FIFA Bureaucrats Arrested, to be extradited to US

I agree with the entirety of your analysis on this thread so far. What happens re the Russians will depend almost entirely on whether the Americans want to play real hardball with them or not. The Swiss will simply go along with the US lead. As you say, the sanctions imposed after the Ukraine crisis are kicking Russia hard. And it's already down due to the drop in oil prices which are in turn predicated on the rapidly increasing known fracking reserves. The world is a very complex place!

Putin's response to his domestic crisis (partly brought on by himself, partly outwith his control) has been to 'sabre-rattle' on the international stage whether it be in the Ukraine or getting increasingly close to his 'enemies" waters and airspace with his warships, subs and military aircraft. This will play well for him at home as it makes the locals feel that the Russian bear is still a big player internationally and that their domestic problems are largely imposed on them by 'nasty foreigners' especially the Americans.

Putin also got plenty of kudos at home for staging a successful Winter Olympic Games in Sochi even if it was at astronomical cost and awarded long before Russia's current difficulties arose. Staging a successful World Cup would have the same affect.

So my contention is that the real target here could be Russia rather than FIFA. Are the US now so fed up with Putin's 'sabre-rattling' (which is entirely unjustified and merely clutching at straws and he's doing it again re FIFA now) that they want to really p.ss him off, punch him in the face and maybe bring him (and Russia) down by taking his World Cup away? Of course the US will be entirely happy if FIFA gets sorted as well as a bit of collateral and if the Qataris suffer too, well - hey, so what, we don't really need their oil anymore anyway.

The TV footage this morning really does show Blatter up as a 'gnome of Zurich'. Some at least of his over-inflated view of his own importance is probably down to 'Bernie Ecclestone syndrome'. I'd love to see him handcuffed and arrested live on stage this afternoon. He can put a paper bag over his head if he's shy. Reality TV at its finest. Unlikely but not impossible.

 

Exactly this.
There was an international football journalist last year late at night on World Service (no, not Tim Vickery!) saying how the whole historic concept of a FIFA World Cup hosted in a single country every 4 years is falling apart.

The Euro 2020 tournament spread over the whole continent is a precurser / experiement for UEFA to be able to set up further tournaments at the drop of a hat (relatively speaking).

Add in that virtually all the elite players in the world play for (and hence are paid by and owe their loyalty to) the top European sides (the G14???) and you have a recipe for a UEFA-run competition with guest invitations to Brazil, the Argies, USA, Ivory Coast etc to the total exclusion of FIFA.

Whatever comes of the Americans' prosecutions of FIFA officials and any votes for or against Sepp, FIFA World Cups as we know them are drawing to an end.

 

Yeah, I agree, sort of. Undoubtedly FIFA has done a lot to channel money for the development of football in Africa and Asia, as well as to enrich crooked football administrators and others. Havelange and Blatter got leadership of FIFA by exploiting the resentment of the third world towards the rich countries that monopolised the game until then. Obviously the best players in Latin America as well as Africa and Asia are going to gravitate to Europe where the money is, but we must avoid reinstating the closed shop that existed before Havelange got to work.

Thus, if UEFA organises a World Cup it must ensure that it is genuinely open to the world, and maybe with an innovative two-tier approach (like the FA Cup and FA Trophy) which would give the minnows something realistic to play for.

 

As and when blatter is overthrown it doesn't change the fact that the World Cup should be a global event, where football is a tool to improve countries who could do with a boost.

There is no real reason to hold a World Cup in a developed country, at least not very often. Without corruption sponsorship and infrastructure money could legitimately improve nations.

The whole 'bidding' process is expensive and prone to corruption, but I'm not sure how you can prevent votes being bought. Perhaps if membership to a new Fifa required the public auditing of accounts - and Fifa itself - then it would prevent any substantial misdemeanour.

Football has to become more transparent, from the top down.

 

Surely the timing was due to all the crooks being together in the same place, and that's Switzerland where extradition would be straightforward. A classic sting operation.

 

True! How remiss of me.

 

There's no real reason to hold a World Cup in a country that doesn't have the infrastructure in place already. The world is full of football and athletics stadia which have been white elephants ever since the Olympics and World Cups finished.

OK, new transport etc infrastructure gets provided, but that's paid for by the host country and a fast train out to some crumbling disused stadium is less useful than a proper link from where people live to where they work.

Do people in the host country get to benefit by seeing world stars in the flesh? By the time the comps have been issued and the big travel companies have hoovered up their share, how many tickets are left for locals, even assuming they can afford the travel and entrance fee? They'll watch on communal TV, just as if the tournament was held in Germany or England.

 

And then left with a hefty bill to pay FIFA, the government has to relax tax laws for FIFA and the country is left with a number of huge stadiums it doesn't have a requirement for. The infrastructure of said country might improve but at what cost?

 

I think the infrastructure question was answered last year when that incomplete flyover collapsed killing a few people

 

I'm not against the WC being played around the world, but I am against countries spending tens / hundreds of billions of dollars on stadiums whilst their citizens live in slums without acceptable health, welfare, education or employment.

IMO there has to be a minimum social standard met before a host is given a WC

 

I beg to differ However more needs to be done to raise lasting living standards in the communities including further oversight to make sure it benefits the intended recipients. And Fifa should not profit where there is loss, they need a wholly responsible and different approach

 

Reports coming out now that in the 2002 world cup there was match fixing by Fifa through referees.

 

I don't agree that the point of the World Cup is to shine a spotlight on developing nations. The fact is that stadia and infrastructure can be built, but then, what if the whole reason they weren't there in the first place was because they weren't needed, as in South Africa and as will be the case in Qatar?

Surely hosting the world cup should be based on the ability and capacity of the host nation to do so, rather than how lovely it would be if Sri Lanka could stage the World Cup even though it would have zero requirement for 8 massive stadiums after the event.

 

Just had a thought. Is Prince Ali a Shi'ite or a Sunni? Whichever, does that mean that half the Muslim countries will support Sepp, who as we know is an absolute Shi'ite?

 

Other than the fact that the refereeing of S. Korea's games against Italy and Spain was inexplicably terrible and biased to the hosts, I don't see that there's any evidence for the claims.

 

Fifa Elections live .... prepare to be bored

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX-gu9pdKyg

 

Won't make any difference. If such a contract term did exist and corruption in the awarding of the WC was proven, the "can't sue us" clause wouldn't be worth a damn since FIFA would have breached the contract through criminal activity.

And that's assuming such a clause is legal under Swiss law; many countries take a dim view on such clauses.

 

Love the Beeb's live coverage of the FIFA election:

:]]

 

Love the chat under the youtube stream. PENALTY TO BOURNEMOUTH was funny.

 

I was told years ago by a barrister... "A contract is like a set piece, all the contract does is stake out the starting positions for the start of play".

 

Boy this is a high class discussion amongst some fine minds on this thread. I can't imagine anything similar going on on 'Scummer Outlaws' or any other football forum for that matter.

I suggest we form a cabal to take over at FIFA and indeed the entire planet.

 

When Sepp wins the vote, will the Europeans make a grand gesture and walk out or will they hang on and wait for the arrestees to shop him to the FBI?

Either way, Sepp is probably looking for a nice holiday home in North Korea. And I understand that the Ecuadorian embassy is lovely at this time of year.

 

Second round of voting forced but Blatter's clearly going to win. Oh good.

 

I f**king hate Sepp Blatter. The delusional, corrupt, old fool is an absolute cancer upon football.

 

The fact he's going to win again is just jaw dropping.

What would it take for some of these delegates to not vote for him? Evidence of direct involvement in a paedo ring? Active membership of a neo-Nazi group? At best the man has just overseen one of the greatest examples of systemic corruption in world business, never mind sport, and didn't notice a thing on his watch. At worst, he was a complicit part of the corruption.

And he's getting re-elected on that record.

Quite clearly literally worse than Hitler.

 

I was reading on the BBC website earlier that the Zambian delegate said that FIFA has been good to Africa and he said what passes for corruption in Europe is not necessarily corruption in Africa.

WTF?

 

Mad. Spain reportedly voted for Blatter too.

 

As expected, in round one Sonny, Michael, Tom and Luca Brazzi all vote to retain Don Vito. Clemenza and Fredo vote the other way.

 

Prince Ali withdraws, Blatter wins.

 

And he's in for another 4 years. Will UEFA have the balls to quit?

 

Ali withdraws. Blatter is elected yet again.

 

It's mad.

The voters know that the world hates Blatter. They've seen scandal after scandal hit FIFA, to the point that the FBI are literally taking senior members away hidden behind sheets.

I don't know if I'm more gobsmacked that a man can have such little grace and sense of accountability, or that the entire federation is voting for someone with those credentials.

Nobody gains loyalty like that without corruption. The FBI just needs to find it.

 

Not surprising. The Spanish have always held grudges. They're no doubt still smarting over that Moorish invasion in 711 by Ali-some-body-or-other....

 

Blatter getting booed before his victory speech.

 

No, Hitler was worse - he wasn't nice to Russia.