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

nytimes.com

11–20 of 264 posts

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

#11
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)?

This is why (from the NYT)

"Indictment cites bribes, kickbacks related to * WC qualifications in Concacaf; * Gold Cup and Concacaf Champions League * Copa América * Copa Libertadores."

The USA or American owned teams participated in all of those competitions.

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

#12

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.

I just realized that in my language (Romanian), "blat" is slang for arranged match. How fitting. :)

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

#13
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 F…

The basis for this surely is business of people in USA. Meaning that the business is in USA even if the people currently were in Switzerland. Recently, there has been more public attention on tax evasion, and football (as I call it; soccer for Americans) is big business.

I do not believe the Swiss police would have acted for this on a U.S. request without some substantial evidence of actual wrongdoing that happened in the U.S. and is punishable by law both in the U.S. and Switzerland.

I am happy that the U.S. is finally putting some pressure on FIFA and its corruption (and inefficiency).

(As an anecdote, I got really pissed off by the FIFA procedures when trying to let an exchange student, a young kid, to play just for fun. They really try to squeeze the money off of ordinary people, just for a 16-year-old to be licensed to play. The end result: he couldn't play.)

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

#14
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)?

This is why (from the NYT) "Indictment cites bribes, kickbacks related to * WC qualifications in Concacaf; * Gold Cup and Concacaf Champions League * Copa América * Copa Libertadores." The USA or American owned teams participated in all of those competitions.

Thank you, I didn't catch the significance there. Whoever owns those teams (I somehow doubt it's the country itself) is pretty important.

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

#15
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)?

According to the Swiss Federal Office of Justice, the bribery has occurred in the US and paid through US banks :

The bribery suspects [...] are alleged to have been involved in schemes to make payments to the soccer functionaries [...] totaling more than USD 100 million. In return, it is believed that they received media, marketing, and sponsorship rights in connection with soccer tournaments in Latin America. According to the US request, these crimes were agreed and prepared in the US, and payments were carried out via US banks.

https://www.bj.admin.ch/bj/en/home/aktuell/news/2015/2015-27...

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

#16

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.

Blatter can't show his face anymore even in some of the most nobel restaurants in Zürich because other guests will heckle him.

He needs to go and so does the non-profit status of FIFA.

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

#17
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 disgusted that the Swiss let this thing go on for so long and still give FIFA non-profit status.

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

#18
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why (from the NYT) "Indictment cites bribes, kickbacks related to * WC qualifications in Concacaf; * Gold Cup and Concacaf Champions League * Copa América * Copa Libertadores." The USA or American owned teams participated in all of those competitions.

Thank you, I didn't catch the significance there. Whoever owns those teams (I somehow doubt it's the country itself) is pretty important.

Getting my football nerd hat on … 

The WC qualifiers, Copa América and Gold Cup are international competitions, the USA Men's National Team (as they're called) participates in the WCQ and Gold Cup, although why the Copa América is included is odd, that's a South American competition.

The Copa Libertadores and CONCACAF Champions League are both club competitions, again the Libertadores is odd, that's South American, but 4 clubs from the United States participated in the Champions League (in 2014-15 that was Portland Timbers, Sporting Kansas, New York Red Bulls and DC United)

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

#19
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)?

According to the Swiss Federal Office of Justice, the bribery has occurred in the US and paid through US banks : The bribery suspects [...] are alleged to have been involved in schemes to make payments to the soccer functionaries [...] totaling more than USD 100 million. In return, it is believed that they received media, marketing, and sponsorship rights in connection with soccer tournaments in Latin America. Accord…

This makes a ton of sense now with the increased scrutiny of US financial institutions as of late.

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

#20
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 disgusted that the Swiss let this thing go on for so long and still give FIFA non-profit status.

Not just FIFA, the IOC aren't exactly squeaky clean either
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