Former Brazil star Romario called ex-Brazilian Football Confederation president Jose Mario Marin "one of the biggest thieves" in sports in Brazil following the indictment of 14 current and former FIFA officials and business partners on Wednesday.
Now a federal senator in Brazil, Romario addressed Marin, who was one of the individuals named in the United States Department of Justice's case, at a senate hearing in the capital of Brasilia.
A former FIFA world player of the year, the Rio de Janeiro native has been an outspoken critic of FIFA and of top officials in Brazilian football, and couldn't hold back on the day's news.
"Many of the corrupt people and thieves who do harm to football were arrested. Including one of the country's largest, named Jose Maria Marin. He's one of the rats I've been denouncing for a long time. This was the man next to President Dilma [Roussef] and received heads of state at World Cup gatherings," the 1994 World Cup winner said.
"Unfortunately, it wasn't our police that arrested them," he said. "But someone had to eventually arrest them one day."
The Brazilian football federation, for their part, says it "fully supports any type of investigation" into corruption in football and "reaffirms its commitment to the truth and transparency."
Former CONMEBOL presidents Eugenio Figueredo of Uruguay and Nicolas Leoz, along with Rafael Esquivel of Venezuela and Marin of Brazil were the South Americans indicted in the DOJ's case.
The Uruguay federation would not comment on the arrest of Figueredo, while a Venezuelan official, Jairo Ramirez, told The Associated Press that he has full faith in the innocence of Esquivel, who was among those arrested.
The U.S. has requested the extradition of Leoz, which foreign ministry legal director Ruben Ortiz has confirmed.
Ortiz relayed that the appeal will be forwarded on to the Supreme Court and reviewed by the Attorney General's office, which will decide whether to issue an arrest warrant for the 87-year-old.
Like Romario, former Argentina great Diego Maradona, who's been lobbing corruption claims at FIFA for years, was quick have his voice heard once news of the indictments broke.
"I was treated like a crazy person," Maradona told radio station Radio La Red in Buenos Aires. "Now the FBI has told the truth."
"There is no football. There is no transparency. Enough lying to people and dinner parties to re-elect Blatter," he said, speaking about Friday's vote on whether FIFA president Sepp Blatter will get elected to a fifth term.
"The money spent on that should be used to give kids in Africa a football field," he continued, while adding that "FIFA has billions of dollars and there are players in the world who don't make $150,000," the 1986 World Cup winner concluded.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.