FIFA have handed computers to police investigating the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments.

Football’s governing body, who have also suspended bidding for the 2026 World Cup, said data from its Zurich headquarters had been handed to Swiss prosecutors.

They are investigating the 2010 FIFA vote that awarded the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 event to Qatar.

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“FIFA today provided, as planned, data requested by the attorney general,” said a spokesman for the global body.

On his way out: FIFA president Sepp Blatter. Photo: Getty

The BBC claimed documents were seized from the offices of outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter, general-secretary Jerome Valcke and chief financial officer Markus Kattner.

Prosecutors refused to reveal the identity of the individuals involved.

FIFA has been thrown into chaos by the Swiss inquiry and the parallel investigation into corruption by football officials which led to seven FIFA officials being arrested at a Zurich hotel last month.

Valcke said Russia had won the right to host the 2018 finals “honestly” and “one must be crazy to say that all hosting rights were bought.”

Russia’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said preparations are going ahead with “all diligence.”

“We took no notice of the politics, we just pragmatically continue our preparations,” he said.

Bidding for the 2026 World Cup was meant to start this year and be decided at a congress in Kuala Lumpur in 2017. But Valcke said the process has been halted.

“Due to the situation, I think it’s nonsense to start any bidding process for the time being,” Valcke told a news conference in Samara, one of the Russian cities to host the 2018 World Cup.

“It was decided to place the administrative process on hold for the 2026 FIFA World Cup bidding due to the current situation,” a FIFA statement added.

The United States, Canada, Mexico, Morocco and Kazakhstan have all been linked to possible 2026 bids.

US authorities have charged 14 football officials and sports marketing executives over more than $150 million of bribes. They include the seven – two of them former FIFA vice-presidents – detained in Zurich and now fighting extradition to the United States.

Zico announces he’s in the running to be the next FIFA supremo. Photo: Getty

The corruption controversy ruined Blatter’s re-election for a fifth term as FIFA president on May 29 and he announced just four days later that he would resign.

An election for a new leader will not be held before December, but potential successors are already jostling for the position to run the world’s richest and most powerful sporting federation.

Zico, a hero of Brazilian teams of the late 1970s and early 1980s and former sports minister, declared he would enter the race.

“I feel I am capable. For sure, certain rules need to change,” he told a press conference in Rio de Janeiro.

“Much needs to change and much is going to happen.”

Prince Ali bin al Hussein, who stood against Blatter in last month’s election, has indicated he could also stand along with a former FIFA vice-president, Chung Mong-Joon of South Korea.

But UEFA president Michel Platini refused to discuss his plans at a Paris press conference to mark one year from the start of the 2016 European Championships in France.

Platini only said it was a “good thing” the 2026 World Cup campaign had been halted.

– AAP