FIFA Officials Arrested

NTA

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="red terror" data-cid="493285" data-time="1432942304">
<div>
It's a secret ballot. Awful thing about it is a small bribe to Cayman Islands cancels out Germany's vote; a vote from Maldives cancels England's FA vote, etc. Blatter's re-election then, in a secret vote, was a formality.
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</blockquote>
 
I read a few years ago the strategy Blatter employs, and in a one country-one vote system like FIFA its laughably easy: poor countries like that are what keeps him going. He probably realised this before anyone else, rather than sucking up to the "traditional" powers who were meant to exert influence and favours, and now he's entrenched. Cut out the middle-man, effectively.
 
I tend to agree with El Toro's assessment: corruption is rife, just that in the West we don't associate it with simple money-for-favours. We like to dress it up a bit more. Its not what we call "fair", but then, nothing is.

red terror

<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://screamer.deadspin.com/italian-paper-alleges-fifa-used-corrupt-refs-to-fix-200-1707704308'>Italian Paper Alleges FIFA Used Corrupt Refs To Fix 2002 World Cup Games</a>


<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote">
The 2002 World Cup hosted jointly by South Korea and Japan was already infamous for its horrendous refereeing, most notably two knockout stage match-ups involving South Korea. Today, one Italian paper has linked what was widely believed to be match-fixing behavior back then to this current FIFA scandal.
 
[...]
 
</blockquote>

El Toro supremo

Blatter is a doos so I feel a bit silly to try and defend him........but his opponent yesterday was a Prince in the Jordan Royal family........Prince Ali bin-al Hussein..........according to his official website he is a 43rd generation direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.........OK? I can see that being popular.....
 
For those that do not understand Blatter's popularity with the minnows.......this paragraph testifies to it:
 
Quote
European nations also revealed they were near-united in support of Mr Blatter's challenger.
They even reiterated their threat to withdraw from FIFA and the World Cup if Mr Blatter was to stay in the job.
However the threat did not go down well with some other countries, who saw it as football's richest, oldest members trying to bully the developing world.
Mr Blatter's support base was in the scores of smaller nations who have benefited from a steady flow of money, channeled from the immense profits from World Cup sponsorship, broadcast rights and ticket sales into the provision of new football infrastructure and promotion in countries that many may not even have heard of, let alone cared about.
Typical is Cape Verde, a tiny nation of half a million people on ten volcanic islands off the coast of West Africa.
Mario Semedo, former head of Cape Verde's football association, now on FIFA's development committee, told Friday's meeting with pride and gratitude the country had no grass pitches in 1998, and now has 25, five of which were financed by FIFA â€“ which also helped build two training centres.
Unquote
 
Isn't that the exact thing we are accusing the IRB of neglecting? Looking after grass roots development for the game?
 
Blatter also understands the one man, one vote system.....just like most political parties do. 
But it is hugely ironic how the west is now squealing about how 'unfair'and corrupt this system is when it doesn't work in their favour.......Huh?
Isn't that the same system that they forced on South Africa to get rid of the old evil white regime? Now suddenly that shoe does not fit so well? 
No weighted votes allowed.......one man, one vote. Welcome to democracy....wear the fucken shoe!

NTA

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="El Toro supremo" data-cid="493298" data-time="1432945829">
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Blatter is a doos so I feel a bit silly to try and defend him........but his opponent yesterday was a Prince in the Jordan Royal family........Prince Ali bin-al Hussein..........according to his official website he is a 43rd generation direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.........OK? I can see that being popular.....
 
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</blockquote>
 
Better the devil you know - even if he keeps promising to step down at the next election.
 
79 and all the blow-n-bitchez you could want swimming through your pool of money with you. Hell of a way to go.

El Toro supremo

It looks like you have about $5.7 BILLION sloshing around in the FIFA kitty between World Cupsâ€¦â€¦all in the hands of a few sports administrators. 
Definitely no chance of any â€¦.â€misappropriationâ€â€¦.. there! 
And no wonder you have a myriad of guys desperately trying to get their hands on that honeypotâ€¦..with the current mob doing everything possible to maintain the status quo.

$5.7 billion is enough to start a war in many parts of the worldâ€¦..so brace yourself for a moral, ethical, cultural and legal onslaught of epic proportions.
 

It is also interesting to see the fairly low profile that the main sponsors are keeping with regards to the latest sagaâ€¦â€¦no doubt wishing/ knowing it will soon blow over.
Fans actually donâ€™t give a shit about the governing bodyâ€¦they support their team and that is mostly thatâ€¦â€¦Sanzar is a good example in that regard.
 

I actually do think that FIFA needs some reformâ€¦â€¦but Iâ€™ m hugely skeptical about whether that wonâ€™t just mean that the power / money shifts to some old school cliqueâ€¦â€¦. 
I also think there is merit in the argument that countries that contribute more financially through viewer numbers / TV rights should have a bigger sayâ€¦â€¦.but just think about how we despise that arrangement for cricket with the Big Three controlling just about all aspects of the game? 
And you can probably kiss development in some of the minnow nations good bye if you donâ€™t need their vote anymoreâ€¦..but do we really care if they are playing cricket / soccer in Malawi? Or in Cape Verde? Or is it just window dressing in any case? 
So yeahâ€¦.pick your poisonâ€¦..

Godder

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="NTA" data-cid="493288" data-time="1432942481">
<div>
I read a few years ago the strategy Blatter employs, and in a one country-one vote system like FIFA its laughably easy: poor countries like that are what keeps him going. He probably realised this before anyone else, rather than sucking up to the "traditional" powers who were meant to exert influence and favours, and now he's entrenched. Cut out the middle-man, effectively.
 
I tend to agree with El Toro's assessment: corruption is rife, just that in the West we don't associate it with simple money-for-favours. We like to dress it up a bit more. Its not what we call "fair", but then, nothing is.
</div>
</blockquote>
 
As I mentioned earlier, FIDE (world chess federation) is exactly the same - a President (and his predecessor) who long since realised that the key to power was to keep the poorer nations onside, since it's a lot cheaper than keeping the rich nations onside. UEFA might actually do something, however, which is more than is likely to happen for FIDE.
 
That said, it is also true that the grass roots are attended to, which is really important, but then, it's also true that FIFA would likely do that regardless of who the President is.

red terror

FIFA needs to make the ballot results transparent and accountable. Secrecy is a veil that leads directly to backdoor deals, graft & corruption.

red terror

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="red terror" data-cid="493040" data-time="1432830657">
<div>
My guess is the Internal Revenue Service (IRS, the U.S. taxman)...
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<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/soccer/soccer-rat-ex-u-s-soccer-exec-chuck-blazer-fbi-informant-article-1.1995761'>Soccer Rat! The inside story of how Chuck Blazer, ex-U.S. soccer executive and FIFA bigwig, became a confidential informant for the FBI</a>
 
New York Daily News article was from last November.
 
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote">Blazer failed to pay income taxes for more than a decade while hauling in tens of millions of dollars, a discovery the feds used to threaten him with prosecution and convert him into a cooperating witness beginning in 2011.
 
</blockquote>
 
John Oliver has a worthy slapdown on FIFA and Blatter last night...

Tim

<a class="bbc_url" href="http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/06/02/sports/soccer/sepp-blatters-top-fifa-deputy-jerome-valcke-is-said-to-have-transferred-money-central-to-bribery-case.html?_r=0">Blatterâ€™s Top FIFA Deputy Is Said to Have Transferred Money Central to Bribery Case</a>

Tim

<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2015/jun/02/fifa-calls-press-conference-amid-latest-corruption-claims-live'>Sepp Blatter quits as Fifa president</a>

Tim

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote">
 
<div>â€œI will organise extraordinary congress for a replacement for me as president. I will not stand. I am now free from the constraints of an election. I will be in a position to focus on profound reforms. For many years we have called for reforms. But these are not sufficient.â€</div>
</blockquote>
 
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote">
 
<div>â€œWe need a limitation on mandates and terms of office. I have fought for these changes but my efforts have been counteracted.â€</div>
</blockquote>
 
LOL. He certainly knows how to do shameless.

swapacrate

They need a system like Rugby, its helps out the poorer nations. Oh no hang on....

booboo

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="swapacrate" data-cid="493934" data-time="1433266210">
They need a system like Rugby, its helps out the poorer nations. Oh no hang on....</blockquote>
 
Are you suggesting WR doesn't fund the smaller nations? I Think you're just saying something vaguely populist.

NTA

red terror

<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/03/sports/soccer/sepp-blatter-to-resign-as-fifa-president.html?_r=0'>NYT</a> and <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/fifa-president-sepp-blatter-announces-resignation/story?id=31473282#.VW3zEHtCoJU.twitter'>ABC News</a> in U.S. reporting Blatter is the target of an FBI corruption probe. With UEFA and sponsors piling on, he had to walk the plank. And he could yet be in handcuffs.

Frye

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="red terror" data-cid="493976" data-time="1433292478">
<div>
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/03/sports/soccer/sepp-blatter-to-resign-as-fifa-president.html?_r=0'>NYT</a> and <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/fifa-president-sepp-blatter-announces-resignation/story?id=31473282#.VW3zEHtCoJU.twitter'>ABC News</a> in U.S. reporting Blatter is the target of an FBI corruption probe. With UEFA and sponsors piling on, he had to walk the plank. And he could yet be in handcuffs.
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I don't see how he is going to escape this.
 
The Feds will offer leniency to those who blab.
And blab they will.
They are white collar crims. Not the mob.

NTA

<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.news.com.au/sport/football/blatter-have-you-ever-taken-a-bribe-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-fifa-president/story-fndkzvnd-1227381077740'>http://www.news.com.au/sport/football/blatter-have-you-ever-taken-a-bribe-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-fifa-president/story-fndkzvnd-1227381077740</a>
 
Pommy journalist who basically started this 6 years ago, after investigating the IOC, and decided FIFA smelled just as bad. Serious implications for the FFA and Frank Lowy, too.
 
 
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote"> <snip>
Jennings is the author of â€˜Omerta: Sepp Blatterâ€™s FIFA-Organised Crime Familyâ€™. He likens FIFA to the Mafia characters heâ€™s previously investigated in his career.
 
â€œBasically, what youâ€™ve got coming down from the top is the licence to steal, which all capo bosses have to give, all gang bosses have to give their lieutenants,â€ he said.
 
â€œAnd what youâ€™ve got coming down is unaudited million-dollar development grants, no auditors so the guys can just steal - they were the voters, by the way, last last Friday - and also a whole fistful of World Cup tickets which come under the table and are then sold into the black market.â€
 
Jenningsâ€™ work caught the attention of the FBI, which sent â€œserious-looking Americans with broad shoulders who had been in the Marinesâ€ to visit him in London in 2009.
 
â€œAnd thatâ€™s been the best day of all, because then I knew they were serious professionals and understanding of the structures of organised crime and they wanted to talk about FIFAâ€™s structures,â€ he told <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://ab.co/1FqMg2A'>Lateline.</a>
 
â€œSo I knew back in 2009 it was going to start to roll. And I initially described to them how FIFA worked: who the personalities were, all the senior people. We developed from there.â€
 
Last night, Jennings predicted Blatter was â€œdead meat.â€
 
â€œI mean, Blatter has been a micromanager since 1976. And, in fact, if you look at the criminal indictment there are things coming up that he had to know about. But he is a dead man walking.â€
<snip>
</blockquote>

Frye

red terror

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote"> So thatâ€™s the last weâ€™ll see of Blatter?
Not yet. He said he would carry on in the role until the outcome of the new election, which is to take place at some point between December and March next year. One intriguing question is whether Blatter will travel to the womenâ€™s World Cup in Canada, which starts this week. An ESPN documentary last month claimed Blatter had not been to north America for four years because of the FBI investigation into Fifa, although he has claimed he has nothing to fear from the investigation.
 
</blockquote>
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/sepp-blatter/11647490/Sepp-Blatter-quits-The-who-why-what-of-Fifa-presidents-shock-departure-explained.html'>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/sepp-blatter/11647490/Sepp-Blatter-quits-The-who-why-what-of-Fifa-presidents-shock-departure-explained.html</a>

El Toro supremo

Yip.......As a spinoff I see this penalty shootout in the US is now under investigation for match fixing. Personally I cant see it......all looks above board.......except maybe the last save?

The Silver Fern

FIFA Officials Arrested