What I've read is that the lawyer has always and will always back whoever pays him in an investigation. So FIFA is secure. I also understand the 'Blatter didn't vote for Qatar' line is designed to protect him from an election against Platini. I think he's supposed to have voted for USA. It's irrelevant how he votes anyway. If Blatter had wanted the World Cup to go to San Marino, he has the means and connections to make that happen. 'Foul' by Andrew Jennings is a very good book if anyone's interested in this sort of stuff.
Just googled it; Andrew Jennings is obviously a racist and Blatter isn't. The basic problem is that FIFA aren't accountable to anyone but themselves, which demonstrates that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
I don't think Andrew Jennings is racist. If I remember right, certain Swiss, German, American, Trinibagonian, and Brazilian people came out fairly badly. Been a while since I read it, but think there may have been a few Brits too. He does mention that World Cup tickets were very popular in Antigua and Barbuda (I think this was 2006). 4 or 5 tickets requested per citizen of Antigua and Barbuda popular. By the way, AllHell, the allegation of racism isn't that journalists are racist towards Qataris. The suggestion is that journalists are racist towards Africans, some of whom voted for Qatar.
He might be though. I don't know him. Or he could be best mates with Idi Amin. Who knows? I think those Antiguans really loved their trips across the Atlantic to the World Cup though.
Being racist now amounts to questioning ethics and honesty. I personally think the only thing left to do now is pick up our ball and Fack off.
Sepp Blatter has only ever done the one decent thing... Becoming a YouTube hit giving us laughs every day... https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sepp blatter falls off stage
If there are 200+ football federations why do they not get to vote on where the World Cup goes rather than 22 delegates from some back water footballing nation and who have probably never kicked a football in their lives. P.s why does someone like David Gill not stand for FIFA presidency could do a lot worse
Fair point on the delegates not being footballers, though I'm not sure that's a necessary requirement. 4 of the 18 voters I could check were former footballers. I'm not sure about the other four, but I'd say one at most was a footballer. I don't see how David Gill would fit into your model though. RE: Footballing backwaters, of the 22 voters, 4 of the voters are from countries that have never qualified for the World Cup (Qatar, Cyprus, Thailand, Guatemala). By my count, 13 of the voters' countries will be in this month's World Cup. An open vote across all nations would have the same sort of lobbying, but it is far harder to successfully bribe 120 associations than it is to bribe 12 people. If that is what you want to do...
Who elects the 22? I can't remember an election for the UK guy who seems a Bloater arse licker He said recently that there were some very good people at FIFA..... well fecking name ONE!!!!
Yes indeed. My accusation that Jennings is racist was tongue-in-cheek. The Dear Blatter's logic is that if you accuse FIFA of corruption it means you are a racist. Hate explaining a joke.
Interesting comments IA but I do believe that every football federation should be able to vote on where the World Cup should be held my only concern would be that we could end up with something like a Eurovision Song Contest where nations are voting for countries that are close to them and note the best bid.No matter what my opinion is I think you'll that something does need to change just to try and prevent any form of alleged corruption and to clean up FIFA. As for David Gill he has been involved with one of the biggest and most successful clubs in the world and is now vice chairman at the FA and someone I believe would act in football's best interest first.I would be worried if Michel Platani was in charge of FIFA despite being one of the finest footballers I've seen he is extremely anti English
I think countries could vote for their neighbours. Not out of friendliness but out of pragmatism. Consider a hypothetical situation where (an independent) Scotland and Indonesia are the only bidding countries for the World Cup. Would you prefer England to vote for a nearby country, where lots of fans could travel and training/acclimatisation would be easy for the team, or for the faraway land with tropical climate, injections and flights between grounds? RE David Gill, my point was that his background is administrative/executive stuff, not the footballer background you seemed to want. I'm not sure I share your confidence that a founding member of the G-14 has "football's best interest" at heart.
So the Blessed Saint Sepp and the rest of FIFA are beyond reproach. There was no corruption involved in the decision to hold the World Cup in Qatar. Dearie me! Instead it's actually England who are corrupt. Double dearie me!! The Qatar World Cup should be boycotted for the slave labour which is used to build the stadiums. Conditions are appalling, workers are not being paid but can't return home because their passports are being held. If the football countries don't boycott it I hope the fans do.
I expect the North Korean workers shipped out to Qatar are in no rush to return home. Talking of 'corruption', the Asian Cup was held about two weeks ago between West Sydney and a Saudi team. First leg was in Sydney and the Saudis paid for plane loads of supporters to go and support their team. For the return leg the Saudis issued 12 visas only to male supporters. Not quite corruption but certainly not playing by the rules.
Talking of adding insult to injury, Michael Garcia has now accused Blatter of deliberately mis interpreting the findings of his report. He is threatening legal action. Imagine that...the eminent lawyer hired by FIFA ...now suing his client for lying, having been asked to investigate lying by a bunch of liars.
It may be that the Dear Blatter &co have become too complacent about their ability to lie their way out of anything. They may have underestimated Michael Garcia. The FA don't come out of this too well either. One new aspect to this is the way FIFA have been saying that Russia have not been involved in any corruption, which immediately makes you think that they have, when the spotlight had only been on Qatar.
