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You are here: Home / Sports / Sooooo… How ‘Bout that FIFA Stuff?

Reader Interactions

57Comments

  5. 5.

    Valdivia

    Nothing informed yet, but will go searching on the futbol blogs I read and come back and report more.

    All this week, Michele Platini has been criticising Blatter so I hope this might give him an opportunity to pounce and maybe win the election. Correction: seems the competition for the Blatter position is from the brother of the King of Jordan who is running and wants to reform the organization. Maybe now he has a chance

    A couple of speculations:

    There will be lots of repercussions for the regional associations. CONCACAF and COMEBOL seem to have been targeted the most. Also: all those indicted are high ranking officials and pretty old. I think the strategy was to indict those at the top and near Blatter so they can turn them and get the big price later on.

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    John Cole? Posting before 7:30 AM??? Who are you and what have you done with our blog host?

    @Mustang Bobby: (checks balls) Nope, not mine.

  8. 8.

    Lee Rudolph

    As I understand it, they haven’t released the indictment yet.

    What? Cole’s being indicted for posting before 7:30???

  9. 9.

    Betty

    It has long been known in the Caribbean that Jack Warner was involved with this kind of thing. Interesting that it was the US government that decided to act when football (a/k/a soccer) has always been more of a European and Latin American obsession. There is a BBC reporter who has been hammering on this for well over a decade to no avail.

  11. 11.

    Gin & Tonic

    Amusing headline from the NYT: “FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Sepp Blatter Isn’t Among Them.” So it’s apparently newsworthy — nay, headline-worthy — that Sepp *isn’t* arrested.

  12. 12.

    Valdivia

    according to FIFA this changes nothing, everything is ok and both World Cups will proceed as planned (this from the press conference after the arrests). Also Blatter is a saint and is not involved.

    Baghdad Bob is getting a run for his money from that FIFA spokesman.

    holy shit: one of those arrested is a cousin of mine who is a sports promoter here in the US. yikes.

  13. 13.

    Richard Mayhew

    My hot take — about goddamn time. I am so far below the level of the arrested individuals in the soccer world that I am not worth stepping on to squish, but talking about the intergrity of the game is guaranteed to get laughs at my level of the game, much less higher up.

  18. 18.

    Baud

    LA Times

    Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch, who directed the investigation in her former job as the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, announced the charges before dawn in Washington.

    “The indictment alleges corruption that is rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted both abroad and here in the United States,” Lynch said. “It spans at least two generations of soccer officials who, as alleged, have abused their positions of trust to acquire millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks.”

  22. 22.

    Baud

    I think DOJ should enter a plea deal where they agree to drop all charges in exchange for officially changing the international name of the sport to “soccer.”

  24. 24.

    Patrick

    @Gin & Tonic:

    So it’s apparently newsworthy — nay, headline-worthy — that Sepp *isn’t* arrested.

    It makes sense to me since he is the president of FIFA. It was actually the first question I had since they were referring to FIFA officials.

  25. 25.

    jayboat

    @JPL:

    Schmidt’s feed illuminated couple of details-
    ‘reaches back 24 years’ and ‘money laundering’.

    I’m shocked.
    Someone wasn’t playing by the rules or some new player wants in the game.

    Send up a flare when convictions for anything come down, but it’s got the basics for a good script.

  26. 26.

    BlueNC

    Der Spiegel (German) has details: http://www.spiegel.de/sport/fussball/fifa-polizei-in-zuerich-nimmt-funktionaere-fest-a-1035698.html

    terrible translation of highlights by me (emphasis mine)
    According to authorities, representatives of sports media and sports marketing organization bribed FIFA delegates and other officials with more than $100M. In return, they received media, marketing, and sponsorship rights for soccer tournaments in the US and Latin America. The payments were transmitted by US banks.

    …

    The suspects are accused of money laundering, wire fraud (? “Betrug unter Einsatz von Telekommunikationsmitteln” = fraud under use of telecommunications materials), and organized crime.

  27. 27.

    Botsplainer

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Sepp needn’t pop the cork on the celebratory jereboam of Moët just yet – the initial charges are just lining up the flips, all of whom will be quite happy to talk to the Feds.

  28. 28.

    Valdivia

    @Botsplainer:

    exactly.
    also: they got their hands on a lot of FIFA material which I am sure will lead to other arrests.

    I have checked a lot of the Latin American newspapers, they are all leading with the FIFA story.

  29. 29.

    Botsplainer

    @Valdivia:

    Biggest question for me is when Blatter has an inexplicable and unfortunate fatal accident, like tying himself up in rope and duct tape and falling backwards on a knife 30 times.

  32. 32.

    Hawes

    @dmsilev: Oh, let’s not argue over who took more bribes or who extorted which country.

    Let’s just revel in the purity of sport…

    A friend of my parents helped land the ’96 Atlanta Games, and the reason Samaranch criticized those games was because of the lack of outright bribery for the IOC members once the Games began. Not that there weren’t “gifts” during the process that awarded Atlanta the Olympics.

    I’d love to see both bodies locked in an airtight room.

  33. 33.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Hawes:

    Oh, let’s not argue over who took more bribes or who extorted which country.

    In my best British tainted Scottish accent “Let’s not bicker about who killed who…”

  35. 35.

    rikyrah

    All I gotta say about this is…
    at least they weren’t cheap.
    It’s one thing to betray the public trust…it’s another thing to do it for pennies on the dollar. These crooks GOT PAID!!

  36. 36.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    I would like to see the French Actor Jean Dujardin play Sepp Blatter in a movie about FIFA corruption, especially how did Qatar get the games?

  38. 38.

    Patrick

    @Hawes:

    A friend of my parents helped land the ’96 Atlanta Games, and the reason Samaranch criticized those games was because of the lack of outright bribery for the IOC members once the Games began. Not that there weren’t “gifts” during the process that awarded Atlanta the Olympics. I’d love to see both bodies locked in an airtight room.

    Amen, that’s how Salt Lake City got its games in 2002. From the wikipedia page:

    The 2002 Olympic Winter Games bid scandal was a scandal involving allegations of bribery used to win the rights to host the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.

  39. 39.

    ThresherK

    \@Valdivia: Should your cousin not be convicted, does this experience line them up for a post in a less prosecutable place where their professional experience is valued and rewarded?

    (Yes, I’m thinking “Wall Street”.)

  40. 40.

    Sherparick

    Slightly off topic, but I don’t think the day is far off where are Galtian overlords begin building castles with hired men-at-arms to make sure the riff-raff don’t come bothering them.

  41. 41.

    Valdivia

    @ThresherK:

    It’s funny. I was talking to my parents earlier and they both, separately, had the same reaction: that they never understood/were clear on what he did for a living. So while we are shocked (and pained for his parents) if anyone in my near family was ever going to be involved in shady dealings….he was the one.

    I also don’t see him getting out of this one so easily. If he gets out I don’t think his skill set is very suitable for wall street though, he has always been in sports (journalism, promotion, etc) he just managed to get into the dirtiest side of it!

  42. 42.

    Tone in DC

    As far as corruption, Goodell and the NFL are pikers compared to Blatter and his cronies.
    Don’t get me started on the IOC.

    Glad that the US AG is doing something about this, even though, personally, its just schadenfreude. Next criminal organization that needs to go down – Carnival Cruise Lines, for their sickening behavior.

  44. 44.

    ThresherK

    @Valdivia: You picked him out as that type long ago. Heehee.

    But the important question is, can he get you any swag?

  45. 45.

    Valdivia

    @ThresherK:

    now he probably can’t, too bad it didn’t occur to me back when we both lived in nyc and I was a grad student and he ran in the circles he ran in.
    eta: in all fairness, he is a really cool guy and was always nothing but nice to me. Just a little too much on the fast lane if you know what I mean.

  46. 46.

    Amir Khalid

    It’s hard to believe that Sepp Blatter’s hands are clean. It’s like Chris Christie and Bridgegate: if he’s innocent, then he’s been an incompetent leader whose people have been running rings around him. So I tend to believe that Sepp too is going to get caught in the dragnet, sooner rather than later.

    A side note: Apparently, they don’t do the perp walk in Switzerland. The photos show the FIFA bigwigs being led out of the office behind bedsheets used as screens.

  47. 47.

    Amir Khalid

    @Tone in DC:

    As far as corruption, Goodell and the NFL are pikers compared to Blatter and his cronies.

    What did you expect? The NFL governs what is, after all, only a national sport. FIFA governs a sport whose biggest pro teams have a worldwide following; and there is a national federation, or its equivalent, for each of 209 countries and territories — the entire planet except Antarctica.

  48. 48.

    Roger Moore

    @Sherparick:

    Slightly off topic, but I don’t think the day is far off where are Galtian overlords begin building castles with hired men-at-arms to make sure the riff-raff don’t come bothering them.

    They’re not castles; they’re “gated communities”.

  50. 50.

    J R in WV

    @Richard Mayhew:

    And your white space below the fold for the FIFA response was really dry humor, thanks for that!

    Dry like the Mojave Desert in a dry spell.

  51. 51.

    Tripod

    Thing about CONCACAF – all the Caribbean countries gets a vote, so that’s who Blatter was buying off to control FIFA.

    My guess is the pro soccer interests in the US and Mexico got tired of the likes of Jack Warner constantly wetting his beak.

  52. 52.

    burnspbesq

    @RSR:

    If Our Lady of Misplaced Outrage can point to some alleged crimes by HSBC that actually took place in the Eastern District of New York, she might have a point. I rather doubt that she’s up to that task.

  54. 54.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    @Baud: I often wonder how vicious the courts will be in cases like this, where the viciousness is caused by envy or a sense of “how come we didn’t get *our* share?”

  56. 56.

    serge

    Ms Lynch…after you’ve finished this long overdue prosecution, do you think you might turn to the truly world-class corrupted in lower Manhattan? You know, Wall Street? Let’s “look forward” to some bankers in prison. Oh, and Dick Cheney, and everyone around him, too? Thank you.

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