FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S • Hacker News Board

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

#41

Post by austenallred » Wed, May 27, 2015, 8:58 AM UTC

Cyph0n wrote: post #39

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…

In what sense does Qatar have "no infrastructure"?

Specifically soccer-related infrastructure, i.e. stadiums. The United States could host four World Cups simultaneously without having to build any more stadiums. Qatar has to build almost everything from scratch.

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

#42

Post by pjc50 » Wed, May 27, 2015, 9:08 AM UTC

flexie wrote: post #25

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.

I think only a non-football country could fix football. They've not been sufficiently bought.

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

#43

Post by gadders » Wed, May 27, 2015, 9:34 AM UTC

This aweseome news. Can we do the IOC next?

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

#44

Post by hcho » Wed, May 27, 2015, 9:56 AM UTC

austenallred wrote: post #41

Cyph0n wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what sense does Qatar have "no infrastructure"?

Specifically soccer-related infrastructure, i.e. stadiums. The United States could host four World Cups simultaneously without having to build any more stadiums. Qatar has to build almost everything from scratch.

Lack of infrastructure is not the crazy bit. Everyone knows that they have the money to throw at the problem.

The fact that all games of WC will be played in one city is the problem. All the fans in contact for a prolonged span...It won't end well.

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

#45

Post by gadders » Wed, May 27, 2015, 9:59 AM UTC

SandB0x wrote: post #33

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #27

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 in…

> The investigation into Blazer’s tax affairs turned up some choice claims about his lifestyle - including the revelation that Concacaf paid $18,000 a month for his Trump Towers apartment, and another $6,000 a month for a second Trump Towers flat, used mainly by his cats. http://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2015/may/27/fifa-of...

The source NY Daily News stories has more detail: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/soccer/soccer-rat-ex-u-s-s...

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

#46

Post by qzervaas » Wed, May 27, 2015, 10:03 AM UTC

I had to look up the definition of "genuflect":

"Lower one's body briefly by bending one knee to the ground, typically in worship or as a sign of respect."

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

#47

Post by dcsommer » Wed, May 27, 2015, 10:10 AM UTC

I'm incredibly excited that finally these problems are being addressed, but I'm not sure if this is relevant to HN.

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

#48

Post by simdiab » Wed, May 27, 2015, 10:13 AM UTC

oliyoung wrote: post #18

iaw wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, bu…

Clubs from Mexico participate in the Copa Libertadores. Mexico is in CONCACAF (as is the USA). That could be the connection.

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

#49

Post by austenallred » Wed, May 27, 2015, 10:16 AM UTC

hcho wrote: post #44

austenallred wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Specifically soccer-related infrastructure, i.e. stadiums. The United States could host four World Cups simultaneously without having to build any more stadiums. Qatar has to build almost everything from scratch.

Lack of infrastructure is not the crazy bit. Everyone knows that they have the money to throw at the problem. The fact that all games of WC will be played in one city is the problem. All the fans in contact for a prolonged span...It won't end well.

> Everyone knows that they have the money to throw at the problem.

They may have money to throw at the problem, but Nepalese migrants building the infrastructure to host the 2022 World Cup died at a rate of almost one per day. Look at the full report, it's astounding:

* Evidence of forced labour on a huge World Cup infrastructure project.

* Some Nepalese men have alleged that they have not been paid for months and have had their salaries retained to stop them running away.

* Some workers on other sites say employers routinely confiscate passports and refuse to issue ID cards, in effect reducing them to the status of illegal aliens.

* Some labourers say they have been denied access to free drinking water in the desert heat.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/25/revealed-qatars...

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

#50

Post by ptaipale » Wed, May 27, 2015, 10:28 AM UTC

flexie wrote: post #25

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.

Football (soccer) is relatively minor sport in the U.S. but it is still a major country in this sport as well: during the FIFA ranking history, it averages on position 19. That is very good, and higher than the ranking of several past World Cup or continental competition winners.