Swiss police arrest 10+ FIFA officials: indicted by US Dept of Justice

Won't happen. If Qatar and Russia were stripped of the competition, the lawsuits would go on for years ....... Not to mention the Russians accusing the US of "anti-Soviet" meddling and threatening God knows what. Don't know about you, but I'm not keen on even more tension involving the East!
And, as TSS rightly says, the corruption was there long before these WCs were awarded. I don't agree with Qatar in any way running the WC, but I don't see it changing.

 

Putin has now come out in support of Blatter and against the US for the arrests. If anyone was unsure of which side to be on, this is surely the tipping point.

 

The Qataris are significant investors in the UK property and leisure sectors. I can foresee some powerful interests in this country getting very uncomfortable if Qatars stewardship of the WC is called into question. Only recently Boris Johnson announced the flogging off of the Scotland Yard building in Victoria to Qatari investors. Boris in the next cell to Sepp? Too much to hope for of course. This isn't the USA where the powerful get held to account.

 

Well he would. His support for Blatter might just be the FIFA president's undoing. We can only hope.

 

I see Greg Dyke has come out and said the FIFA vote should go ahead: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32914907

I can see where he's coming on. Strike while the iron's hot, so to speak, but it smacks of taking advantage rather than doing the right thing, which is to wait for the extent of the corruption to be unvield. Besides, if one is to run with Dyke's point, the overwhelming support from the body of footballing nations is for Blatter and not against him, so it may be rash to condone the vote in any case.

 

No way Blatter loses. He has spread the money around the world to all the smaller countries federations. They will be worried that if goes so will the money. If Africa and Asia vote for him he needs little more to win.

 

What a shocker!

 

As if he really cares. Just trying to promote his cringeworthy "passion" for football again. Why didn't he do anything before the Americans got involved?

 

That's harsh Susan, he just wanted to wear his Pompey tie again... he is a man for the underprivileged after all

 

I actually think it is irrelevant if the vote goes ahead on Friday or not. The outcome of these investigations will have a far greater bearing on the running of FIFA should they deliver a guilty verdict in the upper echelons of FIFA.

 

If hosting the World Cup in Qatar and Russia was only awarded because of bribes then what about the other countries in recent years who have hosted the tournament?

Did they pay bribes and if they did perhaps that's why there is an obvious silence from certain countries you would expect to have a great deal to say.

Are the South African FA and Brazilian FA a little bit worried at the moment? Who knows?

One thing for sure is that FIFA is rotten to the core.

If the game is to be returned to the people then we fans should all boycott the competition and stay at home and inform any sponsors that their products and services are now of our shopping list. We have more power than people think.

 

Wow, strong words from Platini.

 

It's okay, the man at the top, the head honcho, the big cheese, says he can't be held responsible for this corruption, after all it's not like he was in charge for.....well forever basically, so clearly it is nothing to do with him and he didn't know anything about it.

Yes and I'm signing on for Saints in July in goal or up front, I'm that good....

 

Maybe because he was too busy getting re-elected.

 

Blatter comes across as a leader not wanting to relinquish his power. It's gone to his head, he will die before he throws in the towel and he has the backing of the nobody FAs of Africa and Asia.

 

The 164-page indictment states disgraced former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner agreed a bribe of US$10 million with South African bid officials to vote for the 2010 World Cup.

Significantly, the cash was transferred via a FIFA bank account in Switzerland, on the authority of an unnamed "high-ranking FIFA official" to an American bank account controlled by Warner.

Even more damning is the indictment's statement that the money was "funds that would otherwise have gone from FIFA to South Africa to support the World Cup".

The indictment's contents in effect suggest that corruption went to the very heart of FIFA. An unnamed senior South American FIFA member was also involved in the bribes, says the indictment.

FIFA would not respond to the contents of the indictment. A spokesman said via email: "Please understand that we cannot comment on investigations that are ongoing."

Warner, who is now on bail in Trinidad facing extradition to the USA, had agreed to pay US$1million of the $10 million to his aide and fellow FIFA member Chuck Blazer.

The indictment says Warner was offered US$1 million by South Africa's rival bid Morocco but Blazer "learned from Jack Warner that high-ranking officials of FIFA, the South African government, and the South African bid committee, were prepared to arrange for the government of South Africa to pay $10 million to 'support the African diaspora'.

Blazer "understood the offer to be in exchange for World Cup votes" but later "learned that the South Africans were unable to arrange for the payment to be made directly from government funds". Blazer was to personally benefit to the tune of $1 million.

The indictment adds: "Arrangements were thereafter made with FIFA officials to instead have the $10 million sent from FIFA - using funds that would otherwise have gone from FIFA to South Africa to support the World Cup - to CFU (Caribbean Football Union).

"In fact, on January 2, 2008, January 31, 2008 and March 7, 2008, a high-ranking FIFA official caused payments... totalling 10 million - to be wired from a FIFA account in Switzerland to a Bank of America correspondent account in New York... controlled by Jack Warner."

Blazer was paid $750,000 by Warner but never received the full amount of the $1 million he had been promised.

Blazer has pleaded guilty to 10 criminal charges. Warner has denied any wrongdoing.

Warner said: "I have been afforded no due process and I have not even been questioned in this matter. I reiterate that I am innocent of any charges. "

The South African Football Association has denied any wrongdoing over its World Cup bid.

SAFA spokesman Dominic Chimhavi said the allegations were "without merit" and promised to challenge the "wild accusations".

He said: "Those individuals that brought the World Cup to South Africa were men of high integrity. Men like the late President Nelson Mandela and our former President Thabo Mbeki. The bidding process was never compromised."


http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/arti...ough-fifa-account-could-lead-blatter-downfall

 

Is this a post from today or 2001? It's correct and accurate but could have been posted at anytime!!

 

the americans have got involved due to corruption during the bidding process for the 2010 tournament.