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Corruption arrests at FIFA


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Authorities in Switzerland have launched an operation to arrest several high-ranking FIFA officials on corruption charges and extradite them to the United States, The New York Times has reported.

 

The Times, citing anonymous law enforcement officials, said the US federal charges included racketeering, money laundering and wire fraud and spanned two decades of misconduct in football's world governing body.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/

 

 

I don't follow the round ball game but "corruption at HQ?" Who'da thunk it? Oops. I meant "getting arrested for corruption at FIFA - who'da thunk it?"

 

I wasn't interested enough to read the whole article and understand why there is any USA jurisdiction.

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I wasn't interested enough to read the whole article and understand why there is any USA jurisdiction.

 

 

The two (of the six) whose names have been released are connected with soccer governance in the US.  That could be it.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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Bribes to award sponsorship deals, possibly.

 

Bribes to award sponsorship deals, possibly.

 

Quite a lot more detail coming together here.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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Soccer is corrupt from head to toe.

 

As you say every time.

 

Unlike every other sport, obvs.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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On today's journey to deepest Deabyshire I was able to listen to the FIFA press conference in full. I bet you didn't know that this is all part of Fifas plan to clean things up, and that they initiated the action by giving the Garcia report to the Swiss police!

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The two (of the six) whose names have been released are connected with soccer governance in the US. That could be it.

Some of the money was put in US banks so it has fallen under the FBI jurisdiction. There's actually two investigations going one by the FBI about money laundering and bribery. One by the Swiss police into the voting for the 2018 and 2022 WCs

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On today's journey to deepest Deabyshire I was able to listen to the FIFA press conference in full. I bet you didn't know that this is all part of Fifas plan to clean things up, and that they initiated the action by giving the Garcia report to the Swiss police!

 

Yes, I heard that too.  What a magnificently selfless bunch.

 

Still, the IOC are their equal in many ways!

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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Hmm... Blatter's position becomes shaky, and on the same day Tony Blair resigns from his post as Middle East peace envoy. Job-hunting?

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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It could well be part of FIFA's plan. Blatter sacrificing a few patsies to take the heat off himself!

It all depends if any of the sacrificial lambs knows enough and can be persuaded to save his own backside by dropping Blatter in the soup.

 

The Watergate hearings were a long way under way and looking like a fairly comfortable whitewash before the first person (was it John Dean?) suddenly cracked and opened up the case.

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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If the "election" goes ahead on Fri, Blatter will be re elected for four more years, voted in by representatives from those countries where bribery and corruption is endemic, part of every day life.

About time the most powerful soccer countries declared UDI., anf FIFA

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If the "election" goes ahead on Fri, Blatter will be re elected for four more years, voted in by representatives from those countries where bribery and corruption is endemic, part of every day life.

About time the most powerful soccer countries declared UDI., anf ###### FIFA

 

Interesting comment I just read via Simon Brotherton was to compare it to cycling which was corrupt in both leadership and participants for more than a decade until it all went US legal.

 

Soccer is big enough that a breakaway is possible.  I don't believe that was ever an option for cycling.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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We suspected this sort of thing had been happening for years with FIFA, but had no hard evidence.

Lets hope the FBI claim is strong. Also huge clouds hang over as to how Russia and Qatar won the rights to stage the 2018 and 2022 world cups with whats happened today.

We could be looking at the 2018 world here and the 2022 world cup in the USA.

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We suspected this sort of thing had been happening for years with FIFA, but had no hard evidence.

Lets hope the FBI claim is strong. Also huge clouds hang over as to how Russia and Qatar won the rights to stage the 2018 and 2022 world cups with whats happened today.

We could be looking at the 2018 world here and the 2022 world cup in the USA.

We could end up hosting two world cups we are so clean. Oh i forgot the player agents who take money off both player and club.Spot any similarities?

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The other interesting thing is that the US plea-bargaining system will soon kick in. I imagine those arrested will be only too keen to be the first to implicate others to try to avoid a jail term, should any criminal offences have actually taken place. Wire fraud gets you up to 20 years prison in the US.

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Is there really any point in "cleaning up" FIFa?  an organisation with that much money and global influence will always attract a certain type of "businessman", and once one's in there they'll get their mates in and start politicking their way to the top. That's what corporate businessmen do, it's their raison d'etre.

 

whether its a dodgy bank, dodgy oil company or dodgy football association, none of them end up being run by Willy Wonka or Chris Cringle. that's probably how Blatter and a few other dodgy geezers with seemingly few connections to football ended up there in the first place.

 

Is FIFA the only corporation that has been taken over and run in this way?

 

I ###### doubt it, all the corporations who were feigning horror at slave labour in Qatar and the corruption and who are now threatening to withdraw their sponsorship, are run in exactly the same way

"Freedom without socialism is privilege and injustice, socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality" - Mikhail Bakunin

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Phil I'd agree with most of that but occasionally, matters come to the knowledge of law enforcement and they have to do something, if only because failure would leave them open to criticism and/or possible prosecution.

 

I also find a lot of these US corruption prosecutions dishonest. They can always round up a few Third World politicians and charge them with receiving bribes but where do these bribes come from? A lot of these charges relate to awarding TV rights and sponsorship deals. Will authorities pursue that end of the bribes?

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Phil I'd agree with most of that but occasionally, matters come to the knowledge of law enforcement and they have to do something, if only because failure would leave them open to criticism and/or possible prosecution.

 

I also find a lot of these US corruption prosecutions dishonest. They can always round up a few Third World politicians and charge them with receiving bribes but where do these bribes come from? A lot of these charges relate to awarding TV rights and sponsorship deals. Will authorities pursue that end of the bribes?

 

I've done the ethics training at work and there are some pretty big cases where well known compaies have faced very large fines, and people have gone to jail. It's become a lot more serious in recent years.

"I am the avenging angel; I come with wings unfurled, I come with claws extended from halfway round the world. I am the God Almighty, I am the howling wind. I care not for your family; I care not for your kin. I come in search of terror, though terror is my own; I come in search of vengeance for crimes and crimes unknown. I care not for your children, I care not for your wives, I care not for your country, I care not for your lives." - (c) Jim Boyes - "The Avenging Angel"

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