Corruption in FIFA, who da thunk it.

I heard that yesterday. You are absolutely right- comedy at its finest.

I find it hard to believe people are bitching this is a waste of time/tax payers money to prosecute, or that it's shooting fish in a barrel. This isn't just the FIFA officials, it's people in media and other related fields too.

There have been other attempts to prosecute them haven't been able to stick. They tried in the UK but didn't manage it.

Also this isn't a victimless crime. As mentioned on the first page what about all the poor Nepalese workers being tricked, exploited and dying to build the stadium in Qatar for the world cup. A location bought with bribes.

What about the extra cost of tickets being paid my millions and millions of people world wide to fund the bribes.

What about the public funds being used to secure locations for tournaments

Waht about the TV access being rigged and costing more

I hope this goes down and they all spend a long long time behind bars and forfeit their wealth to pay back some of the money. Maybe the US will get to hoste the 2022 world cup as it lost to Qatar.

Let's hope they go after Bernie and CVC next. The British courts failed to get Bernie, the Germans let him bribe his way out of a bribery case. The EU courts are looking at Anti-Trust with the way F1 is set up. If the Europeans can't get Bernie, maybe we can.

"Too big to prosecute", has already been established worldwide as an admissible legal defense. IOC, Wallstreet, Ecclestone, now FIFA.

The crime would be if anyone were surprised.

Move on...Nothing to see here.

HappyAndy wrote:

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!?!

Not anymore:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2015/04/28/the-nfl-is-dropping-its-tax-exempt-status-why-that-ends-up-helping-them-out/

IKEA still is though:

http://www.economist.com/node/6919139

NOHOME wrote: "Too big to prosecute", has already been established worldwide as an admissible legal defense. IOC, Wallstreet, Ecclestone, now FIFA. The crime would be if anyone were surprised. Move on...Nothing to see here.

Worst-case scenario, they get a slap on the wrist like HSBC...

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

In my earlier post I was not suggesting that no crimes were committed, or that FIFA shouldn't be prosecuted. the points I was trying to make is that there are many other countries with strong rule of law, that are far more effected by FIFA than the US. Of course FIFA is corrupt, but why aren't in Germany or the UK, or some other football loving country taking the lead in prosecuting them?

I can see how my comparison to Lance Armstrong and MLB may have made that confusing.however, I still maintain those pursuits did not serve tax payers well.

....I guess it all comes down to this.

HappyAndy wrote: In reply to Adrian_Thompson: In my earlier post I was not suggesting that no crimes were committed, or that FIFA shouldn't be prosecuted. the points I was trying to make is that there are many other countries with strong rule of law, that are far more effected by FIFA than the US. Of course FIFA is corrupt, but why aren't in Germany or the UK, or some other football loving country taking the lead in prosecuting them?

The Germans or Brits might be worried that FIFA might do something to sabotage their chance of winning a World Cup in retaliation. The US can say, "Berkley it, it's not like we have a shot at the Cup anyway."

I suspect Europe is way to intertwined with FIFA to prosecute them (or to be trusted to prosecute them). Both for the retaliation noted above and not getting "part of the pie" in terms of money, hosting the world cup, bribes etc.

I have heard the reason why the US is doing it is because some of the money transactions were done through US banks (shocking I know) and the US does deal with FIFA since they are trying to grow their presence here, no doubt using some "creative financial incentive techniques".

They should have just asked the Simpsons

Saw an article yesterday that compared worker deaths during the construction of the 2022 Qatar World Cup facilities (so far) to those incurred during construction of facilities for Sochi Olympics, Bejing Olympics, and other World Cups and Olympics. Sochi was like 20 or 30, Bejing was something like 6.

Qatar? So far it's over 1200.

Yawn. Trying to care. Failing.

Having followed soccer loyal since I was 5, it is both surprising and unsurprising. Surprising in that someone actually brought charges against FIFA officials and even more surprising it was the US. Unsurprising in that the corruption in FIFA is worse then most any government. Blatter needs to go and I can't believe that he was re-elected but since he has Africa and Asia in his pocket it isn't surprising either.

Big time soccer fan here.

Personally, I think that it's stupid. If they were smart, they would've went to lobbyist's from cooler, more desirable Countries and played them against each other...

"Weellll....Russia and Qatar are offering 1.5 mill for my vote...gimme 3 and we'll make it happen for Jamaica..." nudge-nudge-wink-wink

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

that's the question I've been asking … no one seems to want to acknowledge the similarities

wbjones wrote:

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

that's the question I've been asking … no one seems to want to acknowledge the similarities

As I see it, the IOC has had a much longer time to see how to hide the scandal. Stories about FIFA have been streaming out for quite some time, not being hidden at all. While Russia's bid is at least from a Futbol country, Qatar- that really put the rumors over a rather obvious wall.

If a construction project in a civilized country had more than one death PER DAY , how long before it was shut down?

Is there going to be a comparable ratio of dead visitors per day as "acceptable loss"?

How stupid of an organism would you have to be to spend money to attend the games in Qatar? The place is FUBAR. With FIFA caught red-handed and the human tragedy that is unfolding, how is the whole thing not being shut down? For a start, put the whole FIFA staff on the "No Fly" list since they seem to be in the international murder and extortion racket.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/32982449

And Blatter is out!

Good news for soccer fans.

Beat me to it.

Just got re-elected and claims ignorance of the corruption but resigns anyway. Maybe he should spend some time in prison just on general principles.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: I find it hard to believe people are bitching this is a waste of time/tax payers money to prosecute, or that it's shooting fish in a barrel. This isn't just the FIFA officials, it's people in media and other related fields too.

its actually strange, i dove into comments section from a couple of the bigger english speaking news sites, and they're covered with international flattery of the US, encouraging us to 'git em.'

i would've expected more american bully imperialism rhetoric...

HappyAndy wrote:

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!?!

Actually, they recently announced they are going "For Profit".....

Here's a good article - if you're one of those "what's the big deal" people, this should help you understand why FIFA's crimes are relevant to all of us, no matter how few E36 M3s we give about Futbol*:

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/04/opinions/ghitis-fifa-corruption/index.html

(Unless you're a soulless Randroid )

*For the record, my container of E36 M3s Given for Futbol contains a deep vacuum.

madmallard wrote: i would've expected more american bully imperialism rhetoric...

Nah. Pretty much everyone who loves soccer hates Blatter and FIFA and the love of soccer overrides any hatred towards the US.