Swiss police have arrested six senior officials of Fifa, the body that oversees and regulates football around the globe. The timing of the arrests could not have been more pertinent — on the eve of the annual congressional gathering of the Federation of International Football Associations where president Sepp Blatter is likely to be re-elected with ease to a fifth four-year term.

The arrests come on foot of warrants issued in New York on bribery allegations totalling more that Dh365 million, linked to commercial deals dating back to the 1990s for football tournaments in the US and Latin America, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice said in a statement.

It was unclear if the probe was linked to the 1994 World Cup hosted by the US. The regional body for the Americas, known as Concacaf, reported itself to US tax authorities in 2012.

Then based in New York, the organisation had not paid taxes for several years when its president was Jack Warner of Trinidad and Tobago and secretary-general was Chuck Blazer of the US.

These arrests are the latest black eye for an organisation that is perceived as being corrupt and nigh untouchable. Its self-governance is laughable and its credibility is at zero when it comes to investigating allegations over the manner in which bids for the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 tournament in Qatar were handled. Let us hope these arrests lead to a full-scale house-cleaning at Fifa — starting with Blatter himself.