FIFA corruption charges

[Sousuke 1,214]

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/27/football/fifa-corruption-charges-justice-department/

surprised no one started a thread on this yet.

I was surprised the US was leading on this at first.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

I read about it this morning. Looks like heads are going to be rolling....

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I don't think much is going to change. Heads might roll and then there will be new corrupt heads popping up talking their places. Look at the IOC - same thing.

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/27/football/fifa-corruption-charges-justice-department/

surprised no one started a thread on this yet.

I was surprised the US was leading on this at first.

I am a bit confused by some of the charges.. and a bit surprised at the U.S. Role - even if they are 100% correct it still can go negative depending on how the anti-US crybabies can shape the debate.

That's the end of my bucket-o-care on the subject.

[Sousuke 1,214]

I am a bit confused by some of the charges.. and a bit surprised at the U.S. Role - even if they are 100% correct it still can go negative depending on how the anti-US crybabies can shape the debate.

That's the end of my bucket-o-care on the subject.

I've been looking at a few sources and it seems EU sentiment is good. I can imagine Russian / Middle Eastern sentiment is probably the opposite.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

That situation is beyond embarrassing - any other walk of life - if that happened on your watch you would resign. Politician, corporate CEO - you'd have no choice. FIFA on the other hand isn't interested in its reputation or how it appears to the outside world. It is a corrupt organisation through and through.

Blatter won't resign, he didn't resign before. What he is doing (as he has done in the past) is distance himself the allegations , decry them and then claim that he needs to be the one to fix the problem. He doesn't fix the problem as he is taking bribes left, right and centre and the whole organisation operates that way.

I've been looking at a few sources and it seems EU sentiment is good. I can imagine Russian / Middle Eastern sentiment is probably the opposite.

Africa and Latin America as well. That's his core support.

It's pretty much only the US, Europe and Australia who want change.

Edited May 29, 2015 by Venkman

[lostinblue 1,989]

Corrupt FIFA Has Clinton Foundation Ties; World Cup Host Qatar Gave Millions

Both Bill Clinton and his family’s charity have been tied to soccer’s governing body, as well as Qatar’s disastrous World Cup bid.

And just like that, another Clinton Foundation donor is in the news.

The Clinton global charity has received between $50,000 and $100,000 from soccer’s governing body and has partnered with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association on several occasions, according to donor listings on the foundation’s website.

Several top FIFA executives were arrested Wednesday in Zurich and face corruption charges stretching back two decades, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Involvement with the embattled body extends beyond the foundation to Bill Clinton himself. The former president was an honorary chairman of the bid committee put together to promote the United States as a possible host nation for the 2018 or 2022 World Cup.

When the U.S. lost the 2022 bid to Qatar, Clinton was rumored to be so upset he shattered a mirror.

But apparently Qatar tried to make it up to him.

The Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, partnering with the State of Qatar, “committed to utilizing its research and development for sustainable infrastructure at the 2022 FIFA World Cup to improve food security in Qatar, the Middle East, and other arid and water-stressed regions throughout the world,” according to the Clinton Foundation website.

The cost of the two-year project is not listed on the Clinton Foundation website, but the Qatar 2022 committee gave the foundation between $250,000 and $500,000 in 2014 and the State of Qatar gave between $1 million and $5 million in previous, unspecified years.

FIFA, which has never been a bastion of ethics, was heavily criticized for awarding the 2018 and 2022 World Cup to Russia and Qatar, respectively, in part because of their abysmal human-rights records.

The Guardian reported in 2013 about “appalling labor abuses,” including possible forced labor and worker death on Qatar’s World Cup infrastructure projects. It is also considered to be too hot to play soccer in Qatar in the summer.

No Qatari officials have been arrested, but Swiss authorities announced Wednesday that they had opened criminal proceedings into the allocation of the Qatari and Russian World Cups. They have also seized documents from FIFA’s headquarters and gained access to the Swiss bank accounts of executives they suspect of “unjust enrichment” and money laundering.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

In other news:

McCain Urges Military Strikes Against FIFA

WASHINGTON – Calling the Obama Administration’s actions against the soccer organization “weak and ineffective,” Senator John McCain on Thursday proposed military action to “dismantle and destroy FIFA once and for all.”

“These are people who only understand one thing: force,” McCain said on the floor of the United States Senate. “We must make FIFA taste the vengeful might and fury of the United States military.”

McCain said that he was “completely unimpressed” by the Department of Justice’s arrests of several top FIFA lieutenants this week, calling the action “the kind of Band-Aid solution that this Administration, sadly, has become famous for.”

“Rounding up a few flunkies in a hotel is meaningless when the leader of FIFA remains at large,” he said. “I will follow Sepp Blatter to the gates of Hell.”

McCain requested a four-billion-dollar aid package for moderate elements within global soccer, and said that the United States should be prepared to put boots on the ground in Switzerland.

Calling the use of force against FIFA “long overdue,” he placed the blame for the group’s alarming growth squarely on the shoulders of the White House. “Barack Obama created FIFA,” he said.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Tee hee! How in the blue blazes does every news story from the bunker involve Obama, the Clintons, or the ever present'Left?'

[Boiler 43,381]

Awesome summary.

FIFA, EU, Congress all pretty much the same.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Tee hee! How in the blue blazes does every news story from the bunker involve Obama, the Clintons, or the ever present'Left?'

You forget Blacks and Muslims are top priority. Everything else is window dressing.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

And he wins the vote again. What a surprise.

Blatter is the management equivalent of a cockroach. You just can't get rid of him.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

And he wins the vote again. What a surprise.

Blatter is the management equivalent of a cockroach. You just can't get rid of him.

Was there any doubt?

[Boiler 43,381]

You forget Blacks and Muslims are top priority. Everything else is window dressing.

He got their votes....

[spookyturtle 9,465]

And he wins the vote again. What a surprise.

Blatter is the management equivalent of a cockroach. You just can't get rid of him.

Was there any doubt?

He got their votes....

When everyone voting benefits from the corruption, how can anyone be surprised that he was voted in again? FIFA is worse than F1.