|
|
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. |
I wish he was the first. I fucking hate that man
That's unfair to the Olympic Committee. Not thst they're clean, but FIFA is on a whole other level.
The fact that he's escaped prosecution shows just how many people he's bribed or threatened over the years.
To be honest he probably doesn't take any bribes. As the President of FIFA his salary has to be insane. It's power he wants. If he knows you did something dirty he can hang that over your head and make you his pawn.
The fact that he's escaped prosecution shows just how many people he's bribed or threatened over the years.
Unfortunately true. The corruption in boxing seems trivial relative to FIFA. I'm not even sure the IOC is as corrupt, and they are really bad. Putting the WC in Qatar was ridiculous, especially since it will have to be played in the winter, interrupting the professional soccer season.
Guardian - ( New Window )
The fact that he's escaped prosecution shows just how many people he's bribed or threatened over the years.
Fifa spokesman Walter de Gregorio faced the press alone, and confirmed that congress, and the presidential election, are due to go ahead as planned, and that there was no question of restaging the votes for the World Cup hosting rights. He said Sepp Blatter was feeling “relaxed” about the day’s developments because he was “not involved in them at all”, before clarifying: “Well he is not dancing in his office. He is very calm, he is fully co-operative with everything. That’s what I meant. He’s not a happy man, saying wow wow.”
Just broke on ESPN radio.
They are: Issa Hayatou (president of the Confederation of African Football), Angel Maria Villar Llona (Spain), Michel D’Hooghe (Belgium), Senes Erzik (Turkey), Worawi Makudi (Thailand), Marios Lefkaritis (Cyprus), Jacques Anouma (Ivory Coast), Rafael Salguero (Guatemala), Hany Abo Rida (Egypt) and Vitaly Mutko (Russia – head of the 2018 World Cup and sport’s minister).
Meanwhile, a search is underway in Miami at the Concacaf headquarters.
Do not fuck with Brooklyn hipsters' "football".
I love the institutional assumption that these guys are guilty.
Quote:
“This for Fifa is good. It is not good in terms of image or reputation, but in terms of cleaning up, this is good … It is not a nice day, but it is also a good day. The process goes on and we are looking forward.”
I love the institutional assumption that these guys are guilty.
I appreciate that they're not trying to pretend here. It's kind of like common knowledge that they're as dirty if not moreso than the IOC.
He really is no different than some actual dictators of countries in the way he's run FIFA. He's gotten rid of anyone who challenges him, including people who were once close friends who decided to speak out about corruption. He has rigged votes for World Cup hosts as well as the FIFA elections he's won. Some African delegates have literally walked away with $100M dollars just for siding with Blatter as President or for siding for the choice he's told them to for World Cups.
I used to think the Olympic corruption couldn't be topped. Take a look into FIFA's issues under Blatter. They make the Olympics look like the cleanest organization in the world.
Someone will roll on Sepp and the others. These are softened criminals who will be terrified of prison. The first round of arrested guys may end up as the lucky one.
Maybe since these guys are foreigners it's possible, but I'm not used to seeing dirty white collar guys go to jail.
Link - ( New Window )
I dont know the facts and evidence. Just a guess, but I'd think arresting foreign NGO leaders via extradition means you have good evidence. It is too risky otherwise, especially since it will be hard to develop more facts outside the jurisdiction of the FBI.
At the same time though I think he's dreaming if he thinks this will alter the result of Friday's election.
Blatter once was supposedly behind on votes by a significant margin and yet won elections in the past and payments were able to be shown to be given to several delegates. They just couldn't prove definitively that it came from Blatter.
For the win!
Great piece by Morgan. Blatter makes Darth Vader look like Snow White. FIFA is worse than the IOC, the NCAA, and boxing. Combined.
Link
“This sort of corruption and bribery in international soccer has been going on for two decades,” he says, adding the investigation leading to these indictments took years. “This is only the beginning.”
“This really is the World Cup of fraud,” he says, “and today we are issuing Fifa a red card.”
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