U.S. senators on Wednesday called for extensive reforms in the way soccer is run by both international and U.S. governing bodies, and questioned what current U.S. soccer chiefs knew about corruption in the global organization FIFA.

“The facts show there had to be either wilful ignorance or blatant incompetence on behalf of many of the members of this org. – that’s true of U.S. soccer as well,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Senate commerce subcommittee at a hearing it held on Wednesday to examine alleged corruption in FIFA and related soccer bodies.

There has been “a mafia-style crime syndicate in charge of this sport,” said Blumenthal. He said that was “almost insulting to the Mafia … because the Mafia would never have been so blatant, overt and arrogant in its corruption.”

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