|
|
Â
|
| Quote: |
| Swiss authorities began an extraordinary early-morning operation here Wednesday to arrest several top soccer officials and extradite them to the United States on federal corruption charges. As leaders of FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, gathered for their annual meeting, Swiss law enforcement officials arrived unannounced at the Baur au Lac hotel, an elegant five-star property with views of the Alps and Lake Zurich. The arrests were made at the request of the United States Justice Department, which brought charges in the Eastern District of New York, based in Brooklyn, according to law enforcement officials. Prosecutors planned to unseal an indictment soon against more than 10 officials, not all of whom are in Zurich, three law enforcement officials said. The charges include wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering. |
AcidTest with...Blatter makes Darth Vader look like Snow White
Deej with...FIFA makes the IOC look like the NCAA.
FMiC with...They make the Olympics look like the cleanest organization in the world.
I vote for Acid, because the moment I read that post, I saw Darth Vader force choking all the dwarves at once.
Really? Wow that would be a gamechanger...
I saw the Swiss were likely to question him in their own investigation but hadn't seen anything about an arrest. Lorretta Lynch was refusing to comment on individuals during the press conference.
Second, FIFA has a reserve fund of something like $1.5 billion.
Easy for Blatter to get reelected
Gotcha - I read that alert quickly and thought the same. It actually said "Sepp Blatter escapes charges, faces reelection..."
Brilliant policy by Blatter.
Avoid the first world, and focus on countries where bribery is the norm, where it is simply the cost of doing business.
Read that by getting Africa as a whole, Blatter is halfway to being elected.
Probably in his secret volcano lair. That guy avoids US authorities like Roman Polansky. Jeremy Schaap from ESPN had a report on Outside the Lines on FIFA corruption. Sepp Blatter does not make trips to the US for this reason.
The Swiss are conducting their own investigation which is still ongoing and includes Blatter. There are some interesting jurisdictional questions here. It may well be that, by agreement with the Swiss, the US DOJ will leave it up to the Swiss to go after Blatter.
I read that Blatter is scheduled to come to Canada shortly for the Women's World Cup which is about to start. The US has an extradition treaty with Canada. So another possibility is that the US is waiting on Blatter.
I still think there is a better chance of it being in the US. We only need, what, 2 years notice to stage the event? 2020 is still a ways away.
If Blatter goes away, like he should, IMO, so does the Qatar bid.
They don't even have to pull the 2022 event out of there for another 6 years. The US could put this thing together with minimal notice.
You'd be surprised what you can do with slave labor.
I was in Sevilla last year when Barca was in town ... great treat to see that game. Sevilla went up but then Messi just took over. Good stuff.
How many of the 5 will get automatic berths into the group stages and how many would have to go through the play in round?
So you do this in venues that already exist (WC a lot of places; Olympics probably a fixed site or few rotating fixed sites). Or you can make these events the playthings of oppressive regimes like Russia, China, and Qatar. And I think the reminder of the hundreds (or thousands) of workers who have or will die building the Qatar venues will render the later unpalatable to viewers, patrons, and most notably sponsors.
Do it in Sydney and there is hardly any work needed since they just had the Olympics there in 2000
FIFA is organized under Swiss law so, in theory, the Swiss authorities could, but as I understand it, the applicable regulations are very old and never contemplated a situation like the current one. Better to get rid of all the bad guys and let the good guys take over FIFA - there are plenty of good guys, they've just had no say with Blatter in charge.
We are powerful enough and have a legal system that's well suited for international prosecutions. The DOJ is using some of the anti-terror and racketeering provisions. Plus, to be fair, the Swiss are not only assisting us but running their own show - they just haven't indicted anyone yet. My theory is that it's the Swiss who will indict Blatter - one of their own.
Yeah but is that FIFA's fault or is that a product of various technological and geographic tendencies that helped make an already popular game that much more popular?
I think FIFA would still run quite smoothly in his absence, because the promotion that brought together most of the world is complete.
The only question is if regional corruption would run rampant. For instance, would African nations expect that they are entitled to kickbacks in return for votes? If not, where do they supplement that cash from? It might be moot, because I'm not sure if that cash ever finds itself with the football programs, but rather in the individual delegates pockets.
Link - ( New Window )
Probably has something to do with this - ( New Window )
Collectively, we don't care enough about soccer. If it were as big as football here, I bet you don't see any of this.
Quote:
But how are we the only ones who gave a shit enough to go after these goons?
Collectively, we don't care enough about soccer. If it were as big as football here, I bet you don't see any of this.
Sadly i think your correct