Ode to the beautiful game... (Soccer)

[Maofan7]

England 4 - 0 Lithuania (Euro 2016 Qualifier)

Harry Kane scores 79 seconds into his England debut!

 

[Buzz]

A good news bad news day... Man U won 3-1 and gets closer to Europe but Toronto FC lost 2-3 to Chicago.

 

[Buzz]

Guess who all 54 members of CAF are going to back for FIFA president next month?
http://www.theguardian.com/football...ter-fifa-presidency-issa-hayatour-caf-support

 

[Buzz]

Phew! What a game today! First derby win for my boys in quite a while! :cheer2.

 

[alexikeguchi]

I have been and remain an Arsenal fan, but I love ManU's current squad. I feel especially happy for those players who didn't get respect from their former clubs like DiMaria, Mata, and Fellaini, who are now finding great success.

 

[Buzz]

Oh dear... Come on boys!

 

[Buzz]

Oh well. Can't win 'em all.

 

[Buzz]

My best wishes to David Silva for a speedy recovery.

 

[Buzz]

India has it's first ever player for a top flight European club in the person of Gurpeeet Singh Sandhu. He plays for Stabaek FC in Norway in GK and had in his first start for the club they who 6-0. Good luck to him.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...vision-European-club/articleshow/47034426.cms

 

[Buzz]

Well the good news is that despite today's terrible loss, Man U is in solid 4th place. And we look good to reach Europe next season. It really us too bad about today's loss because with a win we could have been in 2nd place.

 

[Buzz]

Gregory Mertens a 24 year old defender for Belgium have died of a heart attack. That is waaaay too young to die. May he rest in peace.

 

[Buzz]

Another loss.

 

[Lara]

No Crystal Palace upset this year, meh. So fitting for Chelsea to take the title 1-0.

 

[Buzz]

Meh.... My Man U will take the title next year.

 

[UMBS Go Blue]

U.S. officials conducting massive raids and arrests related to FIFA bribery and corruption at the FIFA conference in Zurich as we speak:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/sports/soccer/fifa-officials-face-corruption-charges-in-us.html

http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-pre...ing-corruption-at-soccer-body-fifa-1432698994

http://m.nydailynews.com/sports/soc...ested-bad-news-sepp-blatter-article-1.2236802

Spoiler

Now if only the ISU was next.

 

[ballettmaus]

Interesting, especially since they (not the US authorities) just investigated into the upcoming World Cup in Qatar and claimed there was absolutely no corruption involved whatsoever. ... Not that I didn't doubt the truth of that before but I certainly doubt it now.

 

[Cachoo]

U.S. officials conducting massive raids and arrests related to FIFA bribery and corruption at the FIFA conference in Zurich as we speak:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/sports/soccer/fifa-officials-face-corruption-charges-in-us.html

http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-pre...ing-corruption-at-soccer-body-fifa-1432698994

http://m.nydailynews.com/sports/soc...ested-bad-news-sepp-blatter-article-1.2236802

Spoiler

Now if only the ISU was next.

LOVE THE SPOILER and boy does FIFA have this coming.....

 

[Garden Kitty]

It will be interesting to see if this has any impact on Friday's election.

 

[alexikeguchi]

Bwahhhhaahaaa! Good on the Swiss for assisting in this operation.

 

[beepbeep]

Long time coming.

 

[Vagabond]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/sports/soccer/fifa-officials-face-corruption-charges-in-us.html

I love the current headline on that article: "FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges ; Sepp Blatter Isn’t Among Them ."

And, yes, I did add in those emoticons.

 

[VALuvsMKwan]

I love the current headline on that article: "FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges ; Sepp Blatter Isn’t Among Them ."

And, yes, I did add in those emoticons.

Yet.

 

[Cachoo]

Anyone see the Deadspin article today on how Qatar won't let their Nepalese slaves go home to funerals for loved ones killed in the earthquake there? I would love, love, love if some of the better-known and loved players would refuse to play in stadiums built by slave labor.

 

[Cachoo]

I love the current headline on that article: "FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges ; Sepp Blatter Isn’t Among Them ."

And, yes, I did add in those emoticons.

Let's hope this is like Watergate: You start with the original no-name Watergate burglers and work your way up. Somehow I think Sepp will die a free man but I can hope he might be disgraced if he had anything to do with the corruption.

 

[Buzz]

I personally have my doubts that anything much will come of this. These guys have powerful friends, and football is a lucrative business. If it gets cleaned up, a lot of powerful and influential people will lose a lot of money, and I doubt they will allow that to happen.

... And then there is the question of retaliation against US players/teams/officials...

 

[Cachoo]

Russian govt weighs in:
Without going into details about the charges that have been brought up, we point to the fact that this is another case of the illegal extraterritorial application of U.S. laws. Once again, we urge Washington to stop trying to set itself up as a judge far outside its borders and to follow the generally accepted international legal procedures ....

Whether it be this, supporting Assad in Syria, Ukraine, gays etc... Are Putin and his cronies ever right about anything?

Buzz I think if you can get most of the current crop of Fifa officials out and start with some new players then that is progress. They may not see a prison but trying to scare the organization straight is a start. I've been reading news feeds from around the world and there is so little upset at the Swiss and the FBI and their actions.

 

[Buzz]

I hope you are right. I have hoped to see FIFA cleaned up so badly for so looooong!

 

[ToFarAwayTimes]

This is nice, but when will the ISU indictments be coming down?

 

[Vagabond]

I personally have my doubts that anything much will come of this. These guys have powerful friends, and football is a lucrative business.

Yes, but the prosecution would be in the United States, which still doesn't have that much of a cultural investment in the sport at the professional level. It would probably be easier to prosecute the case in the U.S. than, say, Spain or, for that matter, Switzerland.

And I think that FIFA needs the U.S. more than the U.S. needs FIFA.

 

[Buzz]

Well Romario is apparently very supportive of the U.S. actions.

Former Brazilian star Romario, now a federal senator, has called Brazilian soccer official Jose Maria Marin “one of the biggest thieves” in sports in the country.

Marin, the former president of the Brazilian Football Confederation, was among seven high-ranking soccer officials arrested Wednesday in Zurich on U.S. charges of corruption.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...e9fefa-0454-11e5-93f4-f24d4af7f97d_story.html