA’s methods, famously labeled the organization “byzantine and impenetrable.”

The arrested officials are expected to be extradited to the US for trial in line with the criminal law treaty in place between the Swiss and the United States.

FIFA President, Sepp Blatter was not one of those arrested but there are reports the arrests will lead to a postponement of the FIFA elections billed for Friday which was all but guaranteed to hand Mr. Blatter a 5th term in office.