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

nytimes.com

121–130 of 264 posts

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

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'll be the top post ever in /r/soccer in no time, it's already fourth and was only submitted four hours ago. I truly hope that Blatter is ousted, the Qatar decision is reversed and given to a nation that with a less-appalling human rights record and some actual interest in football. I can't name a single Qatari club or player and know nothing of their league (other than Gabriel Batistuta played there for a year at…

Hey everybody, look at FIFA over there! Clinton Foundation Donors Got Weapons Deals From Hillary Clinton's State Department (26 May 2015) Under Clinton's leadership, the State Department approved $165 billion worth of commercial arms sales to 20 nations whose governments have given money to the Clinton Foundation... nearly double the value of American arms sales made to the those countries and approved by the State D…

Turns out crimes aren't mutually exclusive. Not sure that prosecuting a crime is a "false flag" either.

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

#122
post #113

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…

[deleted]

"As for the granting of the World Cup, what has so upset the Anglophonic world is that someone else outspent England and US efforts to purchase the World Cup. "

I think that "what has so upset the Anglophonic world", plus several other countries and people that are not anglophone, was that that "outspending" was very likely due to corruption.

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

#123
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, its really sad. It also applies for events like the Olympics, where infrastructure improvements are mandatory, and costs far outweigh any profit they may receive.

Counterpoint - the infrastructure stays around. The stadiums get used and re-used, transport improvements benefit locals in perpetuity, tourism/trade brings in money to the economy, not to mention there are general "morale" reasons to host. These are not profit making events to host, or at least they ought not to be. The benefits are varied and certainly not trivially reducible to profit/loss on the event itself.

Lots of stuff built is just a giant money pit and nobody benefit from it after the games.

http://www.reuters.com/news/picture/ghosts-of-olympics-past?...

http://www.businessinsider.com/sochi-olympics-ghost-city-201...

http://distractify.com/culture/sports/haunting-images-of-aba...

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

#124
post #98
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get the point, those are hardly the only countries watch world cup. For a event like world cup final, it's the single most important match in 4 years. It won't just attract fans from the countries that are in the final. For example, the 2006 world cup attracted 4 billion viewers from China, and their team was not even playing.[1] [1] http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/fifafacts/ffprojects/ip-401_...

> 4 billion viewers from China Something suspicious about that...

Think of it more like 4 billion "views".

If 1 person watches 6 matches they count as 6 "viewers" for those statistics. It makes sense if you're trying to track retainment for an event that's broken up into several instances.

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

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey everybody, look at FIFA over there! Clinton Foundation Donors Got Weapons Deals From Hillary Clinton's State Department (26 May 2015) Under Clinton's leadership, the State Department approved $165 billion worth of commercial arms sales to 20 nations whose governments have given money to the Clinton Foundation... nearly double the value of American arms sales made to the those countries and approved by the State D…

Turns out crimes aren't mutually exclusive. Not sure that prosecuting a crime is a "false flag" either.

Your first point is of course true.

Your second point about "false flag" makes no sense whatsoever.

EDIT: This is why HackerNews is going to the dogs. This perfectly reasonable comment has been downvoted numerous times.

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

#126
post #113

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…

[deleted]

> As for the granting of the World Cup, what has so upset the Anglophonic world is that someone else outspent England and US efforts to purchase the World Cup.

Also, you know, the thousands of people killed in slave labor to build the stadiums, the fact that Qatar is 120+ degrees Fahrenheit during the summer (50 Celsius), making playing a soccer tournament completely unreasonable, and the fact that this "outspending" is done via blatant bribery and corruption.

It's certainly just not the Anglophonic world that is fed up with FIFA and glad to see a change.

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

#127
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, its really sad. It also applies for events like the Olympics, where infrastructure improvements are mandatory, and costs far outweigh any profit they may receive.

Which is why I support all these competitions to follow Euro 2020's idea: 13 cities in 13 countries. This one, the costs per nation are much lower and we stop seeing nations building new huge stadiums which are then completely empty and unused most of the time (like some of those built in Portugal in 2004).

"huge stadiums which are then completely empty and unused most of the time (like some of those built in Portugal in 2004)"

Not "some of those built in Portugal in 2004" but actually most of them are currently being used way below capacity. And some of them are actually causing financial problems for the local governments, as the stadiums generate little to no revenue and the maintenance costs are huge.

But everyone involved in getting them built, apart from the guys laying down the bricks, profited hugely from this absurd and pharaonic decision, and the taxpayers didn't really complain properly (and still don't).

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

#128
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, its really sad. It also applies for events like the Olympics, where infrastructure improvements are mandatory, and costs far outweigh any profit they may receive.

Counterpoint - the infrastructure stays around. The stadiums get used and re-used, transport improvements benefit locals in perpetuity, tourism/trade brings in money to the economy, not to mention there are general "morale" reasons to host. These are not profit making events to host, or at least they ought not to be. The benefits are varied and certainly not trivially reducible to profit/loss on the event itself.

http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2014/06/13/costly-stadium-leav...

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

#129
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, its really sad. It also applies for events like the Olympics, where infrastructure improvements are mandatory, and costs far outweigh any profit they may receive.

Counterpoint - the infrastructure stays around. The stadiums get used and re-used, transport improvements benefit locals in perpetuity, tourism/trade brings in money to the economy, not to mention there are general "morale" reasons to host. These are not profit making events to host, or at least they ought not to be. The benefits are varied and certainly not trivially reducible to profit/loss on the event itself.

On the contrary, recent experience with Olympics and World Cups alike shows that the stadiums often lie fallow, a complete waste of resources. Promised "transport improvements" are often never built in the first place, or built at a level far below what was promised to local residents. Tourism money fails to recoup what was invested.

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

#130

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…

> it never made sense to have it in Qatar in the first place Nor in Russia, especially considering they are at war with their neighbors, under sanctions, and how the anti-gay laws will treat gay fans and players. We have unofficial reports of Putin gifting officials with bribes. If this investigation continues, we'll see a lot more than just Qatari corruption here.

I have unofficial reports of Obama riding a banana
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