Apart from FIFA admitting that it paid a 3.4m Euro bribe to the Irish FA in return for them dropping legal action for Thierry Henry's infamous handball.
Come on billy - that's awful. Their fans fought through social media, protests etc whilst their FA kept quiet. The entire time they had been bought out.
It was a 5m Euro bribe (£3.6m)..... well it was a loan to be exact ..... which has now been written off
Yes, I spoke too soon. If I remember right Henry handled it TWICE right in front of the ref. Some refereeing mistakes are understandable, but not this one. Beyond the pale.
Shades of Maradona, methinks. It says it all about FIFA that their solution was to throw money at the problem as a bribe. If I was an Irish fan, I'd be furious about the whole thing. It would be nice to see Blatter dragged back to the microphone to discuss it, after all, he is still president of FIFA.
It doesn't say much about the Irish FA, either. Bought and paid for. Thank God that sort of thing could never happen in England thanks to fan power and our free press. Yet another reason why left wing, hand wringing deviant do gooders like Hugh Grant and Stephen Fry must never be allowed to muzzle the brilliant Murdoch press and the Daily Mail.
PS : the next time I see Cameron or more likey, John Whittingdale (a smoker like me...)I am going to ask them where Rupert Murdoch and Paul Dacre's knighthoods are. Long overdue. I am serious
I read the Daily Mail once a few weeks ago, and can easily understand why any regular reader would be in a constant state of apoplectic rage against the world. The Sunday Times deserves credit for its brilliant expose of FIFA corruption years ago, which was not welcomed by the FA because they were afraid it would damage their own World Cup bid. If you like good investigative reporting you should read Private Eye. It's in a class of its own.
Private Eye is a bit like Marmite..... love Marmite but can't share the same feeling about Private Eye..
Sunday Times is an excellent Newspaper, but it takes me until the following Sunday to read it all.The Daily Fail i wouldn't even use it to wrap my chips in. Terrible rag.
Love marmite, prefer vegemite. Private Eye has improved no end since the days of Richard Ingrams, who was never one to let the truth get in the way of a good story. It's very well researched now,and According to this week's Private Eye Paul Dacre has just started 3 months off because of a heart problem, and there are doubts about whether he will return even then. The jockeying for his position has already started. It also looks as though Piers Moron could be in trouble over the phone-hacking at the Mirror while he was editor. REmember the outright denials at the leverson enquiry? What a shame if he got done for perjury!
And a quote from the brilliant Sun, in 2010: "Today The Sun makes this plea to Mr. Blatter and FIFA. Don't be put off by the BBC re-hashing ancient history. Despite BBC muckraking, the Sun trusts FIFA to put football first". A reference to Panorama's expose of FIFA corruption.
Least surprising headline of the week: "Russia and Qatar may have bought votes" according to Blatter's assistant. WOW!
And the new candidate who is considering putting himself forward in the December election is........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................SEPP.............................BLATTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a surprise.
and elected (after a mountain of votes from the newly rich African and Asian reprresentatives) is ....... Sepp Blatter ...... Not such a surprise
