251–260 of 264 posts
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I thought it just wasn't just stadiums, but stadiums that could provide enough cooling so that the game could actually be played during a Qatari summer.
Except they're holding it in the winter
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I thought it just wasn't just stadiums, but stadiums that could provide enough cooling so that the game could actually be played during a Qatari summer.
They ended up moving the World Cup to winter, determining that it would simply be too hot. Of course, almost every major soccer league in the world runs during the winter with a summer break, so moving the month-long World Cup to would have thrown a wrench into the scheduling of every league and match in the top leagues. It would be an absolute nightmare. I have high hopes that the World Cup will be moved (it's been…
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I'm guessing the DOJ has something figured out.
Authorities accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the IMF, of raping a maid in a New York hotel and made him do the perp walk in front of the cameras. What happened in the end? Career ruined but all charges dropped.
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'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…
Xavi, 35, would also work with Qatar’s Aspire Academy, become an ambassador for the 2022 World Cup to be held in the Gulf state, which is one of Barcelona’s main sponsors, and aim to start his coaching qualifications, his agent, Ivan Corretja, told Reuters.
Corretja declined to comment on reports that Xavi will earn €10m (£7.2m) a season."
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/may/20/xavi-hernand...
These are "FIFA Officials" in the same way that the representatives countries send to the UN are "UN Officials", or US Congressfolk are "US Officials". They aren't people who actually do the work at FIFA. $150 million over 20 years for sports rights in Latin America seems to indicate pretty slim margins. I wonder what the deal was with bribes and kickbacks over the selection of the host country for the 2010 World Cup…
I don't quite understand how money laundering and fraud are "made up crimes". IMO they are very real crimes. If the convictions are wrong (i.e. not based on evidence), then say so, but claiming that crimes are "made up" is weasel language.
As to "fraud", I actually referred to "wire fraud conspiracy", which is, more or less, once having had some sort of agreement (tacit or otherwise) to do something with a dishonest intention where a telephone was involved in some way or other. Note that you don't actually have to have followed through on that intention for the "crime" to have been committed.
These defendants plead guilty, so the convictions are no doubt correct. And no doubt many millions of bribes were paid. But I think a degree of skepticism about prosecutorial conduct is appropriate no matter what the supposed target of the prosecution.
These are "FIFA Officials" in the same way that the representatives countries send to the UN are "UN Officials", or US Congressfolk are "US Officials". They aren't people who actually do the work at FIFA. $150 million over 20 years for sports rights in Latin America seems to indicate pretty slim margins. I wonder what the deal was with bribes and kickbacks over the selection of the host country for the 2010 World Cup…
Answering my own question, having now skimmed the indictment, it seems to be the usual suspect taking money paid by the South African federation to the CFU for its support in the bid process - something which seems to be entirely legitimate - for himself (which isn't).
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If a major football country like Germany or Spain left FIFA the FIFA World Cup would lose one of its strongest competitors and it wouldn't be a World Cup- FIFA would fall apart like a house of cards. Blatter would have to step down because of popular pressure on him (my humble opinion). The chance of a national association 'seceding' from FIFA is very, very unlikely though. I agree with your assesment of Blatter's sh…
Spain is strong as a Club League, not so much as a National Team. Germany is important to the World Cup, but it's not enough... Remember that in every World Cup, some "important" countries are left out in the Qualifiers. To really hit the tournament, you would need the support from several historical and relevant members in each Association. As an example: USA, Mexico in Concacaf; Argentina and Brasil in Conmebol; It…
Let's say Germany 'secedes' from FIFA. I know for a fact that if Holland (I'm Dutch, but same thing goes for England) were to win the next World Cup in the absence of Germany, it wouldn't be taken seriously. I'd say most Dutch football fans would rather not win it at all in the absence of Germany. If they didn't qualify, well that's a whole different story, then they obviously weren't good enough to start with.
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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.
Not necessarily. In some places you can host Olympic games without throwing money away, even getting a profit. Take for example the proposed Olympic Games 2024 Hamburg and Kiel: Kiel hosts the largests sailing event worldwide every year, and hosted the Handball world cup before – and, due to having the best european team in Handball, we also have often large matches. Hamburg has also lots of other sports which are do…
Only two new permanent facilities were built for the games: Olympic Velodrome at California State University, Dominguez Hills and the Olympic Swim Stadium at the University of Southern California. Both of those received heavy corporate sponsorship which covered most of the costs.
Overall, the Los Angeles Olympics made a profit of around $200 million.
I lived in the area at the time (Pasadena, to be precise), and the Olympics were remarkable unobtrusive. Mot people expected traffic to be really terrible during the Games, but enough people apparently took vacations or arranged to work at home or shifted their schedules that my daily freeway commute during the games was actually much faster than it had been before.
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Vancouver 2010 is a fantastic example of just that. Yes, there were some developments which could have gone better (Olympic Village, for one), but some much needed infrastructure and stadium upgrades came out of it: - Sea to Sky Highway went from being a ridiculously dangerous road between Vancouver and Whistler to being a pretty good road (still twisty, but there's only so much that can be done about that), and sore…
This is exactly what I’m talking about – Vancouver 2010, or Kiel+Munich 1972 are perfect examples for reusing existing infrastructure and upgrading it. Even London 2012 was a great example – reusing infrastructure, upgrading it, etc is a good way to do it. Another good idea: One of the recent UEFA cups was hosted by two countries together (actually, several of them were). Which is another good idea, several less deve…
Now let's talk about the "DEVELOPING COUNTRIES"... what good examples do you have?
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I don't quite understand how money laundering and fraud are "made up crimes". IMO they are very real crimes. If the convictions are wrong (i.e. not based on evidence), then say so, but claiming that crimes are "made up" is weasel language.
Money laundering is a recent invention as a crime. None of the actions involved are actually criminal in themselves, it's just that they (supposedly) make it harder for the authorities to detect something they might want to be obvious, to assist in the War on Drugs, or tax avoidance, or (more recently) terrorism. As to "fraud", I actually referred to "wire fraud conspiracy", which is, more or less, once having had so…
But I would guess that already ancient Chinese criminal gangs did something similar, to make the proceeds of illegal activities appear legal.