FIFA Corruption

[jpg75]

FIFA appointed former United States attorney Michael J. Garcia as lead prosecutor to investigate allegations of corruption in world football on Tuesday.

http://www.tsn.ca/soccer/story/?id=400800

One of Garcia's first tasks will be to inspect a Swiss court document on a World Cup kickbacks scandal to evaluate the behaviour of Blatter and other senior officials in the affair.

"He will have not only to write, but the duty to have this case analyzed on ethic, moral matters and then to report back to the executive committee," Blatter said at a news conference.

Why do i feel like that report will go nowhere? Edit: Actually, wait...

The 13-member panel, led by Swiss law professor Mark Pieth, wants Garcia to examine claims surrounding how Russia and Qatar came to get World Cup hosting rights in a December 2010 poll of FIFA's executive committee.

Hmmm...

Edited July 17, 2012 by jpg75

[Gordon]

2010 WC match under suspicion.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1130280/fixing-claim-over-2010-world-cup-game?cc=5901

[alberta white]

Fresh from his Vicotory at CAS in July

Bin Hamman lauches his counter offensive.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19257232

[Grizzly]

Fresh from his Vicotory at CAS in July

Bin Hamman lauches his counter offensive.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19257232

Not that I think Bin Hamman is innocent but it is nice to dream of a day when the far more corrupt Sepp Blatter would be banned from "any kind of football-related activity at national and international level for life". And hopefully sitting in his rightful place in a jail cell as well.

[The Ref]

Is this sour grapes by the U.S.? The U.S. rep. Michael Garcia in one of the two FIFA commissions said he will investigate the allocation of world cups to Russia and Qatar, and also going back to Germany 2006.

[jpg75]

Is this sour grapes by the U.S.? The U.S. rep. Michael Garcia in one of the two FIFA commissions said he will investigate the allocation of world cups to Russia and Qatar, and also going back to Germany 2006.

I posted the TSN article regarding this on the last page (post 279). He is reporting to the FIFA ExCo, so whoever is able to manipulate them are the ones behind it.

[The Ref]

Fifa has become the laughing stock of soccer.  Blatter now fanning out caca to save his skin.  http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/news/newsid=2476219/index.html?intcmp=fifacom_hp_module_news_top

[The Ref]

And to think that back in 2011 I supported Blatter, now it is a different story.  The 3 ring circus continues now with the UK up in arms.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/30215060

[The Ref]

It is not over until the fat lady sings....   today's http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/30264098

[The Ref]

The rug in FIFA is getting full.  They sure know how to sweep!

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/fifa-dismisses-ethics-appeal-in-bidding-investigation-1.2874717

[jpg75]

I guess this thread deserves a bump - and a more suitable place to discuss the recent arrests than the election thread.

[Free kick]

The only disappointing thing about all these arrests is that, so far, it has only affected Concacaf and a bit Conmebol. But as everybody knows the whole organization is structured and governed in way that kickbacks, influence peddling and other corruption activity are inevitable. There is no checks and balances, accountability, transparency in its process and it financial dealing. There is no government, country, or other entity (like shareholders) above FIFA or overseeing FIFA.

 

Hence i find it hard believe that the whole culture of corruption was entirely rooted and isolated in CONCACAF. The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that this whole entity is based in Switzerland, a country whereby banking activity can operate in secrecy.

 

So its very likely that FIFA was corrupt from the day of its inception. Closer to the scene, one of the questions that remain unanswered for me is where that money from the 2007 U 20 went to. I seem to recall some discussions or articles here whereby it was alleged that most of it (if not all) went to FIFA. Then why would anyone want to organize anything like that if there are no financial benefits that accrue locally from it? Imagine if that was the case with the world's fair, Olympics, Superbowl, and other global sports events and conventions.   Where is the incentive to market and sell the tickets if that's the case (i.e.: that you have to hand over all if not most of the proceeds).   That event set an attendance record at the time and I do recall that those tickets were not cheap.  And every game that I went to was sold out. 

 

And yet,  it doesn’t seems to me that soccer community in Canada got richer as result of that event.   From what I recall, I don’t seem to recall that there was any kind of bump in the CSA operating budget that year or in subsequent years as a result of hosting that event.  If MLS teams in canada can cover their budget of say10 mill ( i dont actaully know what it is but let assume salary cap plus other costs) with the current attandances, then you what could you do with the kind of attendances that that tournament got over a month and with soem 60 odd games?.  The toronto games were pretty much sold out from what i saw.  You would think that it would mean more $$$ for coaches or maybe and upgrade on programs or trainign centres.  But there is nothing visible that you can point to.

 

Its good for the game that the US has taking soccer more seriously in the past 20 years.  Because I dont think that these kind of arrest or scrutiny would; have ever happened.  No other country in the world has that that kind of reach from a law enforcement standpoint.    Maybe China or Russia, but they have minimal influence on politics in the western world   

Edited May 27, 2015 by Free kick

[jpg75]

The FBI investigation is centered around CONCACAF and CONMEBOL because that is the scope of the info. they were given by Chuck Blazer.  

 

In regards to the 2007 U20 WC the CSA made between $2-2.5M on the tournament if you look at their financial statements before and after the tournament (small debt prior and $2M cash reserves post).

[Trillium]

The FBI investigation is centered around CONCACAF and CONMEBOL because that is the scope of the info. they were given by Chuck Blazer.  

 

In regards to the 2007 U20 WC the CSA made between $2-2.5M on the tournament if you look at their financial statements before and after the tournament (small debt prior and $2M cash reserves post).

Most of the money goes to FIFA they organize the ticket sales and hold the revenue for WWC the feds gave 17million and six cities put in 2 million each so 29 million to FIFA organising ctte, then they will get ticket revenue, with small kick back to CSA/CSA organisers if what is said about how money moves is true in terms of CSA and who the cheques get maid out to.

 

Contract for Field turf installs... think thats done by FIFA organizing ctte not by CSA and I am not aware of seeing any public bids for installation etc. at the various FIFA venues ... but I stand to be corrected. A search on MERX  turf  installations turns up a list of  former oppoutunities, none pop out as for FIFA .... its a long list. 

Edited May 27, 2015 by Trillium

[jpg75]

Most of the money goes to FIFA they organize the ticket sales and hold the revenue for WWC the feds gave 17million and six cities put in 2 million each so 29 million to FIFA organising ctte, then they will get ticket revenue, with small kick back to CSA/CSA organisers if what is said about how money moves is true in terms of CSA and who the cheques get maid out to.

 

Contract for Field turf installs... think thats done by FIFA organizing ctte not by CSA and I am not aware of seeing any public bids for installation etc. at the various venues ... but I stand to be corrected. A search on MERX for artificial turf  installations turns up no former oppoutunities, but I might be using wrong search criteria.

Sure, but the CSA still made money from the U20's and will do so from the WWC - which is what freekick was asking about.

[Free kick]

$2.0-2.5 Mill is the number that i seem to recall as well. But thats peanuts! The matches were well attended and attendance records were set. What if it would have turned out that that wasnt the case? Would FIFA have underwritten the losses? Ok, They probably would have. But was this the understanding in advance of the tournament? I recall at the time thinking that this thing must finally mean the kind of windfall for the CSA that they have long needed. But if this was the understanding from day one (ie that pretty much all the money goes to FIFA) I still dont get why anyone would bother bending over backwards to host these events.

And, if its the same with other FiFA tournamnents, that makes it harder to justify the building of other infrastructures and stadium upgrades that are often needed. Of course, there will be economic spin off for tourism and hotel etc etc. But as far as direct benefit, Something more than that kind of measly cut must be or should be expected. It would be naive to assume that its only for the soccer fans and for the good of the game. And i am pretty sure that (using the olympics as a comparaison) those revenues from tickets sales from the olympics in Vancouver didnt all or mostly go to the IOC. It makes sence that the sponsorships and broadcast rights revenues go directly to the IOC because they are the ones negociating those deals but ticket revenues, i am pretty sure, went mostly back to local organizers in order to recoop their investment or some of their investment.

Anyways, it will be interesting to watch what the sponsors do in the next weeks or months. Those FIFA sponsors are international brands. Companies protects their brand name in many ways including not associating themselves with bad publicity. As far as publicity, This is about as bad as it can get for FIFA. Money talks. I'll bet that its sponsors moreso than the law that can deal FIFA its biggest blow and usher in meaningful change.

Edited May 28, 2015 by Free kick

[beachesl]

from BBC

"The pantheon of world soccer has a new hero," said Politico's Tunku Varadarajan. "To the names of Pele, Maradona, Cruyff and Messi, add another: Loretta Lynch. The US attorney general, confirmed by the Senate just three weeks ago by the most un-soccer-like score of 56-43, is destined to go down as the most consequential woman in the history of the game."

Football fans around the world "should salute her", said BBC sports correspondent Matt Slater.

AMEN!

[Dub Narcotic]

Let's be honest, if Coke and Adidas pull out I'm sure Huawei, Gazprom and Emirates would be sure to jump in as huge sponsors. There's no shortage of fabulously wealthy totalitarian-state controlled enterprises that would love to sponsor a World Cup. 

[Lou]

Zurich, Switzerland (Thursday, May 28, 2015)- The Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean Football Association (CONCACAF) announced today that in accordance with the Confederation’s Statutes, the Executive Committee provisionally dismissed Jeffrey Webb and Eduardo Li, and -- also in accordance with its Statutes -- named Senior Vice President Alfredo Hawit as CONCACAF President.

The Executive Committee appointed Victor Montagliani, the President of the Canadian Soccer Association, Justino Compean, the President of the Mexican Soccer Federation and Sunil Gulati, the President of U.S. Soccer Federation to a Special Committee charged with the duties of evaluating and sustaining all of the business operations of the Confederation in the wake of the indictments brought against certain members of FIFA and CONCACAF.

The Executive Committee also placed General Secretary Enrique Sanz on a leave of absence to begin immediately. In addition, the confederation’s Deputy General Secretary, Ted Howard has been appointed by the Executive Committee as acting General Secretary. Howard takes over the administrative functions of the day to day business of the Confederation in absence of Enrique Sanz.

“While we are profoundly disappointed by the allegations made by authorities that again, CONCACAF has been the victim of fraud, we remain committed to CONCACAF’s goal to develop, promote and manage the game of soccer,” said CONCACAF President Alfredo Hawit. “We have now taken the appropriate steps to maintain our operations and continue to deliver on our commitments to all of our constituents, including our fans, members, as well as commercial and broadcast partners. We also continue to cooperate with the ongoing investigation by governmental authorities, which have not placed any restrictions on our ongoing activities.”

[-Hammer-]

Here is my question, and I am not saying that Batter being there is good, especially since the status quo does not appear to be good.

 

What are Prince Ali's credentials and why are we expecting him to be any less corrupt, or more competent then Blatter? Also, why is he the only other guy running? Please tell me it's more then "Well he's not Blatter, so he must be better."

Edited May 28, 2015 by -Hammer-

[The Ref]

Having to uproot your family and move to Zurich could be a consideration for some.  Some of the original candidates didn't get enough support from Confederations to be a serious threat to Blatter.  Don't know anything about Ali, except the guy has guts.

 

My question is how is it possible that Blatter who has total control and fingers on everything didn't know anything about all this corruption or is it that he was a coward to blow the whistle and turned a blind eye and ear to all this crap.

[Free kick]

Let's be honest, if Coke and Adidas pull out I'm sure Huawei, Gazprom and Emirates would be sure to jump in as huge sponsors. There's no shortage of fabulously wealthy totalitarian-state controlled enterprises that would love to sponsor a World Cup.

Emirates did not renew their sponsorship with FIFA with last year and the reason given was precisely the suspicions of corruption. I agree that there will always be someone to step in. But at what price? The value of these deals is based on demand.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/nov/03/emirates-sponsorship-fifa-sony

Edited May 29, 2015 by Free kick

[The Ref]

Today the Interpol showed up at the offices of Datisa in Argentina.  Datisa being who "gave" money for televising the Copa Americas.

[Free kick]

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/tele/enquete/site/episodes/416520/fifa-mondial-football-qatar-corruption-scandale-chuck-blazer

The investigative show revealed something interesting that i wasnt aware of. It alleges that French president Sarkozi played key role in securing the world cup when he met with Michel Platini (UEFA) at le champs d’elysse.  The documentary alleges that Qatar had offerred France massive incentives like buying airbus A380 aircrafts and military jets.  Sure enough Qatar did indeed make these purchase later on.   Furthermore, the shows links the massive purchase of PSG by Qatari interests as payback or bribe for Platini & Sarkozi’s  support.   Ligue 1 was going nowhere compared to the top leagues in In Ger, Esp, Eng, Ita at the time.  

Edited October 21, 2018 by Free kick

[SthMelbRed]

4 hours ago, Free kick said:

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/tele/enquete/site/episodes/416520/fifa-mondial-football-qatar-corruption-scandale-chuck-blazer

The investigative show revealed something interesting that i wasnt aware of. It alleges that French president Sarkozi played key role in securing the world cup when he met with Michel Platini (UEFA) at le champs d’elysse.  The documentary alleges that Qatar had offerred France massive incentives like buying airbus A380 aircrafts and military jets.  Sure enough Qatar did indeed make these purchase later on.   Furthermore, the shows links the massive purchase of PSG by Qatari interests as payback or bribe for Platini & Sarkozi’s  support.   Ligue 1 was going nowhere compared to the top leagues in In Ger, Esp, Eng, Ita at the time.  

This was widely reported in the aftermath of the vote. I believe that Platini was on record with his intention to vote for the US until he was summoned to a meeting with Sarkozy. He then changed and voted for Qatar.