Ode to the beautiful game... (Soccer)

Vagabond said:
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.
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This could also be a good thing. The US isn't as biased towards soccer as some European countries are where you sometimes think it's the only sport in existence.
 
First: No matter what they say FIFA is NOT a non-profit organization. Second I understand the Swiss are focusing on the last awarded competitions to Russia and Qatar and bribery/corruption associated with those events. Third I read the US is looking at the last twenty years as "business" might have been conducted in the US using US Banks. I suspect there are Americans who are sweating this out who have been part of the corruption. On the news those investigating said FIFA reminds them of investigating the Mafia and Mexican drug cartels. Hopefully minus the murders...
 
AND THE ONION WEIGHS IN:
FIFA Frantically Announces 2015 Summer World Cup In United States
Global Soccer Tournament To Kick Off In America Later This Afternoon
 
Advertisers are yet to pull their sponsorship of FIFA. Not sure what it will take since the death of thousands building those stadiums Qatar don't seem to bother them much
 
When Brazil was awarded the 2014 WC as the sole candidate, we were all joking at the size of the "black suitcase" (full of money) that took to make it happen.
Specially if Brazil winning it was included in the package (well, we've seen that no amount of money would have made that possible :D ).

When something this big finally gets blown away, it's usually because someone didn't get their cut.

But I'm so darn happy to see CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) get nailed. They don't get public money, but it's pretty clear that they don't use the millions of sponsor money for the benefit of the sport.
I'm surprised Ricardo Teixeira (CBF's most infamous president) hasn't been indicted internationally yet.
 
At the website Boing Boing they put up an old Reddit thread that they thought very informative about a number of the issues surrounding Fifa's way of doing business and info about the problems in Qatar. It is an interesting read.
http://redd.it/1kf33g
The most informative thread was started some time ago...an excerpt:
nikcub 2544 points2545 points2546 points 1 year ago (724 children)
sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on



I still can't understand how Qatar got it in the first plac

The rules are simple. FIFA Executive Committe has 24 member who vote in rounds to decide the host. Each member of the committee then goes out to each bidding country and has to extract as many gifts, donations, board positions for family members, advisory roles, donations to your charity, private jet flights, holidays, jewelry for the missus, etc. as they can. The bidding nation that gives you the most, you have to vote for them. If you are exposed by a newspaper during the bidding process, then you are disqualified (two executives were disqualified prior to 2018/22 voting).

When it comes to the actual vote, you can change your mind in the last few days to extract even more out of each bidder. Whichever bidder gives up the most sh## to the most number of FIFA executive committee members gets to host the World Cup!

Oh and somewhere in all this FIFA actually hire an outside consulting company to run an extensive bid analysis and they rank each city based on 7 criteria. Nobody pays attention to that though, since Qatar finished last.
 
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I hate that the British comedian/reporter John Oliver is only on HBO. Now that Colbert is moving to late night and Stewart is leaving John Oliver and his comedy news show "Last Week Tonight" is the best thing out there and sometimes better than Stewart and Colbert. He nailed Fifa during the last World Cup. It is worth watching:
https://youtu.be/DlJEt2KU33I

some points covered: a great slam on Budweiser, the estimated number of "guest workers" who will die building stadiums,an appalling movie starring Tim Roth and a good explanation of who FIFA is and how they operate...
 
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Buzz said:
Here is a Washington Post article about Trinidad's Jack Warner.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...oolteacher-at-the-center-of-the-fifa-scandal/
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I'm not sure if it was the post but one of the news organizations had a death chart of those killed who were involved with getting the games ready: We are not even close to the Qatar games and they already easily outnumber anyone else. Didn't the UK submit a bid for those games? If there was any justice it would return to the place where the sport began.
 
What surprises me is how open and blatant the corruption is. And how defiant Sepp Blatter and the other high ranking members of FIFA are so I doubt that Qatar will lose the 2022 WC. I would love to see it moved however to anywhere else.
 
Sepp Blatter said he wasn't involved in the corruption. I don't believe that but if true then it happened on Sepp's watch. Either way he should step down.
I would love to see some of the bigger countries in the sport like the UK, Germany, Argentina, Brazil and the like say they will form and play under a new federation if Sepp wins tomorrow.
 
Cachoo said:
Sepp Blatter said he wasn't involved in the corruption. I don't believe that but if true then it happened on Sepp's watch. Either way he should step down.
I would love to see some of the bigger countries in the sport like the UK, Germany, Argentina, Brazil and the like say they will form and play under a new federation if Sepp wins tomorrow.
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The former president of the biggest soccer club in Germany is currently in jail for tax evasion (and there are substantiated rumors that he's enjoying special treatment in jail) and another member of that club was caught smuggling watches into the country. And no investigation was launched into the club's financials. That club can also buy all the good players away from the other clubs, weakening them even though they have no use for the players and they're just substitutes and the German federation isn't doing a thing about it. Additionally, I just read an article in the newspaper that corruption has increased and one out of ten managers is accepting a pay-off. All of which leads me to believe that the German federation isn't any better than the FIFA and enjoys their money as much as the FIFA does.

Not to mention that all these clubs tolerated the FIFA's doings for years. If they had announced that they would pull out of the World Cup in Russia and/or Qatar then I think the FIFA would have thought twice about not giving them to another country. However, they all just stood idly by and I doubt they didn't have at least an idea of what was going on. (and it is public knowledge of how the workers are treated in Qatar)

Unfortunately, I'm not holding much hope that any of this will decrease the FIFA's influence or doings. They seem to be like a Hydra, one head is cut off, three grow back.
 
I would love to see someone from the outside brought in to take over FIFA and clean it up, because I am no more a Prince Ali Al-Hussein fan than I am a Blatter fan. But he would at least represent a chance at change, but I doubt he will win. I think Blatter will win because he gives a lot of money to small third world countries and they still support him.
 
Ballettmaus,
I don't know how much the US can do but certainly if any money laundering, bribery, racketeering and whatever else they are accused of occurred on US soil or used US banks then we have a ballgame. The sport is certainly growing in popularity in the US but it is not all-consuming like American football or basketball...YET. That is why I think it is good that the FBI instigaged this: Sepp can threaten us all he wants: We don't care. And given what I've learned about FIFA I'm relieved we lost the bid. Who wants to partner with such a parasite? John Oliver detailed what Brazil went through to host and imho it is not worth it. I hope the original arrest document is just the tip of the iceberg and hopefully it will extend into any area in any country that needs to get the grubby crooks out. I know the FBI cannot do all of that but hopefully they will come up with information needed that will force any reluctant federation or gov't to act.

I still would love to see Europe pull out if there isn't real change at FIFA. I don't think that nibbling at FIFA's outliers will change anything. They need to smash it as it is today. Something honest needs to emerge. I hope it is possible. The game belongs to all--not just them.
 
I definitely think that it's of an advantage that the US made the arrests and things are handled by the FBI. I think if a European authority had made the arrests, the charges would somehow just happen to go away. I'm just afraid that, despite of who was arrested, FIFA will just shrug it off and replace the people and go on going about their business. :(
 
Well it has been suggested that Europe may pull out of FIFA if Blatter is elected again. Frankly I would love to see this happen. Let the UK take the lead in forming a new organization. I'm sure some of the South American countries would jump and the US (and so many US based sponsors) would sign-on. Sepp can keep Russia and his beloved cronies in Africa. In the meantime keep the heat on for the crimes and see if there is a way to wrestle some of those billions from FIFA. Maybe they can start by paying the families of all of those guest workers (slaves) who have already died in Qatar building stadiums.
 
Buzz said:
Love this headline from The Telegraph:

Lucifer cleared of wrong doing by FIFA as Sepp Blatter awards 2026 W C to Hell. :rofl:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...pp-Blatter-awards-2026-World-Cup-to-Hell.html
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:rofl::rofl:

"Indeed, Lucifer, who has asserted control over the nascent Infernal Football Federation, is now regarded as a Blatter protégé and a leading candidate to take over from the FIFA president, should he ever wish to step down. Sepp Blatter has been a wonderful role model,” confirmed Lucifer. “But he still has so much to teach me before I can make the step up from running Hell to being the Dark Lord of an organisation as demonic and demented as FIFA. He is a constant inspiration.”
 
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