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Breaking News: Fifa officials arrested.


CHAPEL END CHARLIE

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Swiss police have arrested a number of Fifa officials in your stereotypical 'dawn raid' in Zurich this morning at the behest of the US Department of Justice. No names have been released as yet, but I understand that unfortunately the egregious Sepp Blatter - the man responsible for running this notoriously corrupt organisation - was not among those led off to the slammer.

 

The Presidential election is due on Friday.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32895048

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Surely they can't go ahead with the election after this...??

 

It should be delayed until after charges are put to those arrested.

 

If they do push through with the election to keep Blatter, it just reinforces most peoples view that the whole organisation stinks.

 

How on earth any organisation can be subject to sustained corruption allegations and still carry on as if nothing has happened, is beyond me.

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Just read the focus of the charges will be on the Qatar bid, but the corruption goes back two decades. The despicable Jack Warner and FIFA VP Jeffrey Webb is among the arrests.

 

And apparently because the corruption has involved USD as the currency, it gives the Americans perfectly good reason to nick the bastards, otherwise it could have got a bit messy, for example; an American telling a Swiss to arrest a Tongan on something that happened in Ghana. The currency thing brings it all nicely under the umbrella.

 

Surely they can't go ahead with their elections now, surely???

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Surely they can't go ahead with the election after this...??

 

It should be delayed until after charges are put to those arrested.

 

If they do push through with the election to keep Blatter, it just reinforces most peoples view that the whole organisation stinks.

 

How on earth any organisation can be subject to sustained corruption allegations and still carry on as if nothing has happened, is beyond me.

 

 

The Skates did it Twice

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step in the right direction, probably.

 

my only fear is because blatter hasn't been part of these latest arrests, that this will actually strengthen his position. It'll give the impression he's the only 'honest' character in the upper tiers of fifa.

 

anyway.

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step in the right direction, probably.

 

my only fear is because blatter hasn't been part of these latest arrests, that this will actually strengthen his position. It'll give the impression he's the only 'honest' character in the upper tiers of fifa.

 

anyway.

 

Absolutely no one believes that.

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Absolutely no one believes that.

 

yeah fair enough.

 

I just mean if everyone else around him is getting arrested and he isn't, that at least can only benefit his position.

 

suppose the other side would be if every other corrupt person is being shunted out and replaced, he might not have as many people on his side

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When the Fifa presidential election goes ahead - and it will at some point - then Blatter will probably win because he has instituted a system of patronage and kick-backs that insure that is in the direct financial self-interest of many delegates to vote for him - why would they want to derail such a profitable gravy train? In effect Fifa is run like some unholy mixture of the Mafia and North Korea.

 

The system reeks of corruption of course, but as Fifa reports to no higher authority then the only way to stop Blatter is for the US authorities (God bless them) to convict Blatter and his cronies of the corruption charges they have been successfully dodging for years - which would obviously take many years - or wait for nature to run its course with a 78 year old man.

 

Everyone wants to see their country compete in the World Cup, and the financial implications here are huge, but Fifa is so rotten to the core that you have to think the time is fast coming when our FA should consider withdrawing from this organisation until it is fundamentally reformed.

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step in the right direction, probably.

 

my only fear is because blatter hasn't been part of these latest arrests, that this will actually strengthen his position. It'll give the impression he's the only 'honest' character in the upper tiers of fifa.

 

anyway.

 

Or, he has done the obvious and to minimise the risk of him losing has dumped others in the ****e. Not unbelievable.

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Hopefully this is a house of cards that is just about to come tumbling down. Would be great if Blatter was ousted and Qatar lost the World Cup. Bent leader, bent nation.

 

The Qatar bid will be their undoing ultimately. It was so blatantly corrupt to 99% of the world. Still can't believe it will ever happen and if it does it should be boycotted

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The Qatar bid will be their undoing ultimately. It was so blatantly corrupt to 99% of the world. Still can't believe it will ever happen and if it does it should be boycotted

They've started building the stadiums now, I imagine turning back now will be an legal nightmare. Would be lovely if UEFA just refused to participate but I believe Platini voted for it anyway so slim hope.

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Details of the FBI investigation which led to today’s arrests emerged in November last year via The New York Daily News - headline “Soccer Rat!” - which claimed Chuck Blazer, the former Fifa executive turned FBI informant, had used a bugging device to record meetings with his Fifa colleagues at the London 2012 Olympics.

 

The paper claimed how, faced with a multi-million dollar bill for unpaid tax on hidden earnings, Blazer agreed to cooperate with an investigation by the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service. He then recorded meetings with Fifa colleagues on a bug hidden inside a key fob while staying at a Mayfair hotel during the Olympics.

 

The investigation into Blazer’s tax affairs turned up some choice claims about his lifestyle - including the revelation that Concacaf paid $18,000 a month for his Trump Towers apartment, and another $6,000 per month for a second Trump Towers flat, used mainly by his cats

 

From the guardian

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I didn't see the thread here and would not have thought that it was Saints related. So I might as well transfer my posts from the Lounge thread over here.

 

It is largely irrelevant whether Blatter is implicated in these allegations. As the head of this corrupt organisation, the buck (or the millions of bucks) stops with him. If there was a shred of integrity in the man, he would withdraw from the election to be President, but integrity, honour, morality, honesty are not words that immediately spring to mind when one thinks of him. With luck, when some of his crooked henchmen are being cross-examined by the FBI, they will snitch on him and confirm that he was well aware of what was going on. And when they've finished their investigations into corruption in FIFA, then they can start on their investigations into corruption in the Olympic organisation, which is probably an even bigger can of worms.
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Swiss legal authorities have announced that criminal proceedings have opened "against persons unknown on suspicion of criminal mismanagement and of money laundering in connection with the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 football World Cups".

 

Popcorn-09-Psych.gif

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Reckon this strengthens Blatter's position. Vote him in and no investigation into what else might be rattling around the cupboard, as per usual. Get a new guy in and he might want to do a spring clean. Now IF you had some skeletons that you wanted to be firmly kept locked away, who would you vote for? (I say "IF" because as we all know this is hypothetical etc etc)

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This is potentially explosive, the statement from the Swiss Atorney General is huge! It looks like they've finally been caught out (I hope), it all happening today, just 2 days before the vote and in the same Hotel as the World's media makes it look like it was arranged by Michael Corleoné! Gotta love those Yanks, "today we settle all FIFA family business".

 

Just cast your minds back to the day Russia and Qatar won their bids. I was in the pub due to a snow day and everyone was taken back by it, so obviously obviously corrupt. The recent news that Russia had lost/ destroyed all the computer equipment used during their bid was astonishing, the deaths in Qatar keep racking up. It's a ****ing disgrace and the sooner it gets fixed the better. No way Putin's Russia or a petro nation of 300k people in a desert with limited human rights should have the 2nd biggest sporting event in the World.

 

I will also take particular pleasure in seeing Jack Warner taken to task.

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This is potentially explosive, the statement from the Swiss Atorney General is huge! It looks like they've finally been caught out (I hope), it all happening today, just 2 days before the vote and in the same Hotel as the World's media makes it look like it was arranged by Michael Corleoné! Gotta love those Yanks, "today we settle all FIFA family business".

 

Just cast your minds back to the day Russia and Qatar won their bids. I was in the pub due to a snow day and everyone was taken back by it, so obviously obviously corrupt. The recent news that Russia had lost/ destroyed all the computer equipment used during their bid was astonishing, the deaths in Qatar keep racking up. It's a ****ing disgrace and the sooner it gets fixed the better. No way Putin's Russia or a petro nation of 300k people in a desert with limited human rights should have the 2nd biggest sporting event in the World.

 

I will also take particular pleasure in seeing Jack Warner taken to task.

 

What you said.... x 10,000

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Reckon this strengthens Blatter's position. Vote him in and no investigation into what else might be rattling around the cupboard, as per usual. Get a new guy in and he might want to do a spring clean. Now IF you had some skeletons that you wanted to be firmly kept locked away, who would you vote for? (I say "IF" because as we all know this is hypothetical etc etc)

 

He's already worming his way around the FIFA members, trying to get a postponement. This obviously isn't good for him.

 

Oh well. :lol:

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This is potentially explosive, the statement from the Swiss Atorney General is huge! It looks like they've finally been caught out (I hope), it all happening today, just 2 days before the vote and in the same Hotel as the World's media makes it look like it was arranged by Michael Corleoné! Gotta love those Yanks, "today we settle all FIFA family business".

 

Just cast your minds back to the day Russia and Qatar won their bids. I was in the pub due to a snow day and everyone was taken back by it, so obviously obviously corrupt. The recent news that Russia had lost/ destroyed all the computer equipment used during their bid was astonishing, the deaths in Qatar keep racking up. It's a ****ing disgrace and the sooner it gets fixed the better. No way Putin's Russia or a petro nation of 300k people in a desert with limited human rights should have the 2nd biggest sporting event in the World.

 

I will also take particular pleasure in seeing Jack Warner taken to task.

 

bang on.

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Confused to the nature of the Jack Warner stuff, he's been off the FIFA gravy train since he fell on his sword the LAST time round, when Blatter threw a few of the possible rivals under the bus for the 2011 election (along with the awesomely named Chuck Blazer).

 

...and he's been a member of the Trinidad & Tobago Parliament since 2013. :facepalm:

 

"On 20 June 2011, FIFA announced Warner's resignation from all his positions in international football.[8] As Warner is no longer part of FIFA, they have ended the investigation into any and all ethics violations, saying "As a consequence of Mr Warner's self-determined resignation, all ethics committee procedures against him have been closed and the presumption of innocence is maintained"

 

I guess that statement from 2011 and the arrests being about the Qatari bidding process back in 2009 answers my question.

 

It doesn't explain why a suspended member of FIFA would even be there though. :o

Edited by The9
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If you want to hate Jack Warner it's not hard:

 

England World Cup bid[edit]

 

Warner once again caused controversy in 2007 in an interview with the BBC about England's chances of holding the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He asserted that "England invented the sport but has never made any impact on world football" despite being one of only (then) seven nations to ever lift the world cup, "For Europe, England is an irritant", and that "Nobody in Europe likes England". Furthermore Warner proposed that, if the World Cup were to be held in Europe, it should be held in Italy, Spain or France (countries that last hosted the competition in 1990, 1982 and 1998 respectively). He said that he would "battle to bring...the tournament to his region"[27][28]

 

However, on 14 February 2008, Warner retracted this stance. England's Football Association agreed to visit Trinidad and Tobago to play a friendly against the Trinidad and Tobago national football team on the condition that Warner apologize.[29]

 

Warner argued that, "The time has come. The fact is they invented this sport [...] They last held the World Cup 42 years ago. That is almost two to three generations. There are guys in England who have never seen a World Cup on English soil." Warner maintained that the choice of England would not be popular among mainland Europe though.[30]

 

During the bidding process to host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup's Warner continually supported the English bid, promising to vote in England's favour at the draw in December 2010. Warner approached the England bid team through David Beckham, offering to hold off on bringing out the vote for Russia in exchange for promises in relation to CONCACAF.[31][not in citation given] Russia won the vote to hold the FIFA World Cup in 2018, with Warner widely reported to have voted for the Russian bid.[

 

Black market ticket sales[edit]

 

Via a private family company, Warner owned shares in Simpaul, a travel and holiday company. In late 2002, various global media publications alleged that Warner had made a profit of $350,000 selling 2002 FIFA World Cup tickets.[36]

 

In a series of exposés during December 2005, the Trinidad and Tobago Express revealed that Simpaul was offering $30,000 packages to the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, which effectively marked up match tickets at a high rate.[37] FIFA's ethics committee criticised the ticket deals, concluding Warner had abused his position to obtain personal benefits and failed to declare his business interests. Warner agreed to sever all family links with Simpaul immediately. However, his son Daryan remained a director of Simpaul throughout World Cup 2006, while his personal assistant remained the company secretary of Simpaul.[36]

 

FIFA started an investigation, and asked their auditors Ernst & Young, to investigate. In a report submitted to FIFA in March 2006, E&Y estimated that Warner's family had made a profit of at least $1 million from reselling 2006 World Cup tickets, that Warner had directly ordered or sold on behalf of the T&TFA.[21][38] Minutes of FIFA’s executive committee indicate that in consequence of being found guilty of breaking FIFA's Article 5, a fine of almost $1 million, equal to the expected profiteering, was imposed on the family.[39][40] Despite numerous reminders from FIFA, only $250,000 has been paid.[41]

 

Andrew Jennings the presenter of FIFA's Dirty Secrets, an edition of BBC's Panorama repeated the allegations in a November 2010 programme during the week Warner and his fellow FIFA ExCo members voted to decide the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Warner_(football_executive)

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This is a superb article. It's almost as if the Journo was "Embedded" in the FBI team, there is so much detail in it.

 

So many things that the article raises, for example the way Jack Warner's resignation made problems "go away" may be sound under FIFA regs but would never stand up in court.

 

A reference to 2010. That gets an ORLY as well.

The fact that the Swiss raided FIFA HQ.

 

With my location I have to be careful about commenting except to say that today is probably Soccer USA's greatest moment. God Bless the Yanks, go get 'em boys!

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/sports/soccer/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges-blatter-isnt-among-them.html?_r=0

 

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From the Conference.

 

FIFA "started" this investigation last year. They lodged a complaint with the authorities. (Of course you did)

 

FIFA "welcomes this process" and "cooperates fully"

 

In this context, FIFA is "the damaged party", we are providing all the information. "We are happy" that this is happening. "FIFA is the one suffering in this".

 

Basically, FIFA saying that they're squeaky clean and initiated this whole thing. :lol:

 

 

Journo questions coming up :hunt:

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This is a superb article. It's almost as if the Journo was "Embedded" in the FBI team, there is so much detail in it.

 

So many things that the article raises, for example the way Jack Warner's resignation made problems "go away" may be sound under FIFA regs but would never stand up in court.

 

A reference to 2010. That gets an ORLY as well.

The fact that the Swiss raided FIFA HQ.

 

With my location I have to be careful about commenting except to say that today is probably Soccer USA's greatest moment. God Bless the Yanks, go get 'em boys!

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/sports/soccer/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges-blatter-isnt-among-them.html?_r=0

 

You're info starved over there Phil, the only reporting of the day's activities is the detail on the specific charges, the rest of it has clearly been sat in a file marked "FIFA Corrupt Practices" for about 5 years waiting for this day.

 

Also, all this stuff (especially about Warner) has been being reported in World Soccer magazine since about 1994. :D

 

There's plenty more on Wikipedia about the way various corruption investigations were closed once people resigned... 2010 in South Africa, bribery, who'da... oh yeah, everyone.

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Can someone nail Ricardo Teixeira for something please?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_Teixeira

 

"Ricardo Terra Teixeira was president of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) from January 16, 1989 to March 12, 2012. In July 2012 a Swiss prosecutor's report revealed that, during his tenure on FIFA's Executive Committee, he and his former father-in-law Joao Havelange took more than $41 million in bribes in connection with the award of World Cup marketing rights"

 

In July 2012 after protracted court proceedings, Havelange and Teixeira were named as beneficiaries of bribes from ISL. A document released by a prosecutor in the canton of Zug revealed that from 1992 to 2000 Havelange and Teixeira were paid 41m CHF by ISL.[3]

 

At the time of the payment of the bribes, commercial bribery was not a crime in Switzerland.[3] In 1997 as President of FIFA Havelange had granted ISL FIFA's exclusive marketing rights, and exclusive TV and radio rights to the 2002 and 2006 World Cups in 1998. ISL paid FIFA 200m CHF for the marketing rights and $1.4bn for the TV rights. After ISL's bankruptcy its liquidators examined all payments made by the company.[3]

 

FIFA, under the presidency of Sepp Blatter, was found to have known about the bribes, yet argued it did not need to have the money repaid. Prosecutions were mounted for alleged embezzlement against Havelange and Teixeira, but were stopped in May 2010, after Havelange and Texeira repaid 500,000 and 2.5m CHF respectively.[3] The repayments were considered reasonable due to the fact that bribes paid before 1995 were outside the statute of limitations, and Havelange's advanced age.[3] The prosecutor also believed that Havelange and Teixeira were guilty of criminal breaches of their duties to serve FIFA as senior executives.[3]

Edited by The9
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