This aweseome news. Can we do the IOC next?
Right after we fix the NFL and MLB.
And your country's armed expedition funding. FIFA is less than 1/100th that misdirected since 2003 on the two big ones.
FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S
171–180 of 264 posts
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S
#172Wow. 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)?
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Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S
#173Can anyone explain the jurisdiction?
The CONCACAF headquarters is in Miami, FL. If you notice all the indictments are against current or former CONCACAF board members. The ones who are not are part of sports agents/promoters with a US presence.
Chuck Blazer who was CONCACAF secretary while Wilson was president also just plead guilty to corruption charges. It's also widely believed that he's also one of the main informants.
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S
#174Okay, I'll ask it: why does it take the U.S. to get involved in fighting corruption against an almost entirely non-U.S. organization that governs a sport that's not very popular here? Why isn't this happening in Europe or Central/South America where the impact is more immediate?
Probably because said countries have their own interests/benefits from FIFA. More so than say the US. Just a speculation though. There's also the fact that say a country such as Argentina were to do it, no one would really take them that seriously.
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S
#175Okay, I'll ask it: why does it take the U.S. to get involved in fighting corruption against an almost entirely non-U.S. organization that governs a sport that's not very popular here? Why isn't this happening in Europe or Central/South America where the impact is more immediate?
Contrary to popular opinion, FIFA does quite a bit of revenue in the US, and the Concacaf has been ground zero for much of the corruption issues. In many cases, money is being issued from US banks to be used in the laundering and corruption.
And the US may be the one country where FIFA doesn't have enough pull to graft their way around the problem.
There was a great documentary a few years ago about the US links...
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S
#176Okay, I'll ask it: why does it take the U.S. to get involved in fighting corruption against an almost entirely non-U.S. organization that governs a sport that's not very popular here? Why isn't this happening in Europe or Central/South America where the impact is more immediate?
For one, I'd say that the US is the biggest entity of the bunch, and would most likely have the most pull to actually get something done.
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
The connection is that CONCACAF has their headquarters in Miami, FL
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is highly dependent on the host nation. The biggest factor is that they have already invested a large amount in infrastructure and/or will continue to make use of the facilities after the event. The 94 Cup in the US and the 2006 Cup in Germany are the two most recent examples. It is very hard for developing nations like South Africa, Brazil, or Qatar to have any chance of turning a net profit.
Brazil at least also has the Olympics coming up so one would hope some of the infrastructure put in place for the World Cup will transfer over. Who knows though.
I'm not so sure how beneficial that will be. Some of the previous investments will carry over, but it will be more limited than one might first expect. The Olympics is a different kind of event and is focused on a single metro area or region while the World Cup is nationwide. Any money spent outside Rio and the surrounding area for the World Cup will be of little use for hosting The Olympics.
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S
#179It 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…
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.
> What I don't get what does the DOJ have to do with FIFA?
DOJ has a lot to do with bribery by US persons (natural persons and corporations), and criminal conspiracies involving such bribery (even if not all the principals are US persons), and criminal conspiracies making heavy use of US financial institutions.
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S
#180Okay, I'll ask it: why does it take the U.S. to get involved in fighting corruption against an almost entirely non-U.S. organization that governs a sport that's not very popular here? Why isn't this happening in Europe or Central/South America where the impact is more immediate?
Because the vast majority of the bribing related to FIFA isn't happening in the US. That's the entire point of bribery, that you are more protected in the areas you are bribing.