111–120 of 264 posts
I'm all for dismantling and/or restructuring FIFA, but the timing is rather opportune.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right after we fix the NFL and MLB.
Are they that bad? I'm in the UK but I always thought they were fairly legit, if not very competent.
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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> Funny fact: every single time I am abroad and someone reminds me we have Blatter, I freak out... Pardon my ignorance, but why would this make you actually freak out? Are you related? I'm not trying to be obtuse, it just doesn't make sense to me.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are they that bad? I'm in the UK but I always thought they were fairly legit, if not very competent.
It was kind of tongue in cheek. The NFL and MLB are no where near as bad as FIFA or the IOC, although they affect me more since they're sports I watch, and they're also a little more in our court since they're actually American organizations. In terms of overall human rights and corruption, FIFA and IOC rate much higher. The only people really hurt by the actions of the NFL are the players.
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…
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.
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What I don't get what does the DOJ have to do with FIFA? As far as I know it is an international group and Qatar is not a US state.
I'm in the same boat. I get prosecuting the US citizens who paid bribes (long history there), but I don't get how the US can go after foreign nationals not on US soil for something that was done outside the US and not an attack on the US. I really don't understand why a country would extradite them in the first place. We can get FIFA, but we cannot get Roman Polanski?
Some combination of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (where a company can be prosecuted in the US for bribing officials abroad) mixed with RICO. The RICO part might not even be necessary, but it would allow them to go after anyone in the organization if they felt like it. I'm betting Blatter is sweating bullets right now.
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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…
> some actual interest in football. The entire region is crazy about football. 5 of the 20 richest clubs in Europe are sponsored by a Gulf company. http://gulfnews.com/sport/football/more-football/uae-tops-eu...
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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.
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…
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 Department during the same period of President George W. Bush’s second term.
Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar all donated to the Clinton Foundation and also gained State Department clearance to buy caches of American-made weapons even as the department singled them out for a range of alleged ills, from corruption to restrictions on civil liberties to violent crackdowns against political opponents.
...the Algerian government donated $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation and its lobbyists met with the State Department officials who oversee enforcement of human rights policies. Clinton’s State Department the next year approved a one-year 70 percent increase in military export authorizations to the country. The increase included authorizations of almost 50,000 items classified as “toxicological agents, including chemical agents, biological agents and associated equipment” after the State Department did not authorize the export of any of such items to Algeria in the prior year.
...Goldman Sachs paid Bill Clinton $200,000 to speak to “approximately 250 high level clients and investors” in New York, according to State Department records obtained by Judicial Watch. Two months later, the State Department approved a $675 million foreign military sale involving Hawker Beechcraft -- a company that was then part-owned by Goldman Sachs. As part of the deal, Hawker Beechcraft would provide support to the government of Iraq to maintain a fleet of aircraft used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. Goldman Sachs has also contributed at least $250,000 to the Clinton Foundation, according to donation records.
Stephen Walt, a Harvard University professor of international affairs, told IBTimes that the intertwining financial relationships between the Clintons, defense contractors and foreign governments seeking weapons approvals is “a vivid example of a very big problem -- the degree to which conflicts of interest have become endemic.”
http://www.ibtimes.com/clinton-foundation-donors-got-weapons...