FIFA Bureaucrats Arrested, to be extradited to US

Yep, exactly.

Wait and see if Blatter is ousted, especially with the FBI rout going on.

If he holds on, then take the nuclear option.

If UEFA breaks away then FIFA is doomed. The majority of the best sides in the world are in UEFA and a "world" organisation in which Brazil or Argentina wins every time would be about as compelling as another Blatter term.

 

Blatter will win. Africa is behind him, South America is behind him, CONCACAF (or at least most of it) is behind him. Those alone will be nearly enough to keep him in power. Then there's the Asian countries, a lot of which support him. UEFA votes will be almost irrelevant.

 

They would, or Conmebol would be under pressure to do so, if FIFA didn't include UEFA. The majority of TV revenue comes from European countries, most of the major sponsors are US companies, so if UEFA jump so would CONCACAF be obliged to.

 

I see that Putin has come out in direct support of a fifth Blatter term.

That virtually confirms something dodgy has gone on with Russia and Qatar to me.

 

Background info on the known situation from the Beeb here:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32889845

A pretty good summary of how things go to where they are, I think.

If the FBI have examples of meetings and banking transactions, as explicitly stated in the article, a lot of people are going to go away for a long, long time. This is excellent news.

 

Which itself smacks in the face of one of the rules of FIFA, that there is to be no government intervention of the national FA. If Putin supports Blatter (which we knew anyway) then the Russian FA is going to be pressured in to voting for Blatter. Voting against Blatter won't on its own prevent Russia from hosting the 2018 WC

 

All these organisations will have massive contractual obligations towards Fifa and the World cup with massive financial penalties .... no one is going anywhere without an international court ruling saying they're entitled to.

 

it would be nice to believe that some people will be punished beyond simply paying a fine and then being barred from certain jobs/countries, but history (the libor scandal, the hsbc/mexico scandal before that, salt lake city) suggests not unfortunately

 

RICO is not used to just slap people on the wrist. Feel free to WatfordTalk me on this later if you're proven correct, though.

This is the legislation that was used to break mafia families. It's serious stuff. The 14 already indicted could be facing prison terms of anything up to 20 years, barring plea agreements.

 

As to why the 2008 crash, and all the prior banking scandals barely led to any incarcerations, that is more about the way the US economy is structured to bone the little guy and keep rich people rich, and entirely a different story. Uncle Sam is less invested in FIFA than it is in the banking system here. I don't think it will have any compunction about tearing FIFA apart.

 

From what I've seen it was from within Fifa that the investigation was initiated ... that basically means by the pro Blatter or by the anti Blatter camp and so far he seems to be going nowhere.

All those years of gathering dirt must payoff somewhere.

 

The most credible account I've seen is that the FBI started investigating after the US lost the WC bid to Qatar. Many involved in the US bid thought it was a dodgy decision and that someone had been bought, so they wanted it looked into.

Considering the FBI have admitted they have been looking into this for years, it seems highly likely to be the case.

This is nothing to do with pro/anti-Blatter camps, although I do think the timing in making all of this public was very deliberate indeed.

 

It's just what I read but I have no doubt you're right as well ... a kind of joint effort but most of the dirt so far revolves around South Africa.

And to think the US has the technical ability to look into every Fifa computer worldwide and long before Snowden spilled the beans. ... Not that they would of course but there must be some very, very worried people smashing their hard drives and burning their records as we speak.

 

my knowledge of rico mainly comes from the wire, sopranos and sons of anarchy, so i'll happily admit to not knowing what i'm saying. but i still think that the actual jail time for any of these people will be minimal, and i stand by that regardless of it being prosecuted in the uk, us or switzerland. some guy at the very bottom of the chain will get sent down (a la any police scandal in the uk, phone hacking, social service scandals) as evidence of action but the institution and people at the top will get away with a strongly worded press statement and perhaps some kind of financial penalty.

 

Nothing will. They will host the World Cup in 2018 irrespective of what happens. Hell, the FBI could find direct evidence that the vote was rigged and they still would. It's too late to change it. The amount of investment by the government, private companies in infrastructure etc will be massive and the legal bill that FIFA would have to pay would be rather large.

2022 however, is a different story. They can still use a whole bunch of 'out of their control' excuses to get out of that one.

 

That's not correct. If it was proven beyond any reasonable doubt that Russia's win was rigged/bought, no court (outside of Russia) would decide FIFA would be required to allow Russia to host the tournament.

In the vast majority of countries, bribery and backroom dealing is completely illegal. Most importantly, it's illegal in Switzerland, which is where FIFA is based.

If Russia lost the tournament (and billions in sunk costs as a direct result of that), that would be their fault for breaking the law. Should the Russia win be shown to have been fixed or obtained through corruption, they will lose the event for certain.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32923104 "Not me Guv"

 

I would like you to be right, but general consensus amongst the so called "experts" here is that upsetting the Ruskies to that extent is a step too far.

 

Sky Sports News:

- Blatter said that only a minority of those working at Fifa were corrupt. Actually it was a third.

:doh:

 

What, like most of world slapping currency destroying sanctions on them? :]]

Losing the WC would be far less damaging than the sanctions they've received since the Ukraine situation began.

17 years in power, yet he couldn't see rampant corruption involving at least a third of the highest echelons of FIFA...and he expects people to believe it'll improve under him in the future.

It's beyond ludicrous.

 

Aside from that, America should be keeping it's fingers inside its borders for a fking change. They've run out of things to invade so they've decided to impose US law internationally.

 

No they haven't. They've imposed it domestically and asked for extradition based on criminal activity during meetings on American soil and criminal activity involving funds moved through the American financial system.

That is entirely within their jurisdiction, which is exactly why the Swiss are complying with the extradition requests and conducting their own investigations.

 

But we all know they're going to be charged under US Law for offences which didn't happen in the US - that's how America operates>

There will be phrasing of the judge along the lines of "taking into account the offences also discovered in Cape Verde..."

 

It certainly should be. But it won't be. It will never ever be proven to a 'required by FIFA level' to have them stripped of the tournament.

I'd love it to be. I'd love the USA to get it as they should have, as I believe that the Australian's should host 2022. But under the current leadership, which simply won't change, it won't happen.

The Russians will just play the 'we didn't know' card. Again and again. They already are. If Blatter goes in the next 6 months, then maybe. But if he survives that long, it'd take UEFA pulling out of FIFA to cause any real ructions in the machine. Even then, I'd bet that it has to be unanimous. And there's certainly one European country that won't vote to leave.

And even if it was proven, I'd hazard a guess that it would require some sort of vote to get them removed from having it and as we are seeing, the Godfather of corruption himself can hang on to power simply because of all the nice things he's given all the smaller footballing countries over the years. I can guess which way they'd all vote. The countries that really give a **** about everything that's going on can be counted on a couple of hands.

 

Indeed. There's very little that the Americans hate more than crime committed using their currency.

 

...& therein lies the political subtext here.

Blatter claims (and is seen) to be the voice of the smaller footballing countries, especially in the developing world.

Many of us see this as a fight against an endemically corrupt organisation that has been abusing its power for years.

Many others see this as the big bad Europeans & Americans ganging up against an organisation that has fought to protect & promote the "little guys".

 

If Russia is ever proven to have won the tournament via corrupt means and FIFA let them keep it, the other bidders will sue FIFA into the floor.

FIFA's "required by FIFA" level of evidence won't count for **** in a court of law.

 

I'm fairly sure I read somewhere that in order to bid for the world cup in a first place you sign an agreement promising not to sue fifa.

 

Surely it's illegal to put something like that in a contract!

 

Russia could easily move to the Asian confederation though don't forget so they, unlike a lot of European countries, could still stay in FIFA.

 

Normally I'd agree with you about the US waving its big stick about around the world but not this time.

Corruption within FIFA has been endemic for decades, they and Blatter have been criticised about it for pretty much the whole of that period too and we have been in the lead on that. But that criticism has been totally ineffectual and pathetic up until now.

Along comes the US, take no sh.t, we're gonna kick some arse here, and are giving every indication of going for the jugular.

On this occasion, I bloody well love it.

 

UEFA should walk along with any like minded countries and form a new organisation

Europe has enough stadiums to knock up a replacement world cup quickly

 

Surely that's ass or butt yo?

 

Sepp surely cannot win this. The US want him gone, so are taking out the layer below him and making his position untenable. The timing cannot be a coincidence.

Sepp has to try and keep going. He had far too much invested in this...

....5k to Kenya, 4k to Uganda etc.

 

I hope that UEFA pull out of Fifa when blatter wins.

They could hold a second European championships instead at the same time as the 2018 World Cup which would likely take significant TV money and sponsorship from Fifa - few people will want to watch the African cup of nations II.

I hope this is a watershed.