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

nytimes.com

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

#21

Post by algo_cheese »

sschueller wrote: post #17
iaw wrote: 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.

Well the FIFA is not a league of amateur in this field. They know that they must accept their gifts in other countries and follow the law at it's strictest in Switzerland so that they risk next to nothing.

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

#22

Post by austenallred »

It seems like the DOJ is doing the same thing they would do against a gang; get a few lower-level people to take a plea deal and hand over the kingpin. There's no way Blatter gets through this unscathed.

It will be interesting to see if the World Cup will be moved now; it never made sense to have it in Qatar in the first place (no infrastructure, incredibly hot during the summer, hundreds of migrant workers dying and injured because of the insane conditions they're working under to prepare the stadiums. It's really, really messed up.

I've never seen /r/soccer so happy about anything - this news has 99%+ upvotes.

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

#23

Post by peteretep »

austenallred wrote: post #22

It seems like the DOJ is doing the same thing they would do against a gang; get a few lower-level people to take a plea deal and hand over the kingpin. There's no way Blatter gets through this unscathed. It will be interesting to see if the World Cup will be moved now; it never made sense to have it in Qatar in the first place (no infrastructure, incredibly hot during the summer, hundreds of migrant workers dying and…

    > There's no way Blatter gets through this unscathed
I suspect if you find a good online betting site, you would get someone to take the other side of that bet at attractive odds.

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

#24

Post by bontoJR »

sschueller wrote: post #16
damian2000 wrote: post #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.

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.

For Swiss people, Blatter is a kind of reason to be ashamed. Funny fact: every single time I am abroad and someone reminds me we have Blatter, I freak out...

I hope he will get caught if he's involved and that his face will disappear forever from the football world. That sport is amazing, but in the last (almost) 20 years, it has been ruled by a man with a dubious integrity.

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

#25

Post by flexie »

iaw wrote: 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 a bit ironic that it takes what is almost a non-soccer country to fix soccer. But US corporations (Coca-Cola, McDonalds etc.) are major sponsors of FIFA so the US has a legitimate interest in prosecuting FIFA officials.

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

#26

Post by flexie »

iaw wrote: 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 a bit ironic that it takes what is almost a non-soccer country to fix soccer. But US corporations (Coca-Cola, McDonalds etc.) are major sponsors of FIFA so the US has a legitimate interest in prosecuting FIFA officials.

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

#27

Post by JumpCrisscross »

In case one wonders why the United States is enforcing this:

"U.S. investigators got help from Chuck Blazer, the longtime general secretary of the confederation, the New York Daily News reported in November. Blazer wore a hidden recording device in a keychain to meetings with soccer officials at the London Olympics and elsewhere, the paper said. The IRS had leverage over Blazer: He hadn’t paid taxes on millions of income for more than a decade, according to the paper.

...

The choice of Qatar for the 2022 tournament angered many nations, and the U.S. in particular. The U.S. was beaten in a final vote run-off with the emirate after rival offers from Australia, South Korea and Japan had been eliminated in previous rounds. Former President Bill Clinton led a U.S. group that traveled to Zurich to make a final pitch to voters."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-27/u-s-starts...

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

#28

Post by rodgerd »

iaw wrote: 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 cudgel FIFA uses to prevent anyone looking too closely at how it does business is to threaten any member country with suspension from international competition if there is "political interference in football."

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

#30

Post by thaumasiotes »

simi_ wrote: post #12
damian2000 wrote: post #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.

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

Does Romanian also have an -er agentive suffix?
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