FIFA insists the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will still go ahead in Russia and Qatar despite a dramatic early morning swoop by Swiss authorities to arrest several top soccer officials and extradite them to the US on federal corruption charges. A seventh top football official was later arrested.

In a massive blow to the already tarnished reputation of FIFA and its under-fire general secretary Sepp Blatter the Swiss attorney-general's office confirmed it had opened criminal proceedings relating to mismanagement and money laundering in connection with the 2018 and 2022 bids.

Australia was one of the unsuccessful bidders for the 2022 tournament, won by Qatar in a surprise vote.

One of those expected to face charges, Trinidad and Tobago's Jack Warner, was a man whom Football Federation Australia sought to impress during its ultimately fruitless bid for the 2022 World Cup.

Warner allegedly stole a $462,000 donation the Football Federation of Australia made to his Caribbean football organisation in 2010.

FFA chairman Frank Lowy later said the payment was an embarrassing mistake.

On advice FFA received, the money was paid directly to Warner's bank account. It is widely believed Warner, despite pocketing the money personally, voted for Qatar anyway.

On Wednesday night the FFA  had nothing to say on the arrests or the developments in Zurich.

Australian officials are in Zurich to cast their vote, alongside FIFA's other 208 national member associations, for the the group's presidential election, held every four years. Blatter, despite widespread criticism from mainly western countries, was regarded as a certainty to be appointed for a fifth term.

His critics will now hope that even he cannot continue to stand as if nothing has happened, especially if some of those taken into custody incriminate him in any evidence or plea bargaining that may take place following their arrests.

FIFA's director of communications and public affairs Walter De Gregorio said at a media press conference in Zurich that Blatter would cooperate with the investigation.

"I cannot confirm the names, I cannot confirm how many people have been arrested how many people investigated and so on … the World Cups of 2018 and 2022 will be played in Russia and Qatar," De Gregorio said.

"He [Blatter] is not dancing in his office. He is very calm, he sees what happens, he is fully co-operative with everybody and that's what I meant." 

FIFA initiated an inquiry last year into its operations surrounding the World Cup bids.

Mr De Gregori said the two investigations by US and Swiss authorities were co-ordinated because neither could start first without spoiling the other.

He said he believed the raid took place two days before the FIFA world congress because "everybody is here" - but also because it would have "good international coverage".

Asked to clarify if he was claiming the raids were staged as a media spectacle, De Gregori said he was "not saying they did it on purpose because you guys [the media] were here" but because it was more efficient to have all the FIFA officials in one place. However he claimed getting the "right coverage" was a secondary goal.

He denied reports that Mr Blatter's travel plans had changed as a result of the raid, saying the US had an arrest and extradition agreement with Swiss authorities so there would be no need to wait for someone to travel to the US.

However, he said the president was "not involved" in the arrests, remained head of FIFA, and if he is re-elected in two days' time "he is president for the next four years".

De Gregori added: "This for FIFA is good. Not in terms of image or reputation but in terms of cleaning up, everything we did in the last four years. We wouldn't have any interest to give files on the 18th November to the US attorney if we wouldn't have known the consequences ... It's also a good day because the process goes on and we're looking forward to the results."

The FFA said it was not in a position to comment on the events that had unfolded in Switzerland.

"FFA has representatives in Zurich for the FIFA Congress and in due course they will seek advice from FIFA on the situation," a spokesperson said.

The Swiss 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 US 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.

The official said the soccer officials charged are Jeffrey Webb, Eugenio Figueredo, Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Rafael Esquivel, Jose Maria Marin, Nicolas Leoz and Warner.

Charges were also expected against sports-marketing executives Alejandro Burzaco, Aaron Davidson, Hugo Jinkis and Mariano Jinkis. Authorities also charged Jose Margulies as an intermediary who facilitated illegal payments.

The arrests are a vindication of the long campaign waged by those who are seeking change at the highest levels of FIFA, including Australian whistleblower Bonita Mersiades.

Mersiades, formerly the FFA's head of Corporate Affairs, was unhappy with aspects of the way the Australian bid for the 2022 tournament was being conducted, particularly the way in which three European consultants hired by the FFA to deliver votes _ Peter Hargitay, Fedor Radmann and Andreas Abold _ were operating. She was fired in January 2010, some 11 months before the hosting decision was taken on where the World Cups for 2018 and 2022 would be staged.

Mersiades  has since been a high profile critic of FIFA and has been part of a campaigning group, NewFIFANow, which has been pressing for a complete reorganisation of the game's governing body.

"It's very encouraging that the US government has taken this action. What happens next is the important thing. Our central plank is that there should be an independent reform commission completely overhauling the organisation," she said on Wednesday.

"What's important now is that the 209 members of the FIFA Congress show they care more for the game than their role in it," says Ms Mersiades, a Sydney based Communications Consultant."

Officials involved with the arrests were amazed at the depths of the corruption.

"We're struck by just how long this went on for and how it touched nearly every part of what FIFA did," a law enforcement official said. "It just seemed to permeate every element of the federation and was just their way of doing business. It seems like this corruption was institutionalised."

Although Blatter was not charged law enforcement officials said the investigation is ongoing and that Blatter was not yet considered cleared of any wrongdoing.

It said among the seven officials being held were Eugenio Figueredo, FIFA vice president and executive committee member from Uruguay; Costa Rican Eduardo Li and Brazilian soccer federation chief Jose Maria Marin.The others were Nicaraguan Julio Rocha, Britons Costas Takkas and Jeffrey Webb, the FIFA vice president, and Rafael Esquivel, president of the Venezuelan Football Federation.