Fifa's Castle Starting To Crumble?

I can't agree there, depend on which side of the fence you are on. If you see the Ukraine as a coup run out of the US consulate there with a 5 billion investment in it, the same cause of the previous "revolution", or if you see it as Russian aggression (against a country it has happily traded with for yonks without issue) before the "illegal by Ukrainian law" violent coup then.. besides the EU is desperate to get out of that sanctions cack anyway.

Russia has what it takes to host a world cup so their bid can be no less corrupt than Brazil's winning bid.

Qatar is another kettle of fish entirely for obvious reasons not least the 40 degrees in the shade crack, even Brazil was just too hot for a tournament let alone Qatar. There is mitigation for Russia due to the ability to host a WC, Sochi for example was a massive success even with the campaign by the western media to ruin it. Qatar has no such mitigating circumstances and even required a reshuffling of European football to fit it in The most corrupt awarding of any sporting event ever

 

I get ya
I understand Russia are fully capable of hosting such an event and have a history of hosting big sporting events.
but the US and UK will take great delight in trying to piss in Russia's cornflakes, I can promise you that. If not a main motivation, it is atleast a bonus

 

Yeah I get that, but I reckon there is no legal grounds to have these stopped based on FIFA corruption alone, given how much money has already gone into Qatar's WC setup, too many legit business deals rest on that corruption, I really doubt it could be stopped even if they found the bodies of 100 women in Blatter's basement.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32995947

Sepp Blatter given ovation by staff

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has been given a 10-minute standing ovation by some 400 staff as he returned to its Zurich headquarters a day after announcing he was to step down.


how long of an ovation would he get from the slave labour in Qatar?

 

Mate there is nothing good about that ****ing non country and everything in it except the scenery. Piss pot non country plutocrat state. Blatter is loved there I am sure.

 

Sometime it is not approval when you give ovation to someone. It can also mean happy to see your back

 

It's probably the hardest any of them have worked for years, 10 minutes of clapping like

 

What about all the shredding and burning of documents they've been doing in the past 48hrs

 

What about overwhelming evidence?

 

#Interns

 

No problem, they claimed it as 4 hours of overtime

 

I wouldn't be shocked if that was actually the case

 

Former FIFA executive Chuck Blazer has admitted taking a bribe to back South Africa's bid to host the 2010 World Cup.

The man nicknamed "Mr 10%" admitted to a catalogue of corruption before a US judge, and incriminated other executives in his 2013 evidence, which has just been released.

He also said he had been involved along with others in accepting a bribe over the selection of the host nation for the 1998 World Cup.

The court transcript reveals Blazer said: "I and others on the FIFA executive committee agreed to accept bribes in conjunction with the selection of South Africa as the host nation for the 2010 World Cup.

"Among other things, my actions described above had common participants and results."

More follows...

http://news.sky.com/story/1495775/fifas-blazer-bribed-to-vote-for-south-africa

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Blatters FIFA spent more on its own infrastructure than it did on the actual worldwide game it purported to represent.

Rotten to the core.

 

£0.9b expenses compared to the £0.8b on footballing issues isn't it?

 

Yep.

 

This is pretty interesting stuff and I expect some really good books to come out which I shall read!

Interesting Euro 96 and France 98 have been named in the bribes.

Who is offering these bribes? Because it reads like it would be England and France.

 

I think they were more to do with corporate sponsorship than the actual granting of the tournaments. That's not to say that I would trust them to be clean. But wouldn't Euro 96 be UEFA rather than FIFA?

 

Nope, sorry, WC1998 is also mentioned:

Former top Fifa official Chuck Blazer admits that he and others on the executive committee agreed to accept bribes in conjunction with the choice of South Africa as 2010 World Cup host.

The American says he also accepted bribes over the 1998 event.

The admissions come in a newly released transcript from a 2013 US hearing in which he pleads guilty to 10 charges.

The US has launched a wide-ranging criminal case that engulfed Fifa and led President Sepp Blatter to resign.

The US prosecutors last week indicted 14 people on charges of bribery, racketeering and money laundering. Four others had already been charged, including Mr Blazer.

The US justice department alleges they accepted bribes and kickbacks estimated at more than $150m (£97m) over a 24-year period. Seven of the 14 were top Fifa officials who were arrested in Zurich, Switzerland, as they awaited the Fifa congress. Two were vice-presidents.

'Kickbacks'
The details of Mr Blazer's guilty pleas came as prosecutors unsealed the transcript of the 2013 hearing in the Eastern New York District Court. The admissions are part of a sentencing deal with prosecutors.

Mr Blazer was the second highest official in Fifa's North and Central American and Caribbean region (Concacaf) from 1990 to 2011 and also served on Fifa's executive committee between 1997 and 2013.

How can Fifa reform itself?

In the transcript, prosecutors refer to Fifa "and its membership or constituent organisation" as a RICO enterprise - a Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organisation.

Mr Blazer says: "Beginning in or around 2004 and continuing through 2011, I and others on the Fifa executive committee agreed to accept bribes in conjunction with the selection of South Africa as the host nation for the 2010 World Cup."

Earlier on Wednesday, South Africa denied paying a $10m bribe to secure the hosting of the 2010 event.

Mr Blazer also says: "I and others agreed to accept bribes and kickbacks in conjunction with the broadcast and other rights to the 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2003 Gold Cups (the regional championship for national teams)."

Other admissions among the 10 charges in the 40-page dossier include US tax evasion.

Federal agents investigating the tax evasion had detained Mr Blazer and he agreed to co-operate in the US investigations.

He is said to have agreed to record his colleagues using a microphone hidden in a keychain.

The 70-year-old is said to be seriously ill, suffering from colon cancer.

In addition to the US case, Swiss authorities have launched a criminal investigation into how the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were allocated.

'Stay strong'
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Blatter was given a 10-minute standing ovation by some 400 staff as he returned to Fifa's Zurich headquarters a day after announcing he was to step down.

Reportedly close to tears, he urged his "fantastic team" to "stay strong".

He emphasised the reform work that Fifa now needed to undertake.

In his resignation speech on Tuesday, he said that although he was re-elected president by the congress last Friday it appeared the mandate he had been given did "not seem to be supported by everybody in the world of football".

http://www.bbc.com/news/32998735

 

Euro 96 had nothing to do with Fifa, that's a European competition run by UEFA. There is a 1996 competition in question but it's an African or Asian tournament.

Edit... Gold Cups