Be Excellent To Each Other

So not surprised to see the FIFA bosses are under investigation

One thing that surprises me is that its the US that have kicked it off once again, (they also pushed the exchange rate fixing fines as well)

The Swiss are now playing catch up and looking into the last 2 deals done for World cup hosts

Stinks really but doubt anybody will do any time, most of the people arrests are in their 70's or 80's

I loved that FIFA guy using an Onion Headline as a defence against the charges. It must be really hard to like football when it is so institutionally corrupt.

The FA now faces an interesting dilemma.

If you mean boycotting the next world cup, I'm not convinced they do. They only people they really have to court are the fans, and I'm willing to bet there would be a whole lot more football fans fucked off by a boycott than fucked off by the implicit support of corruption that not not boycotting provides.

It could be spun that all loses during qualifying will be protests against FIFA Corruption.

Yes I suppose. But "We play in this tournament which is tainted by corruption as a service to fans"isn't convincing to me.

Allegations of match-fixing would be far more serious as far as fans are concerned. At least the World Cup is a pretty clean tournament on the field.*


*Posting this in the expectation that my illusions will be shattered

Sep Blatter has resigned.

I wonder why.

You dreadful cynic Doc, it's because he loves football so much, he even said so in his statement.



Your graphic proves nothing. It's probably all coincidence.

There have certainly been some questionable happenings in the past, especially with Korea's surprisingly good results when they hosted, but on the whole you'd hope so.

Also, the FIFA pyramid thing is awesome, but isn't the entire organisation.

So happy Blatter is gone, but not yet convinced that it will all suddenly become ethics central. His nepotism in the job was hilariously obvious.

I think I read somewhere that a whole bunch of European FIFA member states STILL voted for this guy, e.g. the French and Spanish..?

OK I'm not a "footie" person, but FFS. Ian Hislop made me laugh on HIGNFY, something along the lines of "... sorry, I didn't realise FIFA had anything to do with football"

Ironic that it appears it's taken the Americans to finally sort this; shame none of the 'great footballing nations' had the guts to do it, even assuming they were bothered in the first place. To a bemused and amused outside observer, then, what a laughable, stinking cesspit the whole thing is.

I think it was just Spain and Russia from UEFA.

Russia for obvious reasons, Spain for quite likely equally nefarious reasons.

OK I know it's the Daily Mail (sorry), but it's only bloody football etc.



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... ident.html

The entirity of his defence when campaigning for reelection appears to be "elect me because I had no idea about the incredibly widespread corruption throughout my organisation." Even at purely face value, that makes him incompetent.

Yeah, that graphic is the one I alluded to in my post on the other thread about this. If he was unaware of the corruption that literally *every single person directly under him* was involved with, then that's a whole other level of incompetence.

I would imagine most of the countries voting for Blatter in the election are either receiving back handers and don't want that to come out, or Blatter knows some serious shit about people within their ranks.

Fair enough. The problem with hoping for change when electing an official who might bribe those voting is that they are inevitably susceptible to bribery!

I believe each African FA received 750k not long back, and very little made it to the 'grass roots' level for which it was allegedly intended.

..........................................

Sorry Doc should have put a smiley on my post, I was agreeing with your point in a deadpan manner

Looks like Blatter won't escape by resigning anyway - http://www.theguardian.com/football/201 ... es-reports

Oh, yes, I know. Nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are too fast. I would catch it.

He's like the old dude in the line with the thrown ball in The Awakenings.

Nah, he's like this guy:

It wouldn't surprise me if he planed to resign all along, but got some extra pay off or benefits by doing so as a voted in president.