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FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S

nytimes.com

1–10 of 264 posts

Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S

#3
post #2

Wow. I'm impressed and somewhat surprised that the U.S. would be the entity to enforce this given the relative lack of presence FIFA has in the U.S. Maybe it's because the U.S. lost the world cup (as in hosting privileges)?

The article on CNN mentions that the US has the largest FIFA television audience and that because of their banking, tax, and regulations, they have a long arm essentially.

Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S

#4
post #2

Wow. I'm impressed and somewhat surprised that the U.S. would be the entity to enforce this given the relative lack of presence FIFA has in the U.S. Maybe it's because the U.S. lost the world cup (as in hosting privileges)?

> I'm impressed and somewhat surprised that the U.S. would be the entity to enforce this given the relative lack of presence FIFA has in the U.S.

The US can't keep their nose out of business of people in foreign countries. If the US has any interest in anything, they'll make it so. Just look at Megaupload for an example.

Then again, it's nice that finally someone is taking action against the corrupt hellhole called FIFA.

Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S

#5
post #2

Wow. I'm impressed and somewhat surprised that the U.S. would be the entity to enforce this given the relative lack of presence FIFA has in the U.S. Maybe it's because the U.S. lost the world cup (as in hosting privileges)?

The article on CNN mentions that the US has the largest FIFA television audience and that because of their banking, tax, and regulations, they have a long arm essentially.

I understand where the capabilities come from, my curiosity here is more in the motivation. The U.S. has a lot of capabilities that they don't exercise, what put FIFA into the crosshairs on this one? (beyond the allegations of wrongdoing)

Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S

#6
post #2

Wow. I'm impressed and somewhat surprised that the U.S. would be the entity to enforce this given the relative lack of presence FIFA has in the U.S. Maybe it's because the U.S. lost the world cup (as in hosting privileges)?

It's that plus the commercial aspects. We (Australia) almost investigated FIFA for the same reasons (the 18/22 World Cup Bids), but we don't have the financial leverage to do anything about it.

Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S

#7
Blatter is coming under pressure to resign, but he's still the favourite to win a 5th term in office as president of FIFA...

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/32891267

The guy was pretty unpopular when he appeared at the Asian Cup Final - booed by just about everyone in the stadium.

Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S

#8
post #2

Wow. I'm impressed and somewhat surprised that the U.S. would be the entity to enforce this given the relative lack of presence FIFA has in the U.S. Maybe it's because the U.S. lost the world cup (as in hosting privileges)?

I'd instead suspect that the corruption involves entities with an impact on the US. Either they gained or lost out of it and thus provoked the US to take action.

Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S

#9

Blatter is coming under pressure to resign, but he's still the favourite to win a 5th term in office as president of FIFA... http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/32891267 The guy was pretty unpopular when he appeared at the Asian Cup Final - booed by just about everyone in the stadium.

> booed by just about everyone in the stadium

It, like these arrests, are a wonderful thing to the majority of the football world. Unpopular doesn't go far enough to describe the disdain that the football "community" feels about Blatter and FIFA in general.

Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S

#10
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article on CNN mentions that the US has the largest FIFA television audience and that because of their banking, tax, and regulations, they have a long arm essentially.

I understand where the capabilities come from, my curiosity here is more in the motivation. The U.S. has a lot of capabilities that they don't exercise, what put FIFA into the crosshairs on this one? (beyond the allegations of wrongdoing)

I expect it is simply that the evidence indicated substantial financial corruption, and bribery with loss of tax revenue. Taxman is what really gets governments pissed off.

I have no doubt there are similar patterns of corruption in other sports, but the financial impact is probably not as big.

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