They are saying there will be another round of indictments soon at a similar qty to the first round of 14.
My hero: Football by David Conn The game should be governed in a way that makes all football lovers proud please log in to view this image 'Picture the young boy, running to the park with his ball, and nurture a sport fit for his lifelong loyalty.' Photograph: Bob Thomas/Getty Images please log in to view this image David Conn The former Argentine footballer Jorge Valdano once wrote that the journey of every adult football lover begins with a child, kicking a ball to the park. For some of those involved at the highest ranks of Fifa, their journey from the park ended this week in dawn arrests or guilty pleas to alleged corruption beyond a child’s imagination. One ineradicable image conjured by the US criminal indictment is the allegation that the Fifa executive committee member Jeffrey Webb had a $3m bribe partly routed to the man who was building him a swimming pool. The 164-page indictment of 14 defendants indeed left one almost drowning in detail, but still the anger and disgust came through. I fell in love with football as a boy in the parks, playgrounds and in the very air of Manchester, and I still believe – more than ever – in its beauty as a sport and the essential effort, spirit and team ethos it requires. Yet the game is subject to relentless exploitation by people entrusted to be its custodians, what the Swiss attorney general, referring to allegations regarding Fifa’s award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, described this week as “unjust enrichment”. Yet unjust enrichment is not restricted to the bribes or kickbacks that fall under the strict definition of corruption. Would it have been more admirable had Webb, if this bribe is proven, taken a grossly inflated fee from a TV rights contract by being on the payroll legitimately? Many whose enrichment has outraged football lovers have made millions by selling shares in football companies that supporters still quaintly refer to as clubs. The guiding light for running football should be as simple as the game’s essence. Picture the young boy, running to the park with his ball, and nurture a sport fit for his lifelong loyalty. • David Conn’s books about football include The Beautiful Game? and Richer than God.
please log in to view this image David Conn in today's Guardian Review: The former Argentine footballer Jorge Valdano once wrote that the journey of every adult football lover begins with a child, kicking a ball to the park. For some of those involved at the highest ranks of Fifa, their journey from the park ended this week in dawn arrests or guilty pleas to alleged corruption beyond a child’s imagination. One ineradicable image conjured by the US criminal indictment is the allegation that the Fifa executive committee member Jeffrey Webb had a $3m bribe partly routed to the man who was building him a swimming pool. The 164-page indictment of 14 defendants indeed left one almost drowning in detail, but still the anger and disgust came through. I fell in love with football as a boy in the parks, playgrounds and in the very air of Manchester, and I still believe – more than ever – in its beauty as a sport and the essential effort, spirit and team ethos it requires. Yet the game is subject to relentless exploitation by people entrusted to be its custodians, what the Swiss attorney general, referring to allegations regarding Fifa’s award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, described this week as “unjust enrichment”. Yet unjust enrichment is not restricted to the bribes or kickbacks that fall under the strict definition of corruption. Would it have been more admirable had Webb, if this bribe is proven, taken a grossly inflated fee from a TV rights contract by being on the payroll legitimately? Many whose enrichment has outraged football lovers have made millions by selling shares in football companies that supporters still quaintly refer to as clubs. The guiding light for running football should be as simple as the game’s essence. Picture the young boy, running to the park with his ball, and nurture a sport fit for his lifelong loyalty. • David Conn’s books about football include The Beautiful Game? and Richer than God. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/30/my-hero-football-david-conn
Ah. Here comes a 'purge' against all those who dared oppose Blatter. FIFA is arguably the most corrupt institution on the planet at this moment in time and makes Putin's Russia and the Communist China look like beacons of honesty and purity.
Dyke: "A third of delegates voted against him, which given the amount of patronage he carries, that is a remarkable number and the people who have voted against him are by and large the big nations - most of them in Europe and, we are told, the whole of Latin America. "These are the two big footballing continents, they don't want him anymore, we don't want him anymore and there is nothing he can do to us."
Blatter's defiance is a good thing. It will just make his eventual fall more hilarious. I hope someone captures footage of his arrest. He'd be so offended that someone dare impose a law on him.
Actually it really sounds like Indonesia deserved it and it certainly has nothing to do with conspiring with Price Ali. Mr. Hat is just screwing with you. They were suspended because the government took over the country's football governing body and halted the season over some row about 2 clubs participating in the top flight. "The row erupted in April when the PSSI halted the country's top-flight league due to a disagreement with the sports ministry over the participation of two clubs. The ministry then froze all activities of the PSSI, and said it was setting up a transitional body to replace the association, which has long faced allegations of corruption and mismanagement." JAKARTA: FIFA on Saturday (May 30) suspended Indonesia after the government in Jakarta sought to oust the country's football association, the latest crisis to hit the sport in Indonesia. The decision means Indonesian sides will no longer be able to take part in world football, and comes less than two weeks before the country was due to begin qualifying matches for the 2018 World Cup. The national team will, however, still be able to participate in the football tournament at the Southeast Asian Games, which is just getting under way. FIFA's decision "resulted from the effective 'take over' of the activities of PSSI (the Indonesian football association) by the Indonesian authorities," a spokesman for the world governing body said. "All Indonesian national teams (national or club) are prohibited from having international sporting contact which includes participating in FIFA and AFC competitions." The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is one of six regional federations that make up FIFA, and the ban means Indonesia will no longer be able to participate in the AFC Cup, the region's premier football tournament. PSSI also loses its FIFA membership rights and its members and officials will not benefit from any FIFA and AFC development programmes or training, the spokesman said. The decision was made at a meeting of the FIFA's Executive Committee in Zurich on Saturday. CORRUPTION AND MISMANAGEMENT The row erupted in April when the PSSI halted the country's top-flight league due to a disagreement with the sports ministry over the participation of two clubs. The ministry then froze all activities of the PSSI, and said it was setting up a transitional body to replace the association, which has long faced allegations of corruption and mismanagement. FIFA, which takes a dim view of governments interfering in domestic associations, backed the PSSI and gave Jakarta until May 29 to allow the association to resume activities, or face a ban from world football. A series of last-ditch efforts this week to resolve the row, including an attempt by Indonesia's vice president to persuade the sports ministry to back down, came to nothing. Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi has refused to change course and in recent days expressed hope that the crisis engulfing FIFA would delay the sanction. Top FIFA officials were arrested this week after being accused by US authorities of taking huge bribes, while Swiss police are investigating the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. President Joko Widodo has supported Nahrawi, saying urgent reform is needed in Indonesian football. "It doesn't matter if we are absent from international competitions for a while as long as we can win big in the future," he was cited as saying in the Jakarta Post newspaper on Saturday, before the suspension was announced. "I'm confident when the reforms are made, we will be moving forward." The suspension is just the latest crisis for Indonesian football, which was only just recovering from a feud between the PSSI and a breakaway association, which led to the creation of two separate leagues. FIFA also threatened to ban Indonesia over that row but the two sides eventually came back together, avoiding a sanction. Weak management, poor security at games, and high-profile cases of foreign players dying after going unpaid have also cast a shadow over football in the world's fourth-most populous country. - AFP/ec/fl
These words come easy. It has taken the USA to take a lead; Switzerland has been shamed into action, but we have words. Why must we see what UEFA will do? No one can be trusted and we need to rebuild our own foundations and only then look at what others are doing. Gregg called it wrong on the vote; I could understand his point but I find it hard to understand just how naive we seem to be at that level. It's about time we picked up our ball and came home to think about just who the **** our marrows are. We could start with an embargo on Russian and African players and officials.
