FIFA and corruption

gerd

gerd

Retired Footballer
8 January 2002
Over the moon
KRC Genk, Spurs
Just saw on the internet (source: www.knack.be) that wo days before the elections for a new chairman, several FIFA big bosses have been taken in custody by the Swiss police/justice in a corruption case.

More details will surely occur later on.

I hope this goes as high as Blatter and then maybe there will be a chance for some change.
 
From The Guardian.

Several top Fifa officials have been arrested on corruption charges in an early-morning police operation in Zurich, according to reports.
The New York Times claims that more than a dozen plain-clothed officers descended on the plush five-star Baur au Lac hotel in the Swiss city on Wednesday morning.
The hotel is the setting for this year’s annual meeting of football’s world governing body.
Multiple arrests were made on allegations of widespread corruption.

It is expected that those arrested will face extradition proceedings to the United States where they could federal corruption charges may be waiting for them.
The charges stem from a joint investigation by the FBI and US tax authorities that has been ongoing since at least 2011, according to the New York Daily News website.
According to the reports prosecutors more than 10 officials may be indicted as part of the investigation.
Not all of the officials are believed to be in Zurich at present. But it is reported that Sepp Blatter, the president of Fifa, is not one of those arrested in the morning raids.
 
A litle bit more news from The Guardian:

08:27
What we know so far

• 24 hours before the start of Fifa’s Congress in Zurich, six senior Fifa officials have been arrested in early-morning raids by Swiss authorities - with 14 people understood to be facing corruption charges worldwide. Officers carried out the dawn raid at the five star Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich, with the Fifa vice-president Jeffrey Webb understood to be among the six detained.

• Sepp Blatter was not one of those arrested. Fifa’s spokesman Walter de Gregorio told the Associated Press: “He is not involved at all.”

• The Swiss Federal Office of Justice said the officials were arrested pending extradition to the US on suspicion of receiving bribes totalling $100m. The New York Times reported that the charges arising from an FBI inquiry include wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering, with the US Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch due to hold a news conference later on Wednesday.
 
And something related from the same website (The Guardian)

The Fifa presidential candidate Prince Ali bin al-Hussein’s election team has been in contact with the police after claiming it had been approached by an individual who said he could deliver 47 votes at Friday’s election.
The alleged approach was made in April and the individual also offered to provide “what appeared to be illegally obtained” information relating to the financial activities of the Fifa president Sepp Blatter, the election team also claimed.
The individual was not identified, although the campaign said he was a third party who was not part of Fifa nor connected to any national football association. The matter was referred to Quest, a UK-based corporate intelligence firm which was asked to contact the police. The votes offer was rejected, the campaign added, and Fifa’s ethics committee was not informed.
“Our goal was not to create a campaign issue but to properly react to an approach made to us that appeared to involve criminal activity,” the campaign alleged in a statement. “The campaign did not want to do anything that could jeopardise the police investigation.
“Because the claims made by the individual strongly suggested criminal acts, Quest referred the matter to the proper law-enforcement authorities. We did not engage the Fifa ethics committee because the individuals concerned were third parties who were not part of Fifa, nor were they national association representatives.”
Quest, headed by the former London police commissioner John Stevens, said in a previous statement that Prince Ali had engaged it in January to ensure “the highest levels of integrity and ethical standards throughout his campaign for the presidency of Fifa”.
“The individual’s claims to have obtained information illegally are now under police investigation,” Quest also claimed. “Prince Ali’s campaign has not received any offers involving questionable behaviour or potential illegalities from Fifa member associations or individuals claiming to act on their behalf.”
Prince Ali is the only challenger to Blatter in Friday’s election after the Dutch FA president Michael van Praag and former Portugal forward Luís Figo withdrew last week. Blatter is the runaway favourite to secure a fifth mandate.
Each of Fifa’s 209 member associations holds one vote at the election.
 
This is so disgusting I can't even begin to describe it.

I really hope everyone involved in this gets punished. Also, if there's any chance for the Qatar World Cup to get suspended, as it is the biggest corruption scam of them all imo, it would be great for football.

But chances are, all of this is going to fade away and all the scams going on in world football as a corporate organisation are going to continue...
 
Heard something about it this morning on the radio.

They said that allegedly some of the recent/future World Cups saw bribery/corruption during the selection/voting process.
They also said that the way FIFA awarded the TV rights for some of the next World Cups is under investigation.
 
Really hope this guys will get punished and that the WC's in Russia and Qatar will get relocated.
 
Throughout the world 14 high ranking FIFA officials are arrested for corruption concerning TV-rights and WC's nominations to Russia and Qatar...

This case reminds me about the Lance Armstrong case.

Once the USA justice became involved, things went quick. I think this will go until the end.
 
The United States Justice Department has secured indictments for several top FIFA executives on corruption charges, according to multiple reports Tuesday night. Swiss authorities said six officials were arrested early Wednesday at a hotel in Zurich, where FIFA is holding its annual meeting, and are awaiting extradition to the U.S.
The charges, which resulted from an extensive investigation into soccer's multibillion-dollar governing body, include wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering spanning the last two decades, according to The New York Times, which was the first to report the story. Law enforcement officials are expected to announce the charges as early as Wednesday morning in New York.

As many as 14 arrests are expected to be made, CNN reported. The Times reported that nine soccer executives, including FIFA vice president and CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb and former FIFA vice president Jack Warner, were indicted along with five sports marketing executives.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has not been charged.
"He is not involved at all," FIFA spokesman Walter de Gregorio told The Associated Press.
The Justice Department is working with authorities in Switzerland, where FIFA is headquartered, to coordinate arrests.
FIFA, which reported revenue of $5.7 billion from 2011 to 2014, has been the subject of corruption allegations for years. The latest charges, which will be announced just ahead of FIFA's presidential election, involve bids for World Cups in addition to marketing and broadcast deals, the New York Times report said.
Blatter was expected to be easily elected to a fifth term Friday, but the scandal, the latest under his command, could potentially impact the vote.
In December, an internal investigation launched by FIFA into allegations of corrupt bidding processes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups found no evidence to support the claims. The bids were awarded to Russia and Qatar, respectively.
A whistleblower who worked for the Qatar bid team alleged several African officials were paid $1.5 million each to support Qatar. In 2011, FIFA issued a lifetime ban to Mohamed bin Hammam, a Qatari member of its governing body, citing ethics violations.
 
I'm not sure the World Cups will be re-allocated. There is more of a case for Qatar than for Russia given (a) Qualification has already started for the 2018 World Cup, (b) the evidence for corruption isn't as substantial for the 2018 bid compared to the 2022 bid, (c) there are less ancillary concerns about 2018 (e.g. workers deaths, climate, rescheduling) than for 2022.

Either way, you could argue that a precedent was set at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Then there was widespread corruption during the bidding process and, although there were legal proceedings and several members of the IOC got charged, ultimately the games went ahead in Salt Lake City.
 
LxzLB9y.png


He received 100m and looks like that! Damn! Wtf Monopoly money or Gave half to Red Lobsters ?
 
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[@JeffreyToobin: RT BREAKING: Swiss Police confirm that, when arrested, all seven FIFA officials threw themselves on the ground and pretended to be injured.
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Haha! So apparently footballer aren't the only divers. I hope the popos had a yellow card w/ them.
 
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This is a chance for a big change in football authority organisations. As things are, the system is rotten. Guys like Marin and Leoz in South America are no doubt as corrupt as they came and therefore a cancer in football. The way CONMEBOL deals with things in South America, those guys are dirty! Organisers of a third world, fourth rate tournament that was supposed to be the Champions League of South America, and yet they tolarate all kinds of shit (as long as they get their hefty payments, it seems).

I hope this thing exposes some powerful people who benefited from the construction of needless stadia in Brazil, and not least Corinthians' stadium, which God knows how will be paid for (or if they'll pay at all, since the loans were took from the Development Fund in Brazil, whose purpose has been totally skewed by this current corrupt government).

And not least of all, I hope the shit hits the fan and gets to Blatter. From now on, things have to change with FIFA too. No more of this laughable bullshit of "non-profit organisation".

Funny that this probably only came thanks to the USA's crackdown of dodgy Swiss bank accounts. It's been there for everybody to see so clearly, since the Joao Havelange days for sure.

FIFA as an organisation cannot exist in this same way nowadays. Everybody's on to them.
 
The reason why there are less evidence of bribes in the Russian bids for the World Cup is because the Russian bidding computers were all miraculously destroyed when the Garcia report tried to get their hands on the computer for checking. its a very "clean" job done in Russia if they did bribe their way...

But I really doubt this will affect Blatter in any way or will it relocate the World Cups. I wish it would be a start for changes, but i doubt...
 
I think it's time for a breakaway football federation. Things would get interesting if a few prestigious football nations decided to form their own federation and not take part in FIFA world cups. It will never happen but one can dream.
 
Imagine all those voting against Blatter, the UEFA and CONCACAF federations and (maybe) a few CONEMBOL countries join in...that'd be an amazing World Cup already...and leaving the original with not much commercial value. That would hit FIFA hard....but again, one can only dream...
 
Jamezinho said:
I think it's time for a breakaway football federation. Things would get interesting if a few prestigious football nations decided to form their own federation and not take part in FIFA world cups. It will never happen but one can dream.
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i would absolutely love that. btw how old is blatter anyway? coz he certainly looks well over his 70s.
 
He's 79 I think. I don't like the idea of a breakaway competition, one of the great things about a World Cup is you see the best teams and the best players* in a big competition with each other, you get to see different styles and concepts and while it perhaps isn't as true as in the pre-internet age, you still get pleasantly surprised by teams (Costa Rica, Colombia etc). If you have a breakaway you'll end up with one competition with teams like:

England, Germany, USA, Australia, Canada, Sweden, the Dutch etc

And another with say:

Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Russia, Ivory Coast, Colombia,

(it's hard to say which one Portugal, Mexico, Italy, Japan etc will go for)

Who is the world champion, the winner of the Old World Cup or the winner of the breakaway? What about the players, would they want to play in competition A or B? It will be like Boxing where you have the WBC, the WBO and all those other belts.
 
A breakaway competition would be great.
The federatios who dies not breakaway, will change their mind if the European federations will break away. I'm pretty sure of that.

And there is something other: we could also votewith our eyes: don't watch the next WC...the sponsors will understand...i know it's utopic, but the fans should start to give messages that they are fed up...
 
cfdh_edmundo said:
He's 79 I think. I don't like the idea of a breakaway competition, one of the great things about a World Cup is you see the best teams and the best players* in a big competition with each other, you get to see different styles and concepts and while it perhaps isn't as true as in the pre-internet age, you still get pleasantly surprised by teams (Costa Rica, Colombia etc). If you have a breakaway you'll end up with one competition with teams like:

England, Germany, USA, Australia, Canada, Sweden, the Dutch etc

And another with say:

Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Russia, Ivory Coast, Colombia,

(it's hard to say which one Portugal, Mexico, Italy, Japan etc will go for)

Who is the world champion, the winner of the Old World Cup or the winner of the breakaway? What about the players, would they want to play in competition A or B? It will be like Boxing where you have the WBC, the WBO and all those other belts.
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Europe holds a lot of power. Let's face it, besides Brazil and Argentina it's the likes of Germany, Italy, Spain, France, England and Holland that football fans want to see at world cups. If the European nations withdraw from the FIFA World Cup as a block (and that's the key: strength through unity) then the tournament would lose all value to both fans and sponsors. The other nations would soon follow.

It can work but would take some serious resolve from the UEFA nations.
 
But will all the European federations break away? I can guarantee that Russia will not break away from Fifa, and I would say Spain is 70% likely not to breakaway. I don't think it's as simple as UEFA going en-mass away from FIFA, some European federations would stay (Russia and Spain) and some would definitely break away (England, Holland, possibly Germany). Don't forget there was no bigger cheerleader for Qatar 2022 than Platini, he voted for it (Blatter didn't), he has agreed to UEFA switching dates to accommodate a winter world cup.
 
I'm not naive to believe this crackdown happened because they only just discovered evidence. This is happening to ensure someone gets his position and the arrested are out of his way. It's all corrupt.
 
cfdh_edmundo said:
But will all the European federations break away? I can guarantee that Russia will not break away from Fifa, and I would say Spain is 70% likely not to breakaway. I don't think it's as simple as UEFA going en-mass away from FIFA, some European federations would stay (Russia and Spain) and some would definitely break away (England, Holland, possibly Germany). Don't forget there was no bigger cheerleader for Qatar 2022 than Platini, he voted for it (Blatter didn't), he has agreed to UEFA switching dates to accommodate a winter world cup.
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Russia wouldn't matter and I don't see why Spain would be so pro-FIFA either. The point is simply the threat of a breakaway could be enough to invoke change.

Platini is 'Blatter Lite'. I don't trust that guy either.

Lami said:
I'm not naive to believe this crackdown happened because they only just discovered evidence. This is happening to ensure someone gets his position and the arrested are out of his way. It's all corrupt.
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Nor am I. Whatever the motives, I'm all in favour of any action that brings these corrupt parasites to account and stirs up the hornets nest.
 
Jamezinho said:
Russia wouldn't matter
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I wouldn't necessarily dismiss the UEFA country with the largest population (more than the UK and France combined), but even if you do the very fact that a significant member of UEFA would not break away shows there is no unanimous consensus.

I don't see why Spain would be so pro-FIFA either
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But they have publicly said they will back Blatter so it seems inconceivable that they would want to break away. You say Russia doesn't matter, do you think the same of Spain?
 
Well, with 13 World Cup spots Europe has power even if a few UEFA members are pro-Blatter, and pro-corruption by proxy. Even if 7 or 8 UEFA members threaten to withdraw it could be enough to make people sit up and listen.

I said Russia doesn't matter because they are hosting the next one, would be contenders for a corruption world cup if there was such a thing, and with Putin in charge will always act contrary to the US, Germany, UK, France etc...It's a big, powerful nation for sure, but not a commercial draw at a world cup.
 
Jamezinho said:
Well, with 13 World Cup spots Europe has power even if a few UEFA members are pro-Blatter, and pro-corruption by proxy. Even if 7 or 8 UEFA members threaten to withdraw it could be enough to make people sit up and listen.
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It has a degree of power, but people would still watch a World Cup that had Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Spain, Russia, Colombia and possibly Portugal, Italy and Mexico amongst others. Sure it would be a blow with Germany, the Dutch, France and England, but it wouldn't be insurmountable if it was limited to those countries - one of those teams sometimes misses out on a world cup anyway, Holland in 2002, France in 1990&94, England in 1994.

I said Russia doesn't matter because they are hosting the next one, would be contenders for a corruption world cup if there was such a thing, and with Putin in charge will always act contrary to the US, Germany, UK, France etc...It's a big, powerful nation for sure, but not a commercial draw at a world cup.
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I think 140 million inhabitants is a commercial draw. As an aside, as a proud Englishman, have you heard of the Al Yamamah arms deal?
 
You can find corruption anywhere in the world, the UK is no different. It's certainly not a way of life here, that's the distinction.
 
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