rolling lol FIFA thread

these guys

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0gjo6R6cBWdQK/610x.jpg

IOC, etc. also on topic here.

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0b2v0s5cJt71K/x610.jpg

a primer: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/sports/soccer/reform-for-fifa-is-long-overdue.html

Does he actually do anything?

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01497/jack-warner_1497693c.jpg

sup

http://www.digitalqatar.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Qatar-Bid2.jpg

well yes i was amazed

such a weird bunch of lads. afaict blatter has a tiny bit of accumulated moral authority, but the wider committee has been on the take since the TV era and is kind of a laughing stock (but *ha ha sad laugh*)

blatter is a cretin about rule changes btw.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/12/14/sports/soccer/blazer1/blazer1-blog480.jpg

how can you not trust someone with a beard like that?!?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPBy9FTkXkE

is that a 7 minute song about jack warner?

It certainly is.

http://www.socceramerica.com/article/42342/americans-at-center-of-fifa-bribery-scandal.html

<3 this lawyer, he helped us out with the Fire club charter when ownership were being sticks in the mud.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ScvAJG51V4&feature=player_embedded

first 4 pages of today's guardian sport section are about these jokers

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/may/26/sport

ok 3 pages

Chuck Blazer, eh? Didn't think he had it in him.

It's alluded to in the comments of the SoccerAmerica article, but there is a lot of speculation going on in MLS circles about how this is some kind of effort to prop up Blatter so the league can get exception to single entity and teams per league limits imposed by FIFA. It's interesting, but I dunno if I can give the league brass credit for being that organized.

Nothing says 'free election' quite like a summary trial of the non-incumbent candidate put together at two days' notice.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13559384.stm

hope this total shitbag mediawhore is gone soon...mind you fifa must be a hydra for this kind of thing.

not you too sepp! say it ain't so. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13574338.stm

"It feels like at last the dam is breaking around them. It is a bit like the scene at the end of Reservoir Dogs when everyone has a gun pointed at each other's heads."

It's an interesting move from Blazer given his history with Jack Warner. As far as i can remember, Warner was heavily criticised back in 1989 for selling 45,000 tickets to the 28,500 capacity World Cup qualifier between T&T and the US and allegedly pocketing the cash. There were stronger allegations from some quarters that he arranged with the US to throw what was, effectively, a decider - letting the Americans qualify in return for unspecified favours. Even twenty years ago, there was no real doubt he was as bent as a nine bob note.

Head of the US football authorties at the time - Chuck Blazer. The man who fixed it for Warner to become CONCACAF President - Chuck Blazer.

http://i.imgur.com/MJHgx.jpg

^ What's Mike Hancock MP doing on this thread?

"When a Swiss farmer's neighbour has a cow while he has none, the less fortunate farmer will work twice as hard so that one day he can buy a cow as well," he said.

"When another farmer, elsewhere, on an island, say, has no cow but his neighbour does, that farmer will kill the neighbour's cow out of sheer malice. I'd rather be a Swiss farmer, like it or not."

-- Sepp Blatter on today's allegations

something something put them out to pasture

another farmer, elsewhere, on an island, say,

can't believe the Icelandic FA are taking this shit

on an island

Uh, hello Albion!

xp figured it was a Trinidad and Tobago reference myself

love that he used Swissness in the analogy. so much for neutrality.

Basically, he's saying that Russians and Qatari are ambitious cattle farmers and the English are malicious bovicides

Fifa, it has often been said, is a one-cow town.

And Blatter def knows how to milk it.

Jack Warner gets all Alan Partridge, warns of 'football tsunami'

"I have lived three score and almost ten and my Jack hasn't been hanged as yet"

shit, starting to like him...

Looks like Blatter will be running unopposed.

Bin Hammam has pulled out of the election on the day of his ethics hearing:

"I promise those who stood by me that I will walk with my head held high and will continue to fight for the good of the game."

"I have a special thank you to my friend and colleague Jack Warner for his unlimited support. I am sorry to see that he has to suffer because of me, but I am promising him that I will be with him all the way through thick and thin."

"I look forward to working closely with my colleagues to restore Fifa's reputation to what it should be – a protector of the game that has credibility through honesty, transparency and accountability. It saddens me that standing up for the causes I believed in has come at a great price – the degradation of Fifa's reputation. This is not what I had in mind for Fifa and this is unacceptable.

Warner has angrily denied accusations that he failed to support the US's World Cup bid adequately:

The US is accusing me of not working hard enough for them. What more you want me to do, go in the people house and sleep with them? I can't do that!

Also:

http://i.imgur.com/pgypN.jpg

good lord that man is disturbing

and blazer is a weirdo too

FIFA clears Blatter in bribery scandal.

Blatter cleared, other guys not, everyone happy

"Oh shit" says Jerome Valcke, live on telly.

Vote to go ahead, only one candidate, 50% needed to win, control of world football and billions of dollars at stake, 2022 still scheduled to go to Qatar

great bunch of lads

5.59pm: Damaseb on why Blatter was cleared: "The allegation is that he failed to report to the authorites a report made to him that Bin Hammam intended to make payments. Mr Blatter's version is that indeed Mr Warner told him that the meeting was going to be held and take Bin Hammam intended to make these payments. Warner denies the allegations, he says he never says anything like that. Blatter says he was told. Blatter says the obligation to report did not arise because he was asked for advice and an opinion and informed Warner that that should not happen. So he did not have the evidence that a wrongdoing had taken place. At that stage no wrongdoing had occurred, he was only being asked for a view and he discouraged the asker."

6.23pm: "Having listened to the press conference, I still don't understand why Blatter was not suspended," writes Pamela Hulley. "Can you shed any light on this?" As I understand it, under Article 129 in Fifa's regulations members are only compelled to report to the ethics committee if a "wrongdoing" has taken place. Blatter says he was told that Bin Hammam intended to make these $40,000 payments and he advised against it. At that stage no wrongdoing had taken place, so he was under no obligation to report it.

By the letter of the law, he's not got to go.

I mean, it's perfectly fucking reasonable for the President of any organisation to not report serious corruption among two of his top guys on the basis of semantics.

Maybe if we all act outraged enough on this thread, Blatter will do the right thing.

After this glorious victory over his detractors, the least the world can do to honour the man is rename the sport (which would get rid of the American/Australian/Gaelic football/soccer confusion) as Blatterball.

That american journalist who tried to stand on a 'clean up fifa' ticket, but couldn't get any support - I bet he feels very silly tonight.

Bad weekend for Jack. Yesterday, a judge ordered the T&T football association to make an interim payment of £700k to the 2006 Soca Warriors team, with millions more expected to come. This is something of an advance on the £496 they each got from Warner for taking part in the World Cup four years ago. Still, when the PM is away on state business, it's reported that he's left in charge of the whole country.

The Blatter judgement is astonishing. Is it standard practice to ask the whiter-than-white President of an international organisation for advice on whether to illegally bribe various members of that organisation?

presumably (and i can be thick at times) this is all a blatter team smear against bin hammam? in other words none of this would have come out if there weren't an election.

I hardly think this is a time for cynicism

It's a bit like a microcosm of 21st century Russian politics with Blatter as Putin. They key to retaining power isn't necessarily to be corrupt, it's to ensure that everyone else is. As soon as someone, in this case bin Hammam, steps out of line, you can bring perfectly legitimate charges against them and make them stick. You ignore the equally valid allegations against your allies as long as they know to stay in line. Either the whole edifice collapses or Blatter goes on until he's dead.

you said it better than i could

lol fifa

lol indeed, but surely this is the end for fifa now? The only people who can deal with Blatter from here onwards are those who don't mind looking totally corrupt themselves. For any other body this would be fatal, and even fifa must find it a bit awkward eventually.

You'd like to think.

no this is just a cosmetic make-over for fifa. blatter gets back in, same old same old.

Not again! Blatter accused of rape by hotel maid

lol indeed, but surely this is the end for fifa now? The only people who can deal with Blatter from here onwards are those who don't mind looking totally corrupt themselves. For any other body this would be fatal, and even fifa must find it a bit awkward eventually.

― Ismael Klata, Sunday, May 29, 2011 11:30 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you'd like to think, right, but this whole thing is only now (like today) getting coverage in germany, some of it along the lines of beckenbauer: "He did a wonderful job," the former Germany captain told Radio 5 Live. "It's not easy. Fifa is like the United Nations - we have 208 members. It's not an easy to handle, but I think Blatter and his staff are doing a wonderful job."

also http://twitter.com/#!/RobHarrisUK/status/74833038332276736

Oh man. I know the bid etc get reported here totally differently to the rest of the world, but I'd assumed this'd be different. Come to think, all the questions yesterday *were* by the bbc, the guardian, the mail and so on. Still you'd expect them to take a bigger interest surely, they're paying for it after all.

The independent commission set up by the FA to investigate the bribery claims surrounding the World Cup vote has apparently exonerated Jack Warner and the three other representatives Lord Triesman accused of demanding payments or favours in return for backing England.

I'm still struggling to work out why they would have pre-warned Blatter that they were paying people to vote against him in the presidential election.

This does seem to be bigger news in the countries that lost out on the two forthcoming World Cups. I'm not sure how many people really know / care what FIFA does, other than arranging one big tournament every four years. Any pressure for reform would be more likely to come from UEFA rather than the public / press, perhaps.

Warner's just published an e-mail from the Gen Sec of FIFA (Valcke) in which he appears to accuse Qatar of buying the World Cup:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13592684.stm

"You don't have to believe me, you don't have to like me, nobody has to eat with me, drink with me or sleep with me but Jesus Christ, take the truth when you see it."

i guess that's the football tsunami warner was talking about

However, Bin Hammam responded by telling BBC Sport on Monday: "I don't know why Valcke has said that."

The Qatari added: "If I was paying money for Qatar you also have to ask the 13 people who voted for Qatar."

Valcke seems quite incompetent. lol @ his email to Warner including ";)".

Warner suggested the equivalent of bribes but in the end didn't receive any (that there is evidence of)? is this why Triesman's claims appear to have fallen down?

There's no evidence of anything aiui - they've created a system of £x million in expenditure by a handful of people, and no need for any of it to be accounted for. That's a scandal of its own quite apart from the current hubbub.

no short corners is saying Chuck Blazer's been fired. Warner re-asserting control in concacaf?

http://theoriginalwinger.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/concacaf_chuck_blazer.jpg

And so the attacks on the FA continue; this time it's Julio Grondona, the long-time head of the Argentina FA, throwing the punches: "It looks like England is always complaining so please I say will you leave the Fifa family alone!" he says to strong applause. "We always have attacks from England," he adds. "Their journalism is more busy lying than telling the truth."

That liveblog is some depressing reading.

a julio grondona primer:

According to a former employee of the Qatar bid team, at least one adviser recommended that the Qatar Football Association make a payment of $78.4 million to help the Argentina Football Association, or AFA, dig out of a financial crisis that threatened the country's domestic league. This person said the payment was meant to help Qatar's relationship with AFA President Julio Grondona, who is a member of FIFA's executive committee.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703377504575651103941330246.html

grondona denied that the argentine fa was in debt. but that's not exactly what the WSJ is claiming - they're saying the league was under threat because of a financial crisis. and indeed, the year before the vote, the AFA had to postpone the start of the season because the first division clubs couldn't pay their players' wages - which led to riots and argentina's president calling for grondona to lose his job. there was no repeat of the problems last august, after the vote for qatar. hmm.

other grondona highlights:

Julio Grondona, Sepp's vice-president and head of Argentina's FA denies threatening a referee who alleged "systemic corruption" in Argentina. Javier Ruiz: "I pointed out how whole championships are being rigged for cash. Grondona told me: 'Pal, watch out for your family.'" Grondona: "I hardly know Ruiz. I only met him once or twice. Nothing can be proven."

Fifa senior vice-president and head of Argentina's FA Julio Grondona forced to apologise after telling a live TV audience: "I do not believe a Jew can ever be a referee. It's hard work and, you know, Jews don't like hard work." ("He's a monumental man!" says Sepp. "We are friends for ever!")

New from Argentina FA head Julio Grondona: answers government questions about his efforts to end violence in football. "I have no responsibility for violence in football. Football is the people's salvation." Grondona dismissed reports that 235 gang members had their trips to the World Cup paid for by cash extorted from his FA officials. "We cannot help who travels with us."

£50m: total amount lost on 'financial mismanagement' this year - a new Fifa best. £3.6m of it went to ex-general secretary Urs Linsi: handed a new contract by finance director Julio Grondona, two months after Sepp Blatter had privately decided to sack him.

etc.

That's the English media for you, making up lies again to distract people from the real issue here - las Malvinas

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Football/Pix/pictures/2011/6/1/1306919741004/Sepp-Blatter-007.jpg

someone else want to make the gif or shall I

closing an attempt at exoneration with "nothing can be proven" is a bit like aiming for verisimilitude by ending your sentences with "I tellsya".

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/06UZ4Z829ueLj/610x.jpg

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/073u3MCeoe2CC/610x.jpg

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/03Ob9qv88p5nq/610x.jpg

FIFA president Joseph Blatter, right, welcomes FIFA Executive Committe member Chuck Blazer prior to the 61st FIFA Congress held at the Hallenstadion in Zurich, Switzerland, Wednesday, June 1, 2011.

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0gimgl5b8X8AH/610x.jpg
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0aTW1Iq4OR0UM/610x.jpg
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/00Qp3ee4VifQZ/610x.jpg

haha, right now they're making each of the 208 delegates cast their vote one after the other, which at the current rate of progress should take over an hour, for a contest with one candidate. the suspense is killing me.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/SPORT/Pix/pictures/2011/6/1/1306941116767/Fifa-ballot-form-007.jpg

joseph sblatter

wow

Rummenigge, the Bayern Munich chief executive, said: "The recent happenings have once more proven that FIFA needs a change in its whole structure. As chairman of the European Club Association, I request FIFA to immediately introduce democratic and transparent structures and procedures.
"European clubs will no longer accept that they do not participate in the decision-making when it comes to club related matters.
"We will closely follow FIFA's development in this respect in the future and take appropriate measures, if there is no improvement."

^ most significant development of the day imo

are the clubs just going to use this as leverage against fifa to protect players from being used in international friendlies or whatever? i presume they don't really care about transparency and probity all of a sudden, given their own routine dealings with agents.

They'd rather be without the international game altogether is my feeling. Handily, fifa seem bent on giving every reason for it to be marginalised.

totally xxp.

not sure of the role of the ECA, but my impression is bayern are seen as (1) a technocratic, well run club (2) not english.

At his victory press conference, Blatter announced that a key member of the new internal structure to clean up the governance of Fifa will be the former US secretary of state, Henry Kissinger. His precise role is as yet unclear.

presumably dispensing advice like: "The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a bit longer."

http://www.economist.com/blogs/bagehot/2011/06/british-and-corruption

"We" think "they" are too tolerant of corruption. They think we are revolting hypocrites.

both otm

The article's OTM about the perception that England's complaints look hypocritical. There's certainly a sense that England tried to 'play the game' but weren't as clever or well-resourced as the rival bids.

All the stuff about integrity and decency also sits ill in the light of the FA's decision to roll out the red carpet for people like Abramovich, Usmanov, Shinawatra and al Mubarak at the domestic level. For a start, two of them provided the bankroll for the bid that actually beat England. Fixing a World Cup bid is hardly the greatest of Abramovich's crimes but the English game has been more than happy to swim in his money.

true. i've been surprised the extent to which the british press have rallied round the fa. it's been held in total contempt (incompetent, likely corrupt) basically throughout the premier league era afaict.

that's just their xenophobic instinct over-riding

4 reals tho blatter out

He's not cheating, he's just being "clever". The other team's going to do it, so why shouldn't we etc...

Not sure it is 'rallying round the FA' so much as 'we've got a story and we're going to run it'. The dear, hapless FA just happen to be the only ones putting themselves up to be shot down - it'd be a lot more effective if it was someone else.

i suspect the FA would not be sticking their neck out without the UK press. the press/attention made it untenable for them not to at least abstain.

do we know how many abstentions there were for the presidency vote btw?

i suspect the FA would not be sticking their neck out without the UK press. the press/attention made it untenable for them not to at least abstain.

Then Prince William stuck his oar in. Has Cameron jumped on the bandwagon yet?

sport secretary was giving it all that last week iirc

I think Blatter got 186 out 203 votes cast, out of 208 possible votes in total.

oh yeah, that was in the economist thing. lol vietnam.

Call me gullible, but could Blatter actually be the best of a bad lot? Is that possible?

oh yeah, that was in the economist thing. lol vietnam.

― caek, Thursday, 2 June 2011 14:30 (1 minute ago) Bookmark

if vietnam accidentally voted for blatter, then he appointed kissinger... it's almost too perfect.

fifa hammers another nail into own coffin, announces plan to increase friendlies to 17 per year

jack warner resigns, fifa closes its investigations and says "the presumption of innocence is maintained". that should silence the doubters!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jun/20/fifa-jack-warner-resigns

nothing to see here, move along

great bunch of lads

loool http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/13878161.stm

it's kind of amazing, but bigsoccer actually has a blogger churning out good stuff on this

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/blog.php?u=20531

Fifa could allow matches at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to be played over three 30-minute periods if temperatures in the stadiums became dangerously high for the players.

Michael Beavon, a director of Arup Associates who helped to develop the zero-carbon solar technology that will cool the 12 stadiums, told delegates at the Qatar Infrastructure Conference in London that the air-cooling would maintain a comfortable temperature of around 24 degrees Celsius in the stadiums.

"There is a moderate risk of heat injury to the players between 24C-29C but if you go above that you have high and extreme risk of injury. The one thing Fifa do say, although it is for guidance, is if it's 32C they will stop a match and play three 30-minute thirds rather than two 45-minute halves.

The one thing Fifa do say, although it is for guidance, is if it's 32C they will stop a match and play three 30-minute thirds rather than two 45-minute halves.

Even though it was quite a bit hotter than this at many games in 94?

They should have the next WC on the moon. Of course circumstances there will be very different than on earth, and not perfect for the actual players of the game. But nothing some tinkering with the game's fundamental rules won't solve.

It's easy to see FIFA as unimportant in part because, as the Blatter-bin Hammam wrangle illustrates, there's something deeply silly about many of the organization's Machiavellian twists. One of the common misconceptions about FIFA corruption is that it flourishes because the organization is rolling in money. In fact, if FIFA were a corporation, its revenue of just more than $1 billion a year wouldn't get it within a Tim Howard goal kick of the Fortune 500. In 2010, ExxonMobil raked in $284.6 billion; Blockbuster Video, the 500th company on the list, had revenues more than four times the average for world soccer's governing body. By the global scale on which it operates, FIFA is at best a medium-sized outfit. And it's the organization's middlingness, combined with its exposure to much larger economic powers, that determines the peculiar character of its scandals.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/nov/16/sepp-blatter-fifa-race-rows-handshakes

love this guy

Blatter reveals his ambition to work as a television pundit

• Fifa president wants analyst's role in 2015

http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/international_football/154784/france-football-claim-to-have-proof-that-qatar-rigged-2022-world-cup-vote.html#NoSurprise

Sepp Blatter, 77, the current Fifa president, was not found guilty of any misconduct but was branded as "clumsy" in his handling of the case.

Blatter has taken the report as vindication. "I note with satisfaction that this report confirms that: 'President Blatter's conduct could not be classified in any way as misconduct with regard to any ethics rules'. I have no doubt that Fifa, thanks to the governance reform process that I proposed, now has the means to ensure that such an issue does not happen again."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/may/30/sepp-blatter-fifa-great-survivor

On Sunday, Joseph S Blatter attended a ceremony on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius to celebrate the renaming of the country's FA headquarters in his honour.

They added the middle initial to make him sound like a n@zi war criminal

Blatter, who left the tournament last week as the protests reached their peak, hit back at Brazilian media which suggested he had fled the country without warning, saying he had to be present at the world under-20 championship in Turkey which overlaps with the Confederations Cup.

"In no way can it be said I escaped my responsibilities, on the contrary I assumed two responsibilities at the same time," he said.

Behind-the-scenes international intrigue, cronyism and allegations of vast corruption schemes: the story of Fifa, football's governing body, is surely ripe for a dramatic Hollywood retelling.

But a film in the works, starring Tim Roth and Gerard Depardieu, looks likely instead to be a sanitised version of Fifa's history and a hagiography of Sepp Blatter, its controversial president.

wtf, am I wrong to expect better from Roth than this? (he is to play Blatter)

LOL cannot wait

[heat exhausted footballer crawls towards blatter during qatar test match. he dies at his flip flops]

"be cool honey bunny!"

[curtains roll]

It is unclear who is funding the project

I wonder

Sepp Blatter: Fifa president hints at increased term

"Anything Mugabe can do I can do better..."

http://i.guim.co.uk/n/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/12/6/1386343964233/fadc4fa0-91e7-45ba-8dc8-2d18b174be8b-460x276.jpeg

It's actually morbidly impressive what a cushy nest this con-artist has been able to feather for himself. I mean, how does one go about becoming this sort of gravy-train grandee? I might apply for some work experience with him

start here

In the early 1970s, Blatter was elected president of the World Society of Friends of Suspenders, an organisation which tried to stop women replacing suspender belts with pantyhose.

Is Michael Garcia, who led the investigation into corruption in the Qatar bid, appealing against his own report?

His position seems to be that the findings (which he didn't write up) clear Qatar but are a distortion of what the committee actually reported.

I'm not sure if it's his report, but he is definitely claiming that the report itself doesn't correspond with his findings.

I'm sure FIFA were very relieved that their own investigation cleared them of any wrongdoing, anyway.

Appeals committee:

Larry MUSSENDEN Bermuda
Fernando MITJANS Argentina
AHMAD Madagascar
Édgar PEÑA GUTIÉRREZ Bolivia
F Randall CUNLIFFE Guam
Abdul Rahman LOOTAH United Arab Emirates
Leo WINDTNER Austria
Christian ANDREASEN Faroe Islands
Laureano GONZALEZ Venezuela
Dan KAKARAYA Papua New Guinea
Tourqui SALIM Comoros
Victor GARZA Mexico
Samuel RAM Fiji
Oliver SMITH Turks and Caicos Islands

He seems to have written a full report that someone else has summarised so there'll be pressure to publish both.

all the Russian documents got destroyed in a computer fire

I understand it that Garcia is disputing the summary made by FIFA of his report, claiming it's a false or inaccurate summary.

Dude should just put the whole thing online right now tbh

am loving - LOVING - the implication of the English FA as corrupt, but the clearing of Russia and Qatar. magnificent, magnificent stuff

1 out of 3 is something i guess

They had to leave the Spain / Portugal bid out of the report as nobody at the Spanish or Portuguese FAs was willing to discuss it with them.

Although low-level, the English FA's pandering to Uncle Jack was so brazen it makes you wonder how they thought they would get away with it. At least Russia and Qatar had the sense to burn the evidence.

exactly. too quaint and chummy by half. proper corruption escaping our fevered imperialist imagination

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFYv6sixE0g

http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-sepp-blatter-fifa/img/bw_cover_fifa.jpg

http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-sepp-blatter-fifa/

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/sports/soccer/fifa-officials-face-corruption-charges-in-us.html

HERE we go.

warner indicted!

loving this @MichaelSSchmidt: FIFA execs not being led out in handcuffs. Very peaceful. Hotel staff meanwhile is freaking out.

i go past that hotel on my bus to work...so posh

I wouldn't put the chances of Jack Warner facing US justice at more than about 30%.

His son Daryan was meant to be the star witness in the FBI case against FIFA and, as far as i know, hasn't been able to leave Florida for two years. Ever since this came out, Jack hasn't left T&T, to the best of my knowledge. There's some confusion over exactly what the domestic laws mean but there's a belief that his status as an MP may give him immunity from extradition.

The complication is that he has started to burn bridges with the government over corruption. He was national security minister until 2013, when the story about Daryan broke, and had kept quiet about decades of domestic corruption. When he was turfed out of the ruling party, he started to release some of the historical allegations to the press. I'd suspect that he has far more on both FIFA and the T&T government in reserve, for exactly this eventuality, but if not then they might want him shipped out ASAP.

It looks like Chuck Blazer (who famously had a separate apartment in Trump Towers for his cats) is the one who cut a deal for immunity. All the people arrested are CONCACAF and he is the one missing.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/soccer/soccer-rat-ex-u-s-soccer-exec-chuck-blazer-fbi-informant-article-1.1995761

wd love to believe a few of these guys (warner especially) will end up in prison... but I guess it's never going to happen is it?

Some of them probably will. You generally don't get to be head of a football association without political ties but some governments might want to disassociate themselves. It will be interesting to see how this plays out politically in some countries given that this is an independent prosecution brought by a CONCACAF competitor. FIFA isn't popular anywhere but i don't know how well the idea of the Costa Rican FA being dismantled by the US government will go down, for example, when the two countries have had public disagreements on various football-related things in the past.

any hope this will lead to a proper investigation of qatar?

The legal ramifications of pulling Qatar would be gigantic given that they've already started building infrastructure in anticipation of the World Cup, with people already dying in their hundreds. But they will continue to do so the longer preparations continue, the right thing to do would be to halt everything now and give 2022 to a country already reasonably well placed to hold it, but the size of the lawsuits that FIFA would open themselves up (and the likelihood of this clusterfuck continuing for years) will probably enough to ensure they bottle doing that.

Also if the Qatar process was corrupt (lol) then the likelihood is the Russian one was too and that's five years closer (although I'd guess FIFA would dearly love to take the WC away from Russia for other reasons).

Four years closer, even.

Guardian now reporting that Swiss authorities are holding a criminal inquiry into the awarding of both 2018 and 2022.

Due to air this evening: There's Only One Sepp Blatter http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05w8ftq

Blazer and two of Jack Warner's sons entered guilty pleas and cut deals apparently.

My attention has been drawn to certain developments in world football which started several hours ago and is at the present time still ongoing.

It has been reported that a number of FIFA officials have been arrested in Switzerland and that at least one raid conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigators in Miami is being executed at what I presume to be CONCACAF offices.

My name is being reported by international media as being one of those persons sought in connection with the probe.

The people of Trinidad and Tobago will know that I quit FIFA and international football more than four years ago and that over the past several years I have recommitted my life to the work of improving the lot of every citizen of every creed and race in this nation. This is where I have let my bucket down.

I have fought fearlessly against all forms of injustice and corruption.

I have been afforded no due process and I have not even been questioned in this matter. I reiterate that I am innocent of any charges. I have walked away from the politics of world football to immerse myself in the improvement of lives in this country where I shall, God willing, die.

The actions of FIFA no longer concern me. I cannot help but note however that these cross- border coordinated actions come at a time when FIFA is assembled for elections to select a President who is universally disliked by the international community. At times such as this it is my experience that the large world powers typically take actions to affect world football. World football is an enormous international business.

That is no longer my concern. My sole focus at this stage of my life is on the people of Trinidad and Tobago.

I wish to advise the hundreds of thousands of persons who support the ILP that my commitment to them and to the people of Trinidad and Tobago is undaunted and can never be broken.

Jack Warner

Didn't know he was on I Love Photography, must pay more attention.

sensibly not ruling out the possibility that god might want him to live forever

today in "can't imagine why" or "o rlly," depending on your perspective

The Associated Press ‏@AP 15m15 minutes ago
BREAKING: Swiss justice ministry says 6 of the 7 arrested in FIFA probe oppose extradition to US.

1 of 7 "didn't completely understand the question"

Blatter, 79, was expected to win a fifth term despite a string of scandals during his 17-year tenure but now looks less secure than at any other time during that reign. In a desperate rearguard action, his spokesman tried to argue that the dramatic events were good for Fifa and attempted to align them with a discredited reform programme promised in the wake of a swirl of allegations four years ago.

Underrated side effect of all this: the (presumed) destruction of Traffic Sports, a boil on the face of North American soccer.

https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/603726608709582849

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGDeJuGWoAAuA-M.jpg

a qatarstophe

Wishful thinking perhaps but in light of these FIFA arrests, could we see some countries boycotting the Qatar World Cup?

i think people need to start taking the plunge. fifa delenda est.

Not countries, no, have a hard time seeing that. Sponsors, though.

I think the middle east absolutely deserves to host a World Cup, but not like this obviously. It should have been made clear from the start that it was going to be a winter tournament, they should have specified a year and announced that it was going to that region and then let the countries from there bid.

Also think India should get one as well.

and england. not to be all captain save a brit. it just would be an incredible occasion.

they should rotate between legacy type world cups in your traditional home of the game countries and events that build the sport around the globe

yeah once every 8 years would be nice if it went to a country that didn't have to spend untold billions building new stadia.

that are then never used again

packed up and shipped to Iran iirc?

http://www.itv.com/news/update/2015-05-28/platini-asked-blatter-to-resign-at-fifa-crisis-meeting/

to coin a phrase, he would wouldn't he

How well in is blatter with commebal compared to caf and asia? It's crass but the World Cup or at least the main attraction for sponsors is dependent on the European and South American teams surely. If they threaten to pull out then it's game over.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGBuA5hWYAAlg1B.jpg

top, top

Why on earth should India, with no real footballing infrastructure and with a national team that has never got anywhere near the finals, be given the World Cup? There are all sorts of reasons why Russia is a terrible idea but it is at least a footballing nation.

In terms of picking a country that actually appears in the finals, the only real options in the Middle East are Saudi Arabia and Iran and there are some pretty obvious reasons why FIFA would never go for either in a million years.

I mean an India WC would build a gigantic audience for the game but the negative impact on a lot of its poor would be worse than Brazil.

Having qualified for the World Cup before isn't a selection criteria i care about

Indonesian World Cup is the joyous clusterfuck we're sailing towards tbh

The wc can't be in asia again until 2034.

tbh at this point even i'm feeling like for 2026 they should go fuck their bidding process and let the uk do it

Lol like there'll be a UK in 2026.

the DK then

Nah, we don't even have the one stadium required to take part of that pan-european euro championship.

Scandinavian WC could be a laugh tbf

There was one in '58 - there should be one again there.

Doubt India would bid for a WC, game is too small interest over there.

Part of the reforming the process should be to simplify bidding process and requirements.

Anti-India talk here reminds me a little bit of anti-USA sentiment pre '94.

with a bit more slave-labour, gentrification & spaceports built atop slums

and a helluva lot more trenchant guardian articles

everything fifa has done apart from complicity in serial and ongoing corporate manslaughter in qatar is perfectly defensible

the people in this country rting gary lineker or whichever other noisy demagogic shithead talking abt fifa are mostly upset about the hilarious leading-up-the-garden-path of the england world cup bid rather than dead south asians

enabling corporate manslaughter isn't exactly a tiny thing to set apart

http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/news/images/2006_1196.jpg

Prince William has written to Fifa demanding it lifts the ban on England shirts being embroidered with poppies.

Fifa decrees that shirts should not carry political, religious or commercial messages.

But the Duke of Cambridge is "dismayed" by Fifa's stance in this case for Saturday's match against Spain.

Clarence House said: "The Duke's strong view is the poppy is a universal symbol of remembrance, which has no political, religious or commercial connotations."

this criticism of the english establishment in relation to fifa is itself of course rather parochial but anyway, the blatter clique while unsavoury and corrupt has been villified by the political class for not those things but because it hasn't been venal in the right way (switzerland is london's great rival in friendliness to flight capital, oligarchy, predatory transnationals etc)

the garcia report holds the f.a. responsible for 'irregularities' but being too prudish to do it properly like russia and qatar, england has been burned for years ever since its own dear stanley rous departed fifa (friend to apartheid and involved in the dubious referee selection that benefitted england in 1966)

like a lot of other things in england it's mostly empire hubris and tantrums about loss of influence, so there is this purblind weighting where 'corruption' is upbraided while the meaningful harms consequent from it are of only secondary importance because this country is even more deeply implicated

fifa hopefully will end in its current incarnation, though if that happens the purge of third world elements may just lead to capture by the usual western interests and similar exploitations, merely with less personal corruption

CONCACAF just cleaned out Webb and Li.

Not countries, no, have a hard time seeing that. Sponsors, though.

― Frederik B, Thursday, May 28, 2015 7:25 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

presumably some of the big sponsors are implicated in this.

e.g. http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/9867075/nike-co-operating-with-authorities-after-fifa-arrests

boy did nike ever make some shady sponsorship decisions in the 00's

We will have a second round of voting! Blatter gains 133 to Prince Ali's 73: not enough for two-third majority

Of the 209 votes, three were spoiled and so only 206 counted

this fucking guy

Five per cent of Fifa delegates vote that Germany did not win the 2014 World Cup in election test

bants

nakh absolutely otm upthread, just listened to the usual pat dismissals of colonialism and any non-Anglo agenda from Bernstein and some hack on Five Live, summing up the tone of most journalism i've heard this week

fifa hopefully will end in its current incarnation, though if that happens the purge of third world elements may just lead to capture by the usual western interests and similar exploitations, merely with less personal corruption

that's the English dream right there

Warner bases U.S. critique on Onion story

this criticism of the english establishment in relation to fifa is itself of course rather parochial but anyway, the blatter clique while unsavoury and corrupt has been villified by the political class for not those things but because it hasn't been venal in the right way (switzerland is london's great rival in friendliness to flight capital, oligarchy, predatory transnationals etc)

Yes, has been amusing to see the people who oversaw the sale of prime EPL assets to royal despots, murderous politicians, a money launderer, a heroin trafficker, a fugitive arms dealer and the man who bankrolled the bid for the World Cup we are now talking about boycotting getting on their high horse this week about the corrupting influence of money.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/06/01/world/americas/ex-fifa-official-jack-warner-cites-onion-article-in-defense.html

lmao

haha yeah http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/may/31/ex-fifa-vice-president-jack-warner-swallows-onion-spoof

the other funny thing is that the FA seem to believe they are one of the main antagonist to Blatter. like they've understood something other football associations, especially continental associations, cannot possibly understand.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGJwAu1UIAA7GKM.jpg

lol looks like one of those suspects boards from the Wire or Sopranos

slightly misleading in that sense because that's only the arrested/indicted people below him. there's lots more below who haven't been implicated.

i mean the argument that a lot of his underlings were involved is not a slam dunk anyway, even if "a lot" is like 90%. but it's more like 10%.

i love sepp.

congested defence with the 6-3-1 formation there

Blatter stepping down

^ obscure King Tubby versions

seppuku

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

hooray remember the day when Sepp Blatter resigned and there was no more corruption and the World Cup became a free festival

damn

now we can start asking for the resignation of the new guy

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.

Probably on his way to the escape pod right now

sounds like putin when medvedev was pm

was just gonna post ^^^

Now which was longer, Blatter's 5th term as President of FIFA or Chuka Umunna's candidacy for the leadership of the Labour Party?

it's the right decision. it was never going to be a comfortable journey for fifa with such a weak blatter

qatar?

Sepp didn't vote for Qatar

or so he says

i believe him

If the new President is anyone other than Bobby Charlton flecked with the blood of St George then I'm calling a fix.

Might settle for the reanimated corpse of Bobby Moore as well.

George Zornick ‏@gzornick 21 minutes ago

Sepp Blatter should take a job at JPMorgan Chase, where DoJ won't bother him.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/6/5/1401928561609/World-Cup-Willie-001.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGgt4z7UkAAJsLB.png

Fuck it, this is great news actually. The fact he's resigning means something big is about to hit the fan. Sure, it'll take a while for his fetid stench to leave the room but this can only be a positive.

The violence of the stupidity on display here is just...
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/05/fifa-arrest-silver-lining.html

This sort of open acceptance of vice and corruption, however, is antithetical to the way Americans think about sports.

Compared to the way the rest of the world thinks about sports, of course

LOL USA

We are now the world’s sports cop.

SPORTS COPS this fall on CBS

This sort of open acceptance of vice and corruption, however, is antithetical to the way Americans think about sports.

For a start, we think about sport not sports.

I love the part where he tries to replicate how us anti-americans think about american imperialism, and it comes out like this: 'Oh, now that soccer means something to you, you have to make it more American by cleaning it up.' Yes. That's how anti-americans think, the ayatollahs are always complaining about america cleaning places up.

You are aligning yourself with the ayatollahs?

I think "cleaning it up" is maybe meant to sound more sarcastic sounding than you are reading it. I think it's pretty astute article but what do I know I am probably an American imperialist at heart.

i'm sepptical there will be big lasting changes to FIFA tho

That NY Mag writer needs to learn about Traffic Sports USA if he really thinks we're so righteous in our sporting pursuits.

https://worldsoccertalk.com/2015/05/27/nasls-ties-with-indicted-president-of-traffic-sports-usa-aaron-davidson-run-deep/

Also Traffic-related: http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/5764564/anguish-gale-agbossoumonde

the NY Mag writer appears to be about 11 years old so i guess there's time for him to learn about that stuff

xxp two soccer leagues few in states care about are evidence of what?

x-posts: Hm, I might have missed an 'also' in there.

Tons of people in the rest of the world care about corruption in FIFA - most of what has come to light has been through UK reporting, right? - but only US had the combination of 1) one of the central corrupt people being american, meaning loads of shit took place on US soil and b) the power to force the swiss to arrest people in switzerland.

Senator and former Brazilian footballer Romário stated that "unfortunately, it wasn't our police that arrested them, but someone had to eventually arrest them one day"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/06/03/how-a-curmudgeonly-old-reporter-exposed-the-fifa-scandal-that-toppled-sepp-blatter/

“I know that they are criminal scum, and I’ve known it for years,” he said. “And that is a thoughtful summation. That is not an insult. That is not throwing about wild words.”

“These scum have stolen the people’s sport. They’ve stolen it, the cynical thieving bastards,” he said. “So, yes, it’s nice to see the fear on their faces.”

Chuck Blazer's unsealed guilty plea:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2093153-blazer.html

http://chuckblazer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/my-blog-gets-name-change.html

On my couch, sitting near enough to be part of the conversation was the translator; while on Mr. Putin's was Vitaly Mutko. The conversation began in a normal enough way, each of us thanking the other for making time for the visit. Genial welcomes continued until at one moment, he looked at me with a very serious gaze and said, without cracking a smile, "You know, you look like Karl Marx!"

I guess I could have responded to his observation in any of a dozen unpredictable ways. Instead, I simply winked at him and said, "I know". This brought an immediate response with him lifting his right arm up in the air and thrusting it forward to give me my first High-5 from a Prime Minister.

His blog is all-time

lol at Putin-Animal-Trainer-At-Large photo series

This is what we have all been waiting for:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jun/04/fifa-crisis-warner-says-avalanche-is-coming-as-blazer-testimony-is-heard

“Not even death will stop the avalanche that is coming” he said. “The die is cast. There can be no turning back. Let the chips fall where they fall.”

http://www.breakingnews.ie/sport/other/delaney-fifa-paid-fai-substantial-amount-after-henry-handball-680220.html

At this rate, FIFA is about to reveal that Leo Messi never existed.

BBC investigation: Warner's not innocent either http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-33039014

Bears, popes etc.

it's the right decision. it was never going to be a comfortable journey for fifa with such a weak blatter

― Frank 4ad (...), Tuesday, June 2, 2015 6:57 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

qatar?

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (...), Tuesday, June 2, 2015 6:58 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Okay, now I'm wondering if there's a fantastic pun doing the rounds that only I have missed up till now, or whether it's just a fantastic potential pun that only works if you know Norwegian: A traditional word for "urinary tract infection" in Norwegian translates directly into English as "bladder catarrh".

Sepp Blatter says he has not resigned as Fifa president.

http://www.raindance.org/wp-content/uploads/tumblr_m5vw1zRuT91qi0j6io1_500.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pqO6tK8_Wg

Like the sadness in his eyes in the still, like Drake in a strip club

expression on blatter's face as the cash rains down reminding me of

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02521/miliband_2521088b.jpg

No shortage of LOLs

CONCACAF & CONMEBOL heads arrested, again, today, along with others.

also this happened

http://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/styles/story_large/public/thumbnails/image/2015/12/03/14/Issa-Hayatou.jpg

lonely guy

Sepp Blatter and the longtime Fifa president’s one-time heir apparent, Michel Platini, have been banned from football for eight years, ending the career of the former and definitively derailing the vaulting ambitions of the latter.

The Fifa ethics committee, chaired by the German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, has ruled that both men should be banned despite their protestations that they did nothing wrong when Blatter paid the Uefa president 2m Swiss francs (£1.35m) in 2011, nine years after both men claimed it was originally due.

The committee found that: “Mr Blatter, in his position as president of Fifa, authorised the payment to Mr Platini which had no legal basis in the written agreement signed between both officials on 25 August 1999. Neither in his written statement nor in his personal hearing was Mr Blatter able to demonstrate another legal basis for this payment. His assertion of an oral agreement was determined as not convincing and was rejected by the chamber.”

In addition to being banned, Blatter was fined 50,000 Swiss francs or £34,000 and Platini 80,000 Swiss francs or £54,000.

Blatter conducting a classic press conference right now, juicy quotes left, right and centre.

This + the results of the Spanish election = my kind of xmas.

Let's go, FIFA!

habeas fifam

Switzerland 12 points

Fifa presidential election: Gianni Infantino succeeds Sepp Blatter
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35673743

...Prince Ali bin al-Hussein was third with four, while Jerome Champagne failed to get any. Tokyo Sexwale withdrew before voting began in Zurich....

Tokyo sexwale what a name

https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/the-soap-opera-actress-who-captured-chuck-blazers-heart

And here we go

http://deadspin.com/fifa-finally-releases-full-world-cup-corruption-report-1796454359

Hi Mr Warner:
Jamaica owes the english FA 215,000 USD and another 18500 USD
to a private english firm. You are one of the most powerful man in
Football and the english FA were at our CFU Congress. Mr
Warner is it possible for you to ask the english FA to waive Jamaica
debt. This is an emergency. - Neville Pennant

could quote from the warner / england 2018 section all night, comedy gold

A good local rundown on the bits of the report relating to Uncle Jack.

http://wired868.com/2017/06/29/longdenville-haiti-and-the-bankers-son-how-fifas-garcia-report-shatters-the-jack-warner-myth/

5. Efforts to Mask Ties to Messrs. Beckenbauer and Radmann

Internal bid team correspondence and documents indicate that Australia 2022 officials actively tried to conceal aspects of Fedor Radmann’s role with the bid team because of Mr. Radmann’s ties to Franz Beckenbauer. [...] Later in his email, Mr. Hargitay wrote:

"In order to maintain maximum confidentiality, I want to name our project “Road through Babylon” and our two key contacts “F&F.”"

lol

I'll lol only if Qatar gets (literally) cancelled.

that's fair

One can dream, I'spose

The year is 1986. The sign on Maradona's shirt says "No drugs" , on Platini's "No to corruption" 🤣 pic.twitter.com/8VTJosPxZL

— Rumen Tabakov (@minimal1023) October 5, 2019

lool

Sadly Platini's doesnt say no corruption

No rogues.

Revealed: 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar as it gears up for World Cup

off to a good start

World Cup in Qatar is off to a hot start….the other day we got a peak into the Fyre Fest looking tent city for fans and now a Danish TV reporter is forced off air while live by Qatari security pic.twitter.com/UUYzp7ojI1

— Wu-Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) November 16, 2022

Greek salad at the Qatar World Cup fan zone

🇶🇦 38 Rial (£9) pic.twitter.com/K5taOhM9Q3

— Footy Scran (@FootyScran) November 16, 2022

Fyre Festival Presents... World Cup 2022

and Murder Inc. artist Ja Rule *will* be performing “Always Off Side” during the opening ceremony

irlol