Swiss police arrest 10+ FIFA officials: indicted by US Dept of Justice

It should be boycotted. Time for the rest of the footballing world to rally round and turn on a latter and FIFA.

I'm not a Platini fan, but I'd be happy if This ends up with people getting away with it, that UEFA as a whole quit FIFA altogether. Sod the World Cup - we are never going to win it anyway!!

 

Yep, there's never been a better time to make a stand, makes you wonder how far the rot has set.

 

Yes that our laws (along with our general finances, relatively stable and corruption-free government, and political clout) allow us to pursue this case despite our somewhat tangential involvement. But no I think, in the sense that European countries have a much tighter connection and therefore don't need as free-ranging jurisdiction.

The case against FIFA is really not so much that everyone wants to nail Blatter but can't figure out a way to get him. It's that they are unwilling. For example in England I think it would kind of take the FA to get involved and be a real driving force. But the FA won't do anything because they don't want to harm their World Cup bid and/or have FIFA come down on the FA and then everything is a mess. I'm not saying that the FA is corrupt per se, but soccer is too much of a big business/cultural interest for anyone to want a huge scandal. And then you look at countries like Spain and Italy and the connection between politicians and football is even tighter.

Here in the US, the MLS is barely solvent anyway and it wouldn't be much of a blow if we were exiled from international competition or anything. Especially since Blatter/FIFA really screw over women's soccer and we care about that maybe more than the men's team even. I think it really takes an outsider to start getting interested in soccer (and hence FIFA) for the first time and be like "Ummm.... what the hell is this ****?!?" Because it's totally brazen and obvious, man. Like Qatar... what the hell? Everyone knew right away. We're at that level where we are starting to examine the system, but we're not yet part of the system.

Chuck Blazer is powerful within the realm of soccer, but since soccer is not that powerful a force in the US, Chuck Blazer is not very powerful overall. Thus it was easy to get him singing like a bird.

 

That was courtesy of my lad by the way!!

 

My lad is on fire:

 

I wouldn't be so certain that the European countries have a tighter connection, particularly as it pertains to the CONCACAF shenanigans. Those indicted are not European nationals, likely do not reside there in most instances, and the conduct for which they are being charged would have occurred in myriad different locales. That makes prosecution difficult...unless you have muscular laws on the books allowing for prosecutions of financial crimes that occurred abroad so long as there is a domestic tie-in of some sort.

 

But I would say the CONCACAF involvement is mostly because that's our region and those are the guys we know more about. It's not like the Europeans weren't corrupt considering Platini and Blatter probably knew about this the whole time.

The thing is, you don't *have* to use legal means.. If all the countries really threw a fit and just boycotted the tournament and put political pressure on FIFA and the press had really dug in deep and the politicians had all called for a deep examination of their own FIFA officials, etc. they could have solved this. Like right now, Blatter isn't be charged with anything. It's not the actual legal prosecution that's shaking up FIFA, it's the public scandal/fallout stemming from the prosecution.

 

There's a difference between knowing and having enough evidence to convict, or every mafia boss would be serving a life sentence. It does sound like there are two different tracks down which this is going, as well...the CONCACAF-related arrests today, and the Swiss-led investigation into corruption surrounding the 2018/2022 bids. Likely, they're picking these guys now with the expectation that they'll provide additional details for the latter cases.

 

There's a lot of truth in what you're saying, and trust me there isn't a real football fan that doesn't welcome this development. Hats off to the U.S. on this.

 

The only downside to all this is that we're going to end up with a "cleaner" sport with bigger goals, no offside, four quarters instead of two halves and blind-folded keepers

 

And cheerleaders, and super wacky new names, like The Southampton Thunder Bears Soccer Franchise Club Sponsored By Gillette and Wendy Burger.

 

Gotta love the yanks. They didn't rest til they got Bin Laden; hopefully they'll prove equally tenacious in the pursuit of Blatter.

 

Same ending?

 

I could live with the cheerleaders

 

Guy on the telly last night reckons they`ll end up move the next two world cups to England and the US. I hope he is right. The whole Qatar situation stank of corruption from the outset - the Qatar representatives didn`t seem at all surprised when they were `awarded` the tournament. Quite apart from the weather and the timing, how could the tournament morally/credibly go ahead set against all this corruption ?

 

I've had some cheap computers made available to me if anyone is interested. They are second hand, but the description says only two very discreet previous owners. The one I had did have all the Office software in a language I didn't understand, but the Dollar sign worked ok.

I don't know where mine is though; it was in my office, but it's disappeared now.

 

I'm wondering that if this goes into detail and really digs deep will they uncover matches that have been fixed. There has always been some very, very strange refereeing decisions and weirder results over the years. Perhaps those kind of things are harder to prove.

It wouldn't surprise me though.

 

Absolutely. Saints v West Ham. How did we not win that?

 

Hmm, we may hope, but I doubt it'll happen. There's been too much money spent on infrastructure, and the corruption investigation isn't focussed on the footballing authorities of Russia or Qatar but of bringing FIFA to book:

New BBC Matt Slater summary article on scandal

The investigation may well end up running through Russia's and Qatar's involvement, but I think they may keep the events. Might seem strange to say it, but it's slightly to the side of the issue in a way and shouldn't distract or delay the investigators in sorting out FIFA once and for all. The corruption went on for years before awarding the WCs to Russia and Qatar.
Incidentally, I notice UEFA want tomorrow's FIFA presidential vote postponed until further notice. Have to agree, although I'm always slightly wary of Michel Platini's motives these days.