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http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/32895057
Quite a turn up a couple of days before Blatters expected re-election. Maybe the house of cards is about to come tumbling down 😀
:shame there isn't a crossed fingers emoticon.
Rotten to the core
I was in South Africa during the 2010 world cup and some of the stories coming out at the time were shocking.
Much like the nonsense around the Olympic torch procession through the UK in 2012 I guess.
Hmm, that gives credence to recent reports that Blatter will not go to the USA, as he'll be arrested on arrival:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/may/15/sepp-blatter-fifa-united-states-fbi-concacaf
Rotten to the core
And as long as money is still sloshing around football the way it has been, then absolutely nothing will change.
No matter who is in charge.
Fingers crossed this comes to something. From what I understand the arrests are the result of US led investigations and it's possible they seek extradition (the US lost out to Qatar in the final bidding for the 2022 World Cup).
@nobeer, its perfectly possible to run FIFA in a transparent manner and to do so in a non-corrupt manner.
@speccie - to compare FIFA corruption to the 20121 Torch parade is a bit daft
@nobeer, its perfectly possible to run FIFA in a transparent manner and to do so in a non-corrupt manner.
Yes, but meanwhile, back in the real world....
Sadly I understand your point. Read today Jack Warner claimed he had been given a football center built with $26m of FIFA's money as a gift 🙁
It'll al be okay, they can just bribe their way out of jail.
Its odd how the worlds most popular sports Football and F1 seem to end up as the personal fiefdom of apparently and allegedly corrupt individuals
Hopefully enough mud will stick that the corporate sponsors dont want to be associated with the beautiful game and /or Sepp does some serious time in prison.
I dont think you can find a person anywhere on the planet [ not even Jam 😉 ] who sis willing to defend the organisation.
Qatar is a ****ing farce as well to hold a world cup there and hopefully someone arrested will do a deal and take the whole lot down from the top
Shame this happens
#wasn'tme
Its odd how the worlds most popular sports Football and F1 seem to end up as the personal fiefdom of apparently and allegedly corrupt individuals
It's not just football and F1 the whole of sport at the top level is corrupt to the core. Look at the IAAF just about everywhere there has been a World Champs recent has had during the bidding process the head of the IAAf's son as a consultant, coincidence? In cricket we've had match fixing, in football we've had match fixing and drugs, rugby has had bloodgate and drugs, Olympics had the Salt Lake city corruption (plus hwatever happened at Sochi), crosscountry skiing drugs, and cycling well I don't need to tell anyone on this forum about that.
End of the day it's all about the money and not really that odd that it happens at all. In fact you could say corruption and cheating are the natural state of sport it so endemic.
This footage of one of the arrestees just popped up on the Guardian feed - hilarious. They are hard-wired to nick stuff at every opportunity.
It's not just football and F1 the whole of sport at the top level is corrupt to the core. Look at the IAAF just about everywhere there has been a World Champs recent has had during the bidding process the head of the IAAf's son as a consultant, coincidence? In cricket we've had match fixing, in football we've had match fixing and drugs, rugby has had bloodgate and drugs, Olympics had the Salt Lake city corruption (plus hwatever happened at Sochi), crosscountry skiing drugs, and cycling well I don't need to tell anyone on this forum about that.
Let's be fair, no sport (except perhaps road cycling) seems to have had rampant blatant corruption at the very top has it? A blood capsule or a bung to a player hardly compares.
It's the moneys innit? The people in soccer have the most to gain and the most to lose and when you have the wishes of pajillionaires dependent on (for example) votes from people in poor countries the inevitable is going to happen, no?
Swiss launch criminal investigation into the 2018 and 2022 WC bidding process and confirm the extradition request. Seems to have been a very deliberate act to make the arrests now in Switzerland as all the officials are gathered together for the President vote, much simpler than trying to make arrests/extradition requests in multiple countries
Arrests seem to be related to Latin American tournaments (alleged $100m in bribes over 20 years to one official) which are under the US jurisdicition as payments where made via US bank accounts
[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32895048 ]BBC: Story update[/url]
JY, this is one discussion where we are definitely on the same side
I dont think you can find a person anywhere on the planet [ not even Jam ] who sis willing to defend the organisation.
Oh, I don't know. 1 in 10 in the Uk loves the guy! 🙂
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Good news for anyone who likes sport and isn't in FIFA, basically... Let's hope they get a whole swathe of them and they really get what's coming to them... 😡
I believe I am correct in saying that FIFA is incorporated in a Swiss Canton where there is no such crime as corporate bribery, not a co-incidence I am sure.
Swiss launch criminal investigation into the 2018 and 2022 WC bidding process
Well about ****ing time, the main reason all these sporting bodies are based in Switzerland is because of the lack of oversight and even basic accountability. I really hope that is about to change.
Oh, I don't know. 1 in 10 in the Uk loves the guy
1 in 10 didn't understand the question I reckon 😀
no sport (except perhaps road cycling) seems to have had rampant blatant corruption at the very top has it?
What? IAAF is up to their neck in it. Olympics had the Salt Lake City scandal and plus allegations around Sochi.
😯1 in 10 in the Uk loves the guy
Here is a good bid on governing bodies in Switzerland written in Nov 2014 by the usually excellent Inrng Blog
[url= http://inrng.com/2014/11/switzerland-land-of-governing-bodies/ ]Inrng Blog Link[/url]
Those officials can be easily bought as they all come from nations that are so corrupt it is a way of life.
Jeffrey Webb
FIFA vice-president and president of CONCACAF.
The 50-year-old was born and lives in the Cayman Islands and is the Cayman Islands Football Association president.
Previously been hailed by Sepp Blatter as the potential successor to the position of FIFA president.
Eugenio Figueredo
Former footballer and now Uruguayan FA executive.
A former president of CONMEBOL, the South American football federation.
Jack Warner
Former FIFA vice-president and president of CONCACAF from Trinidad and Tobago until he resigned from all his positions in international football in 2011.
He was arrested in relation to corruption in the bidding process for the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
Jack Warner, the former vice-president of Fifa, and his family, were paid around £1million from a Qatari firm close to the country's successful bid for the 2022 bid.
This led to the FBI investigating Trinidad-based Mr Warner and his alleged links to the Qatari bid.
Eduardo Li
President of the Costa Rican Football Association.
Julio Rocha
President of the Nicaraguan Football Federation.
Jose Maria Marin
Vice-president of the Brazil Football Federation and its former president.
The CBF were the football organisation who handed out controversial £16,000 Parmigiani watches at their congress in Sao Paulo a year ago when Marin was chief of the association.
Costas Takkas
A former general secretary of the Cayman Islands Football Association.
Rafael Esquivel
President of the Venezuelan Football Federation since 1988.
Nicolas Leoz
Former CONMEBOL president between 1986 and 2013.
He allegedly wanted the FA Cup named after him in exchange for a vote for England in their attempts to host the 2018 World Cup.
They can easily be members of EU ZMs ...
the way that this all comes crashing down is for one of the nations with a big revenue league to say 'sod this we're not coming to the world cup until FIFA sorts itself out' but which team ?
given that we have jack all chance of winning it could/should be us but it'd be a massively big call to make from the FA - does Greg Dyke still have the MI6 WMD numberplate ? 🙂
Election to go ahead on Friday anyway. Blatter wants to consolidate his power while he still can.
I think Germany suggested a while ago that Europe should consider withdrawing from FIFA, it was a passing remark but it shows the thought is there. I don't think England doing it would carry any weight, we are all too often the petulant child threatening to take our ball home if we are not allowed to win, but a few other European countries might make a bigger statement.
There must be the heads of Columbian drug cartels, Russian Gangsters, and Mafia Dons, who look admiringly at Blatter, and wonder how the hell he manages to continue to get away with it?
He's possibly the most corrupt individual on the planet. Yet there he is... still smiling, and waving...still making the rules up as he goes along..... still looking like he'll be voted in again, and the billions will keep rolling in to his tax-free offshore accounts
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".. still looking like he'll be voted in again, and the billions will keep rolling in to his tax-free offshore accounts"
MSP... You have no proof of this and really should add Allegedly to your comment. He may be paying full tax on all his earnings.
And yet so many people are happy to support all of this through ticket purchases and participation. Guilty by association.??*
Guilty as charged - personally felt "dirty" after watching the SA World Cup final - the vulgarity of the event juxtaposed with the poverty of those forced to watch from the sidelines across South Africa. Frankly revolting.
* does this extend as far as golden balls and Willie Windsor? JHJ to the thread....
I cant help feeling that Blatter will come out of this completely unscathed, maybe even more stronger as they are probably just getting rid of the ones that were not clever enough to cover their tracks....allegedly.
I expect that Blatter will make a statement along the lines of "I am needed now more than ever to clean up this corruption" 😐
Guilty as charged
Wanted to say 100% innocent, but forgot that I paid the full Sky sub including full Sky Sports package, even though I've not watched a single game since England-Tunisia, and purposefully go out of my way (usually MTBing) to avoid knowing anything about a World Cup score.
So sadly yes I have funded corruption and insane salaries too.
I did finally get around to cancelling Sky entirely a couple of years back.
I cant help feeling that Blatter will come out of this completely unscathed
Indeed. The problem is that lots of people are corrupt. In a lot of countries, corruption is completely endemic. Business is general conducted through bribery and threats.
FIFA under Blatter is the grand master of both. His supporters are showered with largesse... millions spent on facilities, sponsorship deals, and flagrant back-handers in inflated salaries and fees His opponents... well.... when do you think England will be getting the World up? If you don't tow the line, you're basically cast out.
Turkeys don't vote for christmas. And a lot of people doing quite nicely will keep the Blatter gravy train rolling along
Not that it will make the slightest bit of difference to the Dubai debacle. That will keep on grinding on...
People can be amazingly flexible with their morals when there's something in it for them. Not just the officials but the fans as well... sad really...
I expect that Blatter will make a statement along the lines of "I am needed now more than ever to clean up this corruption
Yes MSP I think you have that pretty much word perfect
"Business is general conducted through bribery and threats."
Binners...don't let your political views judge all business. Our company does not do business in such a way.
mt - If you read my post, I wasn't saying [b]all[/b] business. I did quantify it by saying that was the case 'in certain countries'. I'd guess that if you look at the countries who'll be voting for more of the same under Blatter, they'll be exactly the parts of the world with slightly more questionable attitudes to how these things are done.
Oh look... my new Mercedes has just been delivered. And the balance in my Swissbank account is looking very healthy indeed!
UEFA should with draw it's support from FIFA or failing that get someone to take Blatter out(side) 😉
@dragon - Blatter is no mug, FIFA voting is one member one vote. So Cayman Islands have the same voting power as would England or Germany. UEFA know this and Platini won't stand against Blatter which shows the power he wields.
As per @MSP's post FIFA are claiming the investigation will back up anti-corruption measures they have already taken 😯
[url= https://news.vice.com/article/fifa-bosses-get-rude-awakening-with-arrests-at-their-five-star-swiss-hotel ]VICE News link[/url]
I agree with your point about one member one vote, but that wasn't what I was thinking. I was thinking more that UEFA clubs & countries boycott any FIFA event i.e. the next World Cup.
I do love the FIFA spin, wonder if they really believe this sh*t.
Its odd how the worlds most popular sports Football and F1 seem to end up as the personal fiefdom of apparently and allegedly corrupt individuals
It's not odd at all, corruption is the natural state of affairs around most of the world. We live in a slightly less corrupt little bubble here in the west, pretty much anywhere else in the world massive corruption can be found through out most walks of life and for remarkably small gains. Considering the huge sums of money involved in football, it is of no surprise at all.
@dragon, understood but a boycott will never happen and Blatter knows it. Also Germany is reasonably onside with FIFA, they got to host a recent world cup and are no strangers to corruption in their football either.