OT- FIFA officials arrested, charged with corruption
And the Swiss are evidently playing along with plans to extradite them to the US. Right now we don't know if Blatter is among the indicted. Jack Warner's name unsurprisingly pops up.
At the least, this is a nice black eye and extended middle finger to Sepp Blatter.
At the most hopefully the World Cup moves out of Qatar.
Links (the NYT article is a little more in-depth)
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/fifa-officials-be-charged-corrupution-n365101
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/sports/soccer/fifa-officials-face-corruption-charges-in-us.html
Edit: damn, doesn't look like they nailed Blatter
sources tell me sepp blatter is not among the fifa officials who are being arrested
— Michael S. Schmidt (@MichaelSSchmidt) May 27, 2015
Awwww yissss! This won't clean the house but hopefully the spotlight scares these cockroaches.
Wheels of justice turning slowly, while migrant laborers work (and die) in what is essentially slavery to build stadiums in Qatar. We know there was shameless bribery to get the World Cup there--why it's taken this long is beyond me.
Qatar is the richest nation on earth per capita.
And after some light reading I just did in regards to their judicial system, I'd be totally fine if we wanted to invade that country and separate them from that wealth.
Not sure if that was a rhetorical statement - but on the off chance it's not:
It's taken this long because it's difficult and rare* to run a system - let alone a government system - that is not corrupt. In many, many, perhaps most, places around the world, bribery is the everyday standard. People just shrug at it.
*so far. I believe we're getting better, as a civilization.
1 more step to potentially having the Big House host a match... please...
(I know Ann Arbor doesn't qualify and the pitch would be too small anyway :( ; USA hosting would still be awesome tho)
NSFMF.
Michigan Stadium was a heavily considered site for the 1994 World Cup, and may have even been part of a bid for the 1986 World Cup as well. The 1994 plan was to build a platform that extended over the first ten rows of seats or so and then install a temporary grass surface on top of it, making the field surface big enough. Bill Martin was even enthusiastic about the idea for hosting a soccer game under the same plan as late as the 2000s--I heard him talk about it a couple times. This really was an actual thing that was seriously considered.
There was an article in the Michigan Alumnus about it that used to be really easy to find on Google Books, which I can't find right now, but included a crude drawing of what the platform would have looked like. Really bizarre, but I guess not that out of the realm of possibility when you consider the crazy things they do to put far more temperamental things like hockey rinks on surfaces they're not normally installed on.
You know you're too corrupt when even the Swiss are working to get ya on RICO.
you: Won't this screw our chances at the 2026 bid, for which we (the U.S.) are considered favorites?
Not saying that's a reason we shouldn't have done it, but just curious.
Not exactly. If this has any legs at all, Qatar will lose the hosting rights to the WC in 2022. This will mean a country with proper infrastructure would have to host it, since it takes years to build stadiums etc. USA is one of the few countries that can and was a finalist country prior to Qatar's joke of a bid winning.
So cross your fingers Loretta Lynch/Eric Holder and the Justice Dept have enough evidence of dirt on these mofos for RICO charges to stick.
No, I think this is one of the few cases where the world would openly welcome the US playing World Police.
Yes, FIFA is that bad.
Dan Patrick had a British sports journalist on and he was absolutely giddy that the FBI did this. People are sick and tired of the FIFA corruption.
God invented FIFA so that even the NCAA has someone to be appalled by.
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I mean look at FIFA's main conference room. Shit looks diabolical.
Gentlemen, there's no fighting in here! This is the War Room!
Our Justice Department has some fucked up prioritiesFIFA is always chest-puffing about how soccer transcends sport and is so incredibly meaningful in real-life ways to real-life people. They don't get to weasel out with "it's just a game" now.
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I wish I could downvote this post more than once. See above post for reason.
It is actually possible for the Justice Department to investigate more than one crime at a time.
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This is some high level stupid right here. Guess who came in second to Qatar for the WC originally? The US. What country is most likely to host the WC if it is taken from Qatar? The US. What country has numerous large corporations which are most likely to be involved? The US.
But don't let me stop your, "Succer is 4 commies and puzzies" rant. Or is it just an incredibly misinformed view of the American Justice System. I'm just thankful your avatar isn't "UMAlum___" or something similar.
I seen something like this on E:60 Special on ABC last weekend.
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I seen what you did there!
Did I miss something?
I just seen it there
It will be interesting to see if their governments, besides the Swiss, will extradite them.
Foreign governments hate to extradite to the big bad USA, but they may actually hate FIFA even more in this case.
What I never understood is why the big world soccer powers did not just ignore corrupt FIFA and have their own tournament. The Brits would do it in a second, they hate FIFA. All it would take is Germany, Italy, Brazil, and Argentina to join them and the whole thing would be over.
Obviously the fraud/bribery/racketeering is on a whole other scale with FIFA, but I don't understand why college football puts up with bowl committees for the same reasons.
to roll over on Blatter to save their own skin.
If he rolls/rolled on current and former CONCACAF heads Jeffrey Webb and Jack Warner, we might expect them to subvehicularize Blatter. Those guys were high enough up the proverbial ladder that they may have paper, email, or text correspondence that would incriminate both them and Blatter. Prosecutor 101 would be to then lean on them to roll on Blatter.
In any event, we'll likely know more after today's news conference in Brooklyn (including an inkling of whether the U.S. citizens indicted will resist extradition). I'd love to see the whole rotten organization shaken to its core, and that seems to be a possible result here.
Also, screw Sepp Blatter.