Corruption in FIFA, who da thunk it.

What's a 100-150 million dollars more or less in bribery anyway?

I wonder if it's enough to end your bribery case with a bri...uh, settlement, Ecclestone style?

In reply to GameboyRMH:

with charges coming from the US of A, campaign contributions might be the less frowned upon route

Why are my tax dollars being spent on investigating FIFA? That's an even bigger waste than prosecuting Lance Armstrong, or congressional investigations of Major League Baseball.

In related news: the Justice Department has just announced it will begin shooting fish in barrels, but only fish that are useless to tax paying US citizens.

HappyAndy wrote: Why are my tax dollars being spent on investigating FIFA? That's an even bigger waste than prosecuting Lance Armstrong, or congressional investigations of Major League Baseball. In related news: the Justice Department has just announced it will begin shooting fish in barrels, but only fish that are useless to tax paying US citizens.

Hear hear!!

They committed a number of actual crimes, it's not just game-related crookedry.

No big deal as long as it's confined to sport. Now if corruption ever gets loose in the government, well, that would be a big problem.

FIFA corruption is kind of old news. It has been discussed repeatedly in the newspapers in Trinidad and Jamaica for years. Some Big Time local politicos got into the action as well. Seemed to be accepted that Russia and Qatar got the big games due to very well greased palms. Will be very interesting to see how this plays out in US courts. I have much more faith in US courts vs. Jamaica or Trinidad.

I wouldn't.

Excellent! Now where did those IOC officials go?

slefain wrote: Excellent! Now where did those IOC officials go?

Hahaha I thought the same thing

I'll just leave this here:

http://youtu.be/DlJEt2KU33I

LOL:

http://www.theonion.com/article/fifa-frantically-announces-2015-summer-world-cup-u-50525

Americans love a scandal. It's a desperate last ditch attempt to make Americans care about soccer

If someone in the Justice Department would only prosecute the folks on Wall Street instead of letting the banksters just pay fines that don't really amount to much for them.

MaFIFA in trouble?

You mean the corruption investigation by a colleague of our new Attorney General and the FBI director, that MaFIFA tried to sweep under the rug.. may actually get traction? Hallelujah.

Those berkeleyers need to pay the fiddler.

Wally wrote: Americans love a scandal. It's a desperate last ditch attempt to make Americans care about soccer

Didn't work. Still don't care (silly sport, listen to George Carlins take on soccer some time)

1988RedT2 wrote: No big deal as long as it's confined to sport. Now if corruption ever gets loose in the government, well, that would be a big problem.

And god help us if it ever infiltrated into the financial sector! Oh wait...those guys control the government, so that COULD be a bad thing right?

Wally wrote: Americans love a scandal. It's a desperate last ditch attempt to make Americans care about soccer

or maybe Americans are starting to care too much, and the NFL, NBA, and MLB all got together to create this scandal to discredit it...

GameboyRMH wrote:

slefain wrote: Excellent! Now where did those IOC officials go?

Hahaha I thought the same thing

Me too, although the way only totalitarian dictatorships seem interested in hosting the Olympics speaks for itself.

I have to wonder: Why didn't they just openly auction off where the World Cup went to the highest bidder?

Because then the home nations of the officials involved would have taken their cut (taxes). This way the money is hidden inside a huge, opaque "non-profit" of which the elite leadership can line their pockets much more thoroughly.

Yep, "non-profit" does not mean "earns no money".

Some of the richest people I know run non-profits

HiTempguy wrote: Yep, "non-profit" does not mean "earns no money". Some of the richest people I know run non-profits

The NFL is, legally speaking, a non profit organization!?!

KyAllroad wrote: What's a 100-150 million dollars more or less in bribery anyway?

Or the lives of 5000 impoverished workers lured to a country that has no business hosting the event in the summer only to have their passports stripped and be forced to work in slave like conditions.

Yea coming up pretty dry on sympathy here.

And now the president of FIFA makes a speech about how there's just a few bad people there and the corruption in FIFA isn't widespread. A pity he didn't go on further and insist they had awarded the World Cup to a country where nobody plays soccer and it's too bloody hot to play in the summer anyway based on their own merits. That would have been comedy gold.