FIFA officials arrested on corruption charges

[sportstar1212]

[The_Admiral]

This was fun.

[TheRicSlick]

This was fun.

Is there a story John Oliver can't nail?

[Mac the Knife]

"The United States Soccer Federation cordially invites the nations of the world to join us in 2018 as we host the inaugural International Cup tournament, to coincidentally be held during the same month as the 2018 FIFA World Cup. 63 national teams shall be admitted, on a first-come, first-served basis, as participants in this unique, triple-elimination tournament event."

[Gothamite]

None of this really matters as long as Sepp Blatter is still in charge at the end of this fiasco.

It's a circular problem. Blatter is just the figurehead but so long as he is in power, it gives all of the corrupt officials power. So long as they have power, he (or whoever else they collectively choose to elect) will get voted back in.

Aside from literally everyone involved being put in prison or a massive boycott of the world cup, I can't see anything ever changing. Let's face it, neither of those scenarios is likely going to happen.

The Justice Department news is great, but it could very well be a case too little too late at this point.

They're already trying to play this off as the cost of doing business. I don't know how you can really counter that other then what you just described.

Oh, sure. That defense will work wonders in court.

[The_Admiral]

Yes, awesome, let's No-Homers FIFA. But you let Sepp Glumpet in!

[Evil Doctor]

This was fun.

Okay, this may be off-topic, but dammit, why isn't John Oliver the new host of the Daily Show?

Oh wait a minute, it's probably FIFA....

[dfwabel]

None of this really matters as long as Sepp Blatter is still in charge at the end of this fiasco.

It's a circular problem. Blatter is just the figurehead but so long as he is in power, it gives all of the corrupt officials power. So long as they have power, he (or whoever else they collectively choose to elect) will get voted back in.

Aside from literally everyone involved being put in prison or a massive boycott of the world cup, I can't see anything ever changing. Let's face it, neither of those scenarios is likely going to happen.

The Justice Department news is great, but it could very well be a case too little too late at this point.

They're already trying to play this off as the cost of doing business. I don't know how you can really counter that other then what you just described.

Oh, sure. That defense will work wonders in court.

Works pretty well for BoA, Wells Fargo and Chase as their executives don't get charged for RICO.

[GFB]

It's a start, but if I read the report correctly, all this US Justice Department arrests were for CONCACAF crimes that happened prior to 2006... I'm much more interested to hear what comes out of the Swiss investigation, which looks into the Russia/Qatar votes:

In the Swiss criminal proceedings, opened by the OAG on 10 March 2015, it is suspected that irregularities occurred in the allocation of the FIFA World Cups of 2018 and 2022. The corresponding unjust enrichment is suspected to have taken place at least partly in Switzerland....There are also suspicions of money laundering through Swiss bank accounts (Article 305bis, SCC). Subsequently to today’s seizure of files, the OAG and the Swiss Federal Criminal Police will be questioning 10 persons who took part in voting on the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups as members of the Executive Committee in 2010. These persons should be questioned as persons providing information.

Following

Jeremy SchaapVerified account‏@JeremySchaap

Remember, there were some deadlines looming because of the 5-year statute of limitations on foreign corrupt practices act.

The best chance that the world for a counter-FIFA tournament is not for the United States to take the lead, but for UEFA to step up. UEFA contains 6 of the 10 most influential FAs in the world (England, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Netherlands) and several mid+level FAs (Portugal, Belgium, Denmark, Poland, etc...). If they withdraw from Qatar and were to announce their own world tournament in 2022 (they aren't going to screw over one of their own for 2018 in Russia) but played in the summer as it SHOULD be, I feel CONCACAF would back them behind the US and Mexico's lead. The corruption in the AFC (Asia) and CAF (Africa) will most likely be too strong and they'll stick with FIFA in Qatar. That leaves the swing federation of CONMEBOL... CONMEBOL's wallet will be with FIFA, but then the FAs of Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, and Uruguay hand will be forced between choosing between playing a "World" Cup where their biggest competition are going to be Iran, Japan, Ghana, and Ivory Coast and whose players are going to have to miss a full month of the club season for a farce of a tournament, or abandon FIFA all together.

[2001mark]

Pay no attention to the stolen medal at a FIFA youth team ceremony by former Brazil FA president Jose Maria Marin...

http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/watch-jose-maria-marin-arrested-in-zurich-steal-a-medal-at-youth-team-ceremony-video/

[AJM]

[The_Admiral]

Can I assume this puts FIFA's plan to remove Israel on hold?

[GFB]

Anyone else think that it's strange that the USA's FIFA representative Sunil Gulati has been totally radio silent on this?

[Gothamite]

I don't know. What are you expecting him to say? "We're looking forward to the process playing out in court?"

The UEFA statement is right on, though:

Todays events are a disaster for FIFA and tarnish the image of football as a whole.

UEFA is deeply shocked and saddened by them.

These events show, once again, that corruption is deeply rooted in FIFAs culture.

There is a need for the whole of FIFA to be rebooted and for a real reform to be carried out.

The upcoming FIFA Congress risks to turn into a farce and therefore the European associations will have to consider carefully if they should even attend this Congress and caution a system, which, if it is not stopped, will ultimately kill football.

The UEFA member associations are meeting tomorrow ahead of the FIFA Congress. At that point, the European associations will decide on what further steps need to be taken to protect the game of football.

In the meantime, the members of the UEFA Executive Committee are convinced that there is a strong need for a change to the leadership of this FIFA and strongly believe that the FIFA Congress should be postponed, with new FIFA presidential elections to be organised within the next six months.

yeah.

[Seadragon76]

Yeah... way to be on the frontline of a new revolution here UEFA!

[JayMac]

I love it, UEFA!

[GFB]

I don't know. What are you expecting him to say? "We're looking forward to the process playing out in court?"

I want him to basically reiterate everything in that UEFA statement... The country that he is representing is the one who carried out this sting operation, you think he could contribute something to the united front against Blatter and FIFA corruption.

[bosrs1]

Prosecutors planned to unseal an indictment against more than 10 officials, not all of whom are in Zurich, law enforcement officials said. Among them are Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands, a vice president of the executive committee

Hmm, where can we find people involved in wire fraud and money laundering? Why, in the Cayman Islands, of course!

Is it true that FIFA has kept nations from investigating them by threatening to suspend their national federations? Suspend us, then! We don't care enough about soccer to riot if you do! I mean really, let's be honest: taking down Septic Bladder is more important to The Beautiful Game than actually playing it. We're not going to get out-prosecuted by freaking Ghana, I'll tell you that much right now.

This was my first thought as well. FIFA usually blackballs or worse any country that tries to clean them up. But in this case, the US is the perfect country to be doing the house cleaning because the US government and the vast majority of US citizens couldn't care less about soccer. Their threats will fall on completely disinterested ears. The Swiss also aren't a bad choice as they're not above completely blackballing a sport from their country for half a century if need be either.

[Gothamite]

I don't know. What are you expecting him to say? "We're looking forward to the process playing out in court?"

I want him to basically reiterate everything in that UEFA statement... The country that he is representing is the one who carried out this sting operation, you think he could contribute something to the united front against Blatter and FIFA corruption.

It's one thing for a confederation to make that statement, something else entirely for an individual or even an individual association to make it.

I hope that USSF is at the forefront of a similar move from CONCACAF, but I don't want them to do it alone.

[MJWalker45]

I don't know. What are you expecting him to say? "We're looking forward to the process playing out in court?"

I want him to basically reiterate everything in that UEFA statement... The country that he is representing is the one who carried out this sting operation, you think he could contribute something to the united front against Blatter and FIFA corruption.

He still has to straddle the fence, even if he wants to pile on to FIFA. He's currently on one of the the top committee's within the organization and his platform has been reform from within. I'd expect something similar to this if he does say anything.