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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

#131

Post by notsony »

zimpenfish wrote: post #51
peteretep wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

And if people have money to throw away like that, they could just as well throw it to my bank account. As someone pointed out on Twitter, "oh look, the only people left to vote on Friday are Blatter-friendly".

FIFA is not a public institution, it's a private association. How a private club wants to structure payments is entirely up to them. So how will any bribery charges stick, unless public officials have been paid off?

Can't believe Blatter and his cronies would be so stupid, but perhaps some of the weaker and greedier executives were, so Blatter is happy to serve them up?

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

#132

Post by dmendes »

Ntrails wrote: post #110
xasos wrote: 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.

Counter-counterpoint:

3 of the 10 stadiums built in Portugal for the Euro 2004 have been considered for demolition because they have been largely unused since the tournament and the municipalities have no way to fund their basic maintenance.

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

#133

Post by drzaiusapelord »

supergirl wrote: post #130
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/30/sport/football/football-pl...

It claims that Putin was initially skeptical about Russia's bid but had later thrown his full weight behind the process. "He (Putin) took a personal interest in the running of the bid in mid-2010," the committee report reveals.

Under the heading, "Intelligence relating to Russia 2018" a series of allegations are revealed about Putin's role in brokering a major bilateral trade deal for gas with Qatar, the winners of the 2022 bid, in exchange for each others votes and the votes of others of their supporters.

The allegations also detail the plundering of Russia's national art collection, either from the vaults of the State Hermitage Museum in St.Petersburg or the Kremlin archives, as alleged kickbacks to Platini and D'Hooghe.

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

#134

Post by jmngomes »

iwwr wrote: post #65
petepete wrote: post #32

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…

Apparently, hosting a World Cup has become a net negative to a country. The costs (significant and increasing) go to the government and the profits go to FIFA and the sponsors.

I'd venture in saying that the costs actually go to the taxpayer, as the government will simply cut on actually relevant things to build stadiums.

As to who reaps the profits, I wouldn't neglect decision makers within governments, as usually the companies that are involved in building and promoting the whole thing have to be "friendly" to get the contract...

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

#135

Post by notsony »

austenallred wrote: post #126
[deleted] wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[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"…

It was stupid for FIFA members to vote for Qatar. Maybe some were bribed, maybe some believed the presentations about hi-tech stadiums that cool the temperature down.

However Qatar are solely responsible for the slave labor and worker deaths. They own that.

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

#136

Post by akfanta »

akfanta wrote: post #101
cbr wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

How so? When you count viewership, of course they will combine number of viewers from each match, considering most of the viewers will tune in for just a few matches. This is common sense, I don't think there is anything suspicious about that.

Seriously? Down-voted for explaining my point? This place is as pathetic as reddit.

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

#139

Post by hvs »

notsony wrote: post #131
zimpenfish wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if people have money to throw away like that, they could just as well throw it to my bank account. As someone pointed out on Twitter, "oh look, the only people left to vote on Friday are Blatter-friendly".

FIFA is not a public institution, it's a private association. How a private club wants to structure payments is entirely up to them. So how will any bribery charges stick, unless public officials have been paid off? Can't believe Blatter and his cronies would be so stupid, but perhaps some of the weaker and greedier executives were, so Blatter is happy to serve them up?

I'm guessing the DOJ has something figured out.

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

#140

Post by hvs »

notsony wrote: post #135
austenallred wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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"…

It was stupid for FIFA members to vote for Qatar. Maybe some were bribed, maybe some believed the presentations about hi-tech stadiums that cool the temperature down. However Qatar are solely responsible for the slave labor and worker deaths. They own that.

And, you know, the organizations and companies that continue to work with them now that they KNOW that it is happening.
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