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FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S

405 points by bdehaaff 11y ago

iaw 11y ago
Wow. I'm impressed and somewhat surprised that the U.S. would be the entity to enforce this given the relative lack of presence FIFA has in the U.S. Maybe it's because the U.S. lost the world cup (as in hosting privileges)?
- tallerholler 11y ago
  The article on CNN mentions that the US has the largest FIFA television audience and that because of their banking, tax, and regulations, they have a long arm essentially.
  - iaw 11y ago
    I understand where the capabilities come from, my curiosity here is more in the motivation. The U.S. has a lot of capabilities that they don't exercise, what put FIFA into the crosshairs on this one? (beyond the allegations of wrongdoing)
    - ptaipale 11y ago
      I expect it is simply that the evidence indicated substantial financial corruption, and bribery with loss of tax revenue. Taxman is what really gets governments pissed off. I have no doubt there are similar patterns of corruption in other sports, but the financial impact is probably not as big.
- mschuster91 11y ago
  > I'm impressed and somewhat surprised that the U.S. would be the entity to enforce this given the relative lack of presence FIFA has in the U.S. The US can't keep their nose out of business of people in foreign countries. If the US has any interest in anything, they'll make it so. Just look at Megaupload for an example. Then again, it's nice that finally someone is taking action against the corrupt hellhole called FIFA.
  - ptaipale 11y ago
    The basis for this surely is business of people in USA. Meaning that the business is in USA even if the people currently were in Switzerland. Recently, there has been more public attention on tax evasion, and football (as I call it; soccer for Americans) is big business. I do not believe the Swiss police would have acted for this on a U.S. request without some substantial evidence of actual wrongdoing that happened in the U.S. and is punishable by law both in the U.S. and Switzerland. I am happy that the U.S. is finally putting some pressure on FIFA and its corruption (and inefficiency). (As an anecdote, I got really pissed off by the FIFA procedures when trying to let an exchange student, a young kid, to play just for fun. They really try to squeeze the money off of ordinary people, just for a 16-year-old to be licensed to play. The end result: he couldn't play.)
- oliyoung 11y ago
  It's that plus the commercial aspects. We (Australia) almost investigated FIFA for the same reasons (the 18/22 World Cup Bids), but we don't have the financial leverage to do anything about it.
- NamTaf 11y ago
  I'd instead suspect that the corruption involves entities with an impact on the US. Either they gained or lost out of it and thus provoked the US to take action.
- oliyoung 11y ago
  This is why (from the NYT) "Indictment cites bribes, kickbacks related to * WC qualifications in Concacaf; * Gold Cup and Concacaf Champions League * Copa América * Copa Libertadores." The USA or American owned teams participated in all of those competitions.
  - iaw 11y ago
    Thank you, I didn't catch the significance there. Whoever owns those teams (I somehow doubt it's the country itself) is pretty important.
    - oliyoung 11y ago
      Getting my football nerd hat on … The WC qualifiers, Copa América and Gold Cup are international competitions, the USA Men's National Team (as they're called) participates in the WCQ and Gold Cup, although why the Copa América is included is odd, that's a South American competition. The Copa Libertadores and CONCACAF Champions League are both club competitions, again the Libertadores is odd, that's South American, but 4 clubs from the United States participated in the Champions League (in 2014-15 that was Portland Timbers, Sporting Kansas, New York Red Bulls and DC United)
      - simdiab 11y ago
        Clubs from Mexico participate in the Copa Libertadores. Mexico is in CONCACAF (as is the USA). That could be the connection.
        adestefan 11y ago
        The connection is that CONCACAF has their headquarters in Miami, FL
  - deleted 11y ago
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- algo_cheese 11y ago
  According to the Swiss Federal Office of Justice, the bribery has occurred in the US and paid through US banks : The bribery suspects [...] are alleged to have been involved in schemes to make payments to the soccer functionaries [...] totaling more than USD 100 million. In return, it is believed that they received media, marketing, and sponsorship rights in connection with soccer tournaments in Latin America. According to the US request, these crimes were agreed and prepared in the US, and payments were carried out via US banks. https://www.bj.admin.ch/bj/en/home/aktuell/news/2015/2015-27-05.html https://www.bj.admin.ch/bj/en/home/aktuell/news/2015/2015-27...
  - iaw 11y ago
    This makes a ton of sense now with the increased scrutiny of US financial institutions as of late.
    - swombat 11y ago
      Make no mistake: this is entirely about the lost 2022 bid. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup/10871114/Qatar-World-Cup-2022-scandal-Bill-Clintons-fury-at-vote-triggered-global-search-for-truth.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup/10871114... TL;DR: Don't piss off Bill Clinton.
    - jmngomes 11y ago
      There a lot of problems with financial institutions that would be detected by "increased scrutiny " before something like this...
- sschueller 11y ago
  I'm disgusted that the Swiss let this thing go on for so long and still give FIFA non-profit status.
  - stefantalpalaru 11y ago
    What would the Swiss do without the shady business brought by corrupt foreigners? The extremely high standard of living is directly related to money laundering and "asset protection" schemes.
    - mike_hearn 11y ago
      They would do fine. The idea that Switzerland is only successful because of banking privacy is a common myth. The entire financial sector including things like pensions, insurance and corporate banking is only somewhere between 6-10% of the Swiss GDP, depending on how you precisely account for the risk premium. The construction industry alone is about 6% of the GDP. Switzerland does a lot of things beyond finance. Also, though Switzerland has a big financial sector it's not massively larger than other countries. If you use the "output method" then 10% of the Swiss GDP is finance. The next biggest is Ireland with 7%. So that's a 3% difference, yet I don't see anyone claiming that Ireland would be hosed without finance. If you actually spend any time in Switzerland you'll rapidly figure out why it does well - things are just remarkably well run there, and Swiss people are rather industrious and skilled. Their government stays out of expensive foreign wars and other boondoggles. Unemployment is extremely low. The regions compete on tax rates, which keeps them low, and that in turn attracts wealthy people (who are then taxed on their global wealth, not just assets in Switzerland). It's very democratic.
  - oliyoung 11y ago
    Not just FIFA, the IOC aren't exactly squeaky clean either
    - sjwright 11y ago
      Certainly, but the Olympics is something of a 20th century anachronism, celebrating a bunch of sports that few people have any genuine interest in. It is slowly becoming little more than a sports-themed fireworks roadshow. FIFA controls the most popular and most profitable sport in the world. Period.
- flexie 11y ago
  It's a bit ironic that it takes what is almost a non-soccer country to fix soccer. But US corporations (Coca-Cola, McDonalds etc.) are major sponsors of FIFA so the US has a legitimate interest in prosecuting FIFA officials.
  - pjc50 11y ago
    I think only a non-football country could fix football. They've not been sufficiently bought.
  - ptaipale 11y ago
    Football (soccer) is relatively minor sport in the U.S. but it is still a major country in this sport as well: during the FIFA ranking history, it averages on position 19. That is very good, and higher than the ranking of several past World Cup or continental competition winners.
  - mfringel 11y ago
    In addition (as mentioned above), FIFA sanctions don't mean all that much to the US, so the US has a lot less to lose by prosecuting this, both financially and in the court of public opinion.
- flexie 11y ago
  It's a bit ironic that it takes what is almost a non-soccer country to fix soccer. But US corporations (Coca-Cola, McDonalds etc.) are major sponsors of FIFA so the US has a legitimate interest in prosecuting FIFA officials.
- rodgerd 11y ago
  > I'm impressed and somewhat surprised that the U.S. would be the entity to enforce this given the relative lack of presence FIFA has in the U.S. The cudgel FIFA uses to prevent anyone looking too closely at how it does business is to threaten any member country with suspension from international competition if there is "political interference in football."
  - century19 11y ago
    Indeed. Perhaps the US were the only country that could do this? Great that they did !
    - rodgerd 11y ago
      It requires a combination of a big enough investigation/court system to work with the Swiss and a political class who won't care if there's a risk of soccer being disrupted in the country, so the US would be one of the few nations that might fit the description.
- deleted 11y ago
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lordnacho 11y ago
One thing I don't get is why this form of corruption is illegal. FIFA is a sort of international club, right? If I make an international group for the placement of Tiddlywinks world cups, and I make some internal rules for it, why does the state care how the politics turns out? Is it illegal to bribe someone making some private decision?
- hyperion2010 11y ago
  They are a business and are thus regulated by relevant laws. In this case FIFA is also a monopoly. Imagine if comcast started forcing Tier3 or someone else to pay bribes to get to their customers (heh). This is basically equivalent to that. Tier3 could sue if it was done off the books (re: bribes) and the IRS would go after the corp for tax evasion if they didn't report the bribe income. Not sure how this case will proceed, but my bet is that some of the charges will relate to tax evasion. Taking bribes is also likely only part of the story.
  - kuschku 11y ago
    So, you mean, like Verizon did with Netflix?
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  > FIFA is a sort of international club, right? If I make an international group for the placement of Tiddlywinks world cups, and I make some internal rules for it, why does the state care how the politics turns out? The state cares if the people who are officers of your club defraud your club of funds by directing funds from the club to third parties who provide kickbacks, contrary to their contract with your club, as part of the way that states generally are concerned with criminal frauds. And they'll especially care about that if that fraud also appears likely to have disadvantaged an effort in which the state had interest that was dependent on decisions by your club. > Is it illegal to bribe someone making some private decision? It generally is illegal for a person making a decision as an agent of another private person to take a bribe and as a result to act in their own interest and contrary to the best interest of the person whose agent they are nominally acting as -- and note that, for legal purposes, a corporate entity like FIFA (or any of its subordinate clubs) is a distinct "person" from any of its officers.
damian2000 11y ago
Blatter is coming under pressure to resign, but he's still the favourite to win a 5th term in office as president of FIFA... http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/32891267 http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/32891267 The guy was pretty unpopular when he appeared at the Asian Cup Final - booed by just about everyone in the stadium.
- oliyoung 11y ago
  > booed by just about everyone in the stadium It, like these arrests, are a wonderful thing to the majority of the football world. Unpopular doesn't go far enough to describe the disdain that the football "community" feels about Blatter and FIFA in general.
- simi_ 11y ago
  I just realized that in my language (Romanian), "blat" is slang for arranged match. How fitting. :)
  - thaumasiotes 11y ago
    Does Romanian also have an -er agentive suffix?
    - deleted 11y ago
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- sschueller 11y ago
  Blatter can't show his face anymore even in some of the most nobel restaurants in Zürich because other guests will heckle him. He needs to go and so does the non-profit status of FIFA.
  - bontoJR 11y ago
    For Swiss people, Blatter is a kind of reason to be ashamed. Funny fact: every single time I am abroad and someone reminds me we have Blatter, I freak out... I hope he will get caught if he's involved and that his face will disappear forever from the football world. That sport is amazing, but in the last (almost) 20 years, it has been ruled by a man with a dubious integrity.
austenallred 11y ago
It seems like the DOJ is doing the same thing they would do against a gang; get a few lower-level people to take a plea deal and hand over the kingpin. There's no way Blatter gets through this unscathed. It will be interesting to see if the World Cup will be moved now; it never made sense to have it in Qatar in the first place (no infrastructure, incredibly hot during the summer, hundreds of migrant workers dying and injured because of the insane conditions they're working under to prepare the stadiums. It's really, really messed up. I've never seen /r/soccer so happy about anything - this news has 99%+ upvotes.
- peteretep 11y ago
  > There's no way Blatter gets through this unscathed I suspect if you find a good online betting site, you would get someone to take the other side of that bet at attractive odds.
  - zimpenfish 11y ago
    And if people have money to throw away like that, they could just as well throw it to my bank account. As someone pointed out on Twitter, "oh look, the only people left to vote on Friday are Blatter-friendly".
    - notsony 11y ago
      FIFA is not a public institution, it's a private association. How a private club wants to structure payments is entirely up to them. So how will any bribery charges stick, unless public officials have been paid off? Can't believe Blatter and his cronies would be so stupid, but perhaps some of the weaker and greedier executives were, so Blatter is happy to serve them up?
      - hvs 11y ago
        I'm guessing the DOJ has something figured out.
JumpCrisscross 11y ago
In case one wonders why the United States is enforcing this: "U.S. investigators got help from Chuck Blazer, the longtime general secretary of the confederation, the New York Daily News reported in November. Blazer wore a hidden recording device in a keychain to meetings with soccer officials at the London Olympics and elsewhere, the paper said. The IRS had leverage over Blazer: He hadn’t paid taxes on millions of income for more than a decade, according to the paper. ... The choice of Qatar for the 2022 tournament angered many nations, and the U.S. in particular. The U.S. was beaten in a final vote run-off with the emirate after rival offers from Australia, South Korea and Japan had been eliminated in previous rounds. Former President Bill Clinton led a U.S. group that traveled to Zurich to make a final pitch to voters." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-27/u-s-starts-world-cup-bribery-sweep-as-swiss-police-raid-hotel http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-27/u-s-starts...
- SandB0x 11y ago
  > The investigation into Blazer’s tax affairs turned up some choice claims about his lifestyle - including the revelation that Concacaf paid $18,000 a month for his Trump Towers apartment, and another $6,000 a month for a second Trump Towers flat, used mainly by his cats. http://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2015/may/27/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges-live http://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2015/may/27/fifa-of...
  - gadders 11y ago
    The source NY Daily News stories has more detail: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/soccer/soccer-rat-ex-u-s-soccer-exec-chuck-blazer-fbi-informant-article-1.1995761 http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/soccer/soccer-rat-ex-u-s-s...
- deleted 11y ago
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- brosefstalin 11y ago
  It's strange how hard US goes after other countries' criminals yet drags its feet when it comes to its own (e.g., Wall Street). My guess is that this has nothing to do with Qatar (2020) but Russia (2018). I think Obama is still sore that Russia gave Snowden a safe harbor. The poor sap is probably still butthurt he was duped by Assange that Snowden was on Morales' plane, too.
tragomaskhalos 11y ago
Not in time to prevent the nonsense of the Qatar world cup (nor to save the lives of the migrant workers being sacrificed to consummate that nonsense)
- david927 11y ago
  What makes you say that? I think this actually puts a large cloud over the Qatar world cup.
  - rjaco31 11y ago
    It won't change anything for the Nepalese workers down there though.
- century19 11y ago
  Why not in time? Mexico '86 was supposed to be in Columbia but was moved a couple of years before. Qatar isn't until 2022.
- ryanlol 11y ago
  What are you talking about? The mortality rates of migrants in Qatar are exceptionally low.
NicoJuicy 11y ago
There was an interesting documentary/research episode two days ago on the Belgium "information" channel, Telefacts. It mentioned adding slavery to Russian laws for building the stadiums ( the FIFA law - http://www.ituc-csi.org/new-fifa-laws-strip-world-cup http://www.ituc-csi.org/new-fifa-laws-strip-world-cup ) , Fifa - who only wanted to use someone's "name" for "cleaning up FIFA from the inside" ( she quitted her fictional job at Fifa), the return of someone who has been trialed for bribery - he laughed with it in an interview, bribery from Qatar and Russia for holding FIFA, people/women who have been threathened for accusing the FIFA of "actions against human rights", ... The list is long :) Blatter, the president of the FIFA, likes to brag. He said: "i'm the only person who can travel without official notification, who gets received by the president of that country."
gadders 11y ago
This aweseome news. Can we do the IOC next?
- freehunter 11y ago
  Right after we fix the NFL and MLB.
  - gadders 11y ago
    Are they that bad? I'm in the UK but I always thought they were fairly legit, if not very competent.
    - freehunter 11y ago
      It was kind of tongue in cheek. The NFL and MLB are no where near as bad as FIFA or the IOC, although they affect me more since they're sports I watch, and they're also a little more in our court since they're actually American organizations. In terms of overall human rights and corruption, FIFA and IOC rate much higher. The only people really hurt by the actions of the NFL are the players.
      - gadders 11y ago
        Sounds like the FA/Premier League that controls football (soccer) over here.
    - CSMastermind 11y ago
      Your sense is correct. They're nothing like the IOC or FIFA. It's more incompetence than corruption.
    - protomyth 11y ago
      NFL's non-profit status was a bit of a pain. Both exploit cities to get stadiums, but that requires a deeper fix (see the FX industry for a global version). Both also do stupid blackouts. Neither is in FIFA's or IOC's league.
  - 11y ago
qzervaas 11y ago
I had to look up the definition of "genuflect": "Lower one's body briefly by bending one knee to the ground, typically in worship or as a sign of respect."
- scrollaway 11y ago
  Literally, flexing (-flect) your genu (latin for knee, "genou" in French). So, to kneel.
dcsommer 11y ago
I'm incredibly excited that finally these problems are being addressed, but I'm not sure if this is relevant to HN.
splittist 11y ago
These are "FIFA Officials" in the same way that the representatives countries send to the UN are "UN Officials", or US Congressfolk are "US Officials". They aren't people who actually do the work at FIFA. $150 million over 20 years for sports rights in Latin America seems to indicate pretty slim margins. I wonder what the deal was with bribes and kickbacks over the selection of the host country for the 2010 World Cup (i.e. South Africa)? The defendants who have copped pleas are convicted of the made-up 'crimes' of e.g. "wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and the structuring of financial transactions". http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/nine-fifa-officials-and-five-corporate-executives-indicted-racketeering-conspiracy-and http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/nine-fifa-officials-and-five-c... No doubt terrible things go on among the members and their representatives at FIFA (as they do at the UN). Perhaps someone could explain how to organise an international federation that prevents corruption in its member (i.e. owner) organisations.
- ptaipale 11y ago
  I don't quite understand how money laundering and fraud are "made up crimes". IMO they are very real crimes. If the convictions are wrong (i.e. not based on evidence), then say so, but claiming that crimes are "made up" is weasel language.
  - splittist 11y ago
    Money laundering is a recent invention as a crime. None of the actions involved are actually criminal in themselves, it's just that they (supposedly) make it harder for the authorities to detect something they might want to be obvious, to assist in the War on Drugs, or tax avoidance, or (more recently) terrorism. As to "fraud", I actually referred to "wire fraud conspiracy", which is, more or less, once having had some sort of agreement (tacit or otherwise) to do something with a dishonest intention where a telephone was involved in some way or other. Note that you don't actually have to have followed through on that intention for the "crime" to have been committed. These defendants plead guilty, so the convictions are no doubt correct. And no doubt many millions of bribes were paid. But I think a degree of skepticism about prosecutorial conduct is appropriate no matter what the supposed target of the prosecution.
thrillgore 11y ago
My understanding is that FIFA can ban countries from the organization for whatever reasons it sees fit. This probably cost the US any future world cups for the foreseeable future.
- kijin 11y ago
  Why do you think the US cares? For FIFA, the US is the single largest source of television audience and therefore advertising revenue. For the US, on the other hand, soccer is just one of many sports. In fact, the US is one of very few countries where soccer is not the sport. Americans are nowhere near as desperate for soccer as FIFA is desperate for American money.
  - akfanta 11y ago
    > For FIFA, the US is the single largest source of television audience and therefore advertising revenue. Are you for real? This statement is so ridiculous that I don't even know where to start. You do realize football is by a huge margin, the most popular sports on this planet, right?
    - sswezey 11y ago
      This article talks about the last world cup final: http://www.espnfc.com/fifa-world-cup/story/1950567/world-cup-final-most-watched-soccer-game-in-us-history-more-than-26-million-viewers http://www.espnfc.com/fifa-world-cup/story/1950567/world-cup... The US had 43.8 million people watching the final (in English and Spanish). Germany (who was in the final) had 34.65 million people watching. Even if Argentina had ever single person in their country watching, they'd only have 42.6 million people watching (wiki estimate). Granted Brazil almost definitely has higher viewership, but the US is definitely one of the largest.
      - thrillgore 11y ago
        Because ESPN, being the broadcast partner at the time wouldn't fudge the numbers. Riiiiight.
mykhal 11y ago
WTF? am I still at HN?
dbcooper 11y ago
According to the Economist, the 2018 and 2022 WC allocations are being investigated too: http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21652222-officials-world-footballs-governing-body-have-been-arrested-american-instigation http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21652222-... >America’s actions could force other countries to investigate FIFA more bravely. Indeed, that may already be happening. In what appears to be a separate case, Swiss officers raided FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich, seized electronic records and said they had opened criminal proceedings against “persons unknown on suspicion of criminal mismanagement and of money laundering in connection with the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 football World Cups”. According to reports, 10 FIFA members who participated in the vote for those competitions are to be questioned by police.
vfclists 11y ago
If American law enforcement authorities have some balls why don't they go after their corrupt bankers? Their bankers have been engaged in criminality upon criminality upon criminality and all they have to is pay some fines which are minuscule in comparison to the amount they robbed, in return for charges being dropped, and admission by the prosecuting authorities of no wrong doing. This is how spineless these European countries are. United Kingdom you know who I'm talking about. And it looks like Switzerland has also joined the list. Some of you European countries are so despicably shameful.
mladenkovacevic 11y ago
White House makes the first step towards enforcing mass boycott of the Russian World Cup as punishment for flexing its muscles in its old spheres of influence. I'm all for dismantling and/or restructuring FIFA, but the timing is rather opportune.
- hvs 11y ago
  "Flexing its muscles in its old spheres of influence" is an interesting way to say, "invading and taking over another country."
  - mladenkovacevic 11y ago
    Is it interesting? I don't know, violations of international law have taken on many imaginative and interesting names in the recent past but I think the one I used is rather uninteresting comparatively.
  - _nedR 11y ago
    You mean like what the US, UK and Australia did to Iraq. What punitive action did these countries face for their actions? Yes, really the whole thing makes perfect sense when viewed from an "Old Order" vs "New Order" perspective.
    - dragonwriter 11y ago
      A lot of the same people (including in the US) who aren't happy with what Russia did in Ukraine at the time it occurred also opposed what the US did in Iraq at the time that occurred.
      - _nedR 11y ago
        Note: I have edited my original comment after you replied (but before i saw it). My point is that Russia is forced to face actual consequences for its actions, whereas the Americans, and the rest have been given a free pass for doing basically the same thing.
kev6168 11y ago
This time USA has my support to be the world police! Fuck Blatter!
jstalin 11y ago
The indictment is available here: https://www.unitedstatescourts.org/federal/nyed/370520/1-0.html https://www.unitedstatescourts.org/federal/nyed/370520/1-0.h...
kaa2102 11y ago
Teachers, bikers, and now FIFA - we have no problem throwing the hammer at these folks but the criminals that threaten the world economy get a free pass.
pmcpinto 11y ago
It's time to see a serious person leading FIFA. I hope that Blatter get's arrested or that looses the elections.
venomsnake 11y ago
Can anyone explain the jurisdiction?
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  The charges allege a conspiracy involving (among others) US persons (individuals and corporations), making extensive use of US financial institutions, and obstruction of justice relating to US law enforcement investigation related to that conspiracy.
- adestefan 11y ago
  The CONCACAF headquarters is in Miami, FL. If you notice all the indictments are against current or former CONCACAF board members. The ones who are not are part of sports agents/promoters with a US presence. Chuck Blazer who was CONCACAF secretary while Wilson was president also just plead guilty to corruption charges. It's also widely believed that he's also one of the main informants.
bane 11y ago
Okay, I'll ask it: why does it take the U.S. to get involved in fighting corruption against an almost entirely non-U.S. organization that governs a sport that's not very popular here? Why isn't this happening in Europe or Central/South America where the impact is more immediate?
- Cacti 11y ago
  Because the vast majority of the bribing related to FIFA isn't happening in the US. That's the entire point of bribery, that you are more protected in the areas you are bribing.
- infinitone 11y ago
  Probably because said countries have their own interests/benefits from FIFA. More so than say the US. Just a speculation though. There's also the fact that say a country such as Argentina were to do it, no one would really take them that seriously.
- InTheArena 11y ago
  Contrary to popular opinion, FIFA does quite a bit of revenue in the US, and the Concacaf has been ground zero for much of the corruption issues. In many cases, money is being issued from US banks to be used in the laundering and corruption. And the US may be the one country where FIFA doesn't have enough pull to graft their way around the problem. There was a great documentary a few years ago about the US links...
- mynameisvlad 11y ago
  For one, I'd say that the US is the biggest entity of the bunch, and would most likely have the most pull to actually get something done.
gmisra 11y ago
For those of you who, like me, don't know much about the background and context, Bloomberg Business recently did an in-depth piece on Blatter and his ascension: http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-sepp-blatter-fifa/ http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-sepp-blatter-fifa/
- Carrok 11y ago
  For those of you who don't like reading, John Oliver did a fantastic segment on FIFA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlJEt2KU33I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlJEt2KU33I
randomname2 11y ago
Just to make the farce complete, FIFA and Qatar donated to the Clinton Foundation https://www.clintonfoundation.org/contributors?category=%2450%2C001%20to%20%24100%2C000&page=2 https://www.clintonfoundation.org/contributors?category=%245... as well as this: http://www.fifa.com/sustainability/news/y=2010/m=9/news=fifa-the-clinton-global-initiative-1306614.html http://www.fifa.com/sustainability/news/y=2010/m=9/news=fifa... http://sportanddev.org/en/connect/userprofile.cfm?894/FIFA-Joins-Clinton-Global-Initiative-CGI http://sportanddev.org/en/connect/userprofile.cfm?894/FIFA-J...

405 points by bdehaaff 11y ago

iaw 11y ago

Wow. I'm impressed and somewhat surprised that the U.S. would be the entity to enforce this given the relative lack of presence FIFA has in the U.S. Maybe it's because the U.S. lost the world cup (as in hosting privileges)?

tallerholler 11y ago
The article on CNN mentions that the US has the largest FIFA television audience and that because of their banking, tax, and regulations, they have a long arm essentially.
- iaw 11y ago
  I understand where the capabilities come from, my curiosity here is more in the motivation. The U.S. has a lot of capabilities that they don't exercise, what put FIFA into the crosshairs on this one? (beyond the allegations of wrongdoing)
  - ptaipale 11y ago
    I expect it is simply that the evidence indicated substantial financial corruption, and bribery with loss of tax revenue. Taxman is what really gets governments pissed off. I have no doubt there are similar patterns of corruption in other sports, but the financial impact is probably not as big.
mschuster91 11y ago
> I'm impressed and somewhat surprised that the U.S. would be the entity to enforce this given the relative lack of presence FIFA has in the U.S. The US can't keep their nose out of business of people in foreign countries. If the US has any interest in anything, they'll make it so. Just look at Megaupload for an example. Then again, it's nice that finally someone is taking action against the corrupt hellhole called FIFA.
- ptaipale 11y ago
  The basis for this surely is business of people in USA. Meaning that the business is in USA even if the people currently were in Switzerland. Recently, there has been more public attention on tax evasion, and football (as I call it; soccer for Americans) is big business. I do not believe the Swiss police would have acted for this on a U.S. request without some substantial evidence of actual wrongdoing that happened in the U.S. and is punishable by law both in the U.S. and Switzerland. I am happy that the U.S. is finally putting some pressure on FIFA and its corruption (and inefficiency). (As an anecdote, I got really pissed off by the FIFA procedures when trying to let an exchange student, a young kid, to play just for fun. They really try to squeeze the money off of ordinary people, just for a 16-year-old to be licensed to play. The end result: he couldn't play.)
oliyoung 11y ago
It's that plus the commercial aspects. We (Australia) almost investigated FIFA for the same reasons (the 18/22 World Cup Bids), but we don't have the financial leverage to do anything about it.
NamTaf 11y ago
I'd instead suspect that the corruption involves entities with an impact on the US. Either they gained or lost out of it and thus provoked the US to take action.
oliyoung 11y ago
This is why (from the NYT) "Indictment cites bribes, kickbacks related to * WC qualifications in Concacaf; * Gold Cup and Concacaf Champions League * Copa América * Copa Libertadores." The USA or American owned teams participated in all of those competitions.
- iaw 11y ago
  Thank you, I didn't catch the significance there. Whoever owns those teams (I somehow doubt it's the country itself) is pretty important.
  - oliyoung 11y ago
    Getting my football nerd hat on … The WC qualifiers, Copa América and Gold Cup are international competitions, the USA Men's National Team (as they're called) participates in the WCQ and Gold Cup, although why the Copa América is included is odd, that's a South American competition. The Copa Libertadores and CONCACAF Champions League are both club competitions, again the Libertadores is odd, that's South American, but 4 clubs from the United States participated in the Champions League (in 2014-15 that was Portland Timbers, Sporting Kansas, New York Red Bulls and DC United)
    - simdiab 11y ago
      Clubs from Mexico participate in the Copa Libertadores. Mexico is in CONCACAF (as is the USA). That could be the connection.
      - adestefan 11y ago
        The connection is that CONCACAF has their headquarters in Miami, FL
- deleted 11y ago
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algo_cheese 11y ago
According to the Swiss Federal Office of Justice, the bribery has occurred in the US and paid through US banks : The bribery suspects [...] are alleged to have been involved in schemes to make payments to the soccer functionaries [...] totaling more than USD 100 million. In return, it is believed that they received media, marketing, and sponsorship rights in connection with soccer tournaments in Latin America. According to the US request, these crimes were agreed and prepared in the US, and payments were carried out via US banks. https://www.bj.admin.ch/bj/en/home/aktuell/news/2015/2015-27-05.html https://www.bj.admin.ch/bj/en/home/aktuell/news/2015/2015-27...
- iaw 11y ago
  This makes a ton of sense now with the increased scrutiny of US financial institutions as of late.
  - swombat 11y ago
    Make no mistake: this is entirely about the lost 2022 bid. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup/10871114/Qatar-World-Cup-2022-scandal-Bill-Clintons-fury-at-vote-triggered-global-search-for-truth.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup/10871114... TL;DR: Don't piss off Bill Clinton.
  - jmngomes 11y ago
    There a lot of problems with financial institutions that would be detected by "increased scrutiny " before something like this...
sschueller 11y ago
I'm disgusted that the Swiss let this thing go on for so long and still give FIFA non-profit status.
- stefantalpalaru 11y ago
  What would the Swiss do without the shady business brought by corrupt foreigners? The extremely high standard of living is directly related to money laundering and "asset protection" schemes.
  - mike_hearn 11y ago
    They would do fine. The idea that Switzerland is only successful because of banking privacy is a common myth. The entire financial sector including things like pensions, insurance and corporate banking is only somewhere between 6-10% of the Swiss GDP, depending on how you precisely account for the risk premium. The construction industry alone is about 6% of the GDP. Switzerland does a lot of things beyond finance. Also, though Switzerland has a big financial sector it's not massively larger than other countries. If you use the "output method" then 10% of the Swiss GDP is finance. The next biggest is Ireland with 7%. So that's a 3% difference, yet I don't see anyone claiming that Ireland would be hosed without finance. If you actually spend any time in Switzerland you'll rapidly figure out why it does well - things are just remarkably well run there, and Swiss people are rather industrious and skilled. Their government stays out of expensive foreign wars and other boondoggles. Unemployment is extremely low. The regions compete on tax rates, which keeps them low, and that in turn attracts wealthy people (who are then taxed on their global wealth, not just assets in Switzerland). It's very democratic.
- oliyoung 11y ago
  Not just FIFA, the IOC aren't exactly squeaky clean either
  - sjwright 11y ago
    Certainly, but the Olympics is something of a 20th century anachronism, celebrating a bunch of sports that few people have any genuine interest in. It is slowly becoming little more than a sports-themed fireworks roadshow. FIFA controls the most popular and most profitable sport in the world. Period.
flexie 11y ago
It's a bit ironic that it takes what is almost a non-soccer country to fix soccer. But US corporations (Coca-Cola, McDonalds etc.) are major sponsors of FIFA so the US has a legitimate interest in prosecuting FIFA officials.
- pjc50 11y ago
  I think only a non-football country could fix football. They've not been sufficiently bought.
- ptaipale 11y ago
  Football (soccer) is relatively minor sport in the U.S. but it is still a major country in this sport as well: during the FIFA ranking history, it averages on position 19. That is very good, and higher than the ranking of several past World Cup or continental competition winners.
- mfringel 11y ago
  In addition (as mentioned above), FIFA sanctions don't mean all that much to the US, so the US has a lot less to lose by prosecuting this, both financially and in the court of public opinion.
flexie 11y ago
It's a bit ironic that it takes what is almost a non-soccer country to fix soccer. But US corporations (Coca-Cola, McDonalds etc.) are major sponsors of FIFA so the US has a legitimate interest in prosecuting FIFA officials.
rodgerd 11y ago
> I'm impressed and somewhat surprised that the U.S. would be the entity to enforce this given the relative lack of presence FIFA has in the U.S. The cudgel FIFA uses to prevent anyone looking too closely at how it does business is to threaten any member country with suspension from international competition if there is "political interference in football."
- century19 11y ago
  Indeed. Perhaps the US were the only country that could do this? Great that they did !
  - rodgerd 11y ago
    It requires a combination of a big enough investigation/court system to work with the Swiss and a political class who won't care if there's a risk of soccer being disrupted in the country, so the US would be one of the few nations that might fit the description.
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lordnacho 11y ago

One thing I don't get is why this form of corruption is illegal. FIFA is a sort of international club, right? If I make an international group for the placement of Tiddlywinks world cups, and I make some internal rules for it, why does the state care how the politics turns out? Is it illegal to bribe someone making some private decision?

hyperion2010 11y ago
They are a business and are thus regulated by relevant laws. In this case FIFA is also a monopoly. Imagine if comcast started forcing Tier3 or someone else to pay bribes to get to their customers (heh). This is basically equivalent to that. Tier3 could sue if it was done off the books (re: bribes) and the IRS would go after the corp for tax evasion if they didn't report the bribe income. Not sure how this case will proceed, but my bet is that some of the charges will relate to tax evasion. Taking bribes is also likely only part of the story.
- kuschku 11y ago
  So, you mean, like Verizon did with Netflix?
dragonwriter 11y ago
> FIFA is a sort of international club, right? If I make an international group for the placement of Tiddlywinks world cups, and I make some internal rules for it, why does the state care how the politics turns out? The state cares if the people who are officers of your club defraud your club of funds by directing funds from the club to third parties who provide kickbacks, contrary to their contract with your club, as part of the way that states generally are concerned with criminal frauds. And they'll especially care about that if that fraud also appears likely to have disadvantaged an effort in which the state had interest that was dependent on decisions by your club. > Is it illegal to bribe someone making some private decision? It generally is illegal for a person making a decision as an agent of another private person to take a bribe and as a result to act in their own interest and contrary to the best interest of the person whose agent they are nominally acting as -- and note that, for legal purposes, a corporate entity like FIFA (or any of its subordinate clubs) is a distinct "person" from any of its officers.

damian2000 11y ago

Blatter is coming under pressure to resign, but he's still the favourite to win a 5th term in office as president of FIFA... http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/32891267 http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/32891267 The guy was pretty unpopular when he appeared at the Asian Cup Final - booed by just about everyone in the stadium.

oliyoung 11y ago
> booed by just about everyone in the stadium It, like these arrests, are a wonderful thing to the majority of the football world. Unpopular doesn't go far enough to describe the disdain that the football "community" feels about Blatter and FIFA in general.
simi_ 11y ago
I just realized that in my language (Romanian), "blat" is slang for arranged match. How fitting. :)
- thaumasiotes 11y ago
  Does Romanian also have an -er agentive suffix?
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
sschueller 11y ago
Blatter can't show his face anymore even in some of the most nobel restaurants in Zürich because other guests will heckle him. He needs to go and so does the non-profit status of FIFA.
- bontoJR 11y ago
  For Swiss people, Blatter is a kind of reason to be ashamed. Funny fact: every single time I am abroad and someone reminds me we have Blatter, I freak out... I hope he will get caught if he's involved and that his face will disappear forever from the football world. That sport is amazing, but in the last (almost) 20 years, it has been ruled by a man with a dubious integrity.

austenallred 11y ago

It seems like the DOJ is doing the same thing they would do against a gang; get a few lower-level people to take a plea deal and hand over the kingpin. There's no way Blatter gets through this unscathed. It will be interesting to see if the World Cup will be moved now; it never made sense to have it in Qatar in the first place (no infrastructure, incredibly hot during the summer, hundreds of migrant workers dying and injured because of the insane conditions they're working under to prepare the stadiums. It's really, really messed up. I've never seen /r/soccer so happy about anything - this news has 99%+ upvotes.

peteretep 11y ago
> There's no way Blatter gets through this unscathed I suspect if you find a good online betting site, you would get someone to take the other side of that bet at attractive odds.
- zimpenfish 11y ago
  And if people have money to throw away like that, they could just as well throw it to my bank account. As someone pointed out on Twitter, "oh look, the only people left to vote on Friday are Blatter-friendly".
  - notsony 11y ago
    FIFA is not a public institution, it's a private association. How a private club wants to structure payments is entirely up to them. So how will any bribery charges stick, unless public officials have been paid off? Can't believe Blatter and his cronies would be so stupid, but perhaps some of the weaker and greedier executives were, so Blatter is happy to serve them up?
    - hvs 11y ago
      I'm guessing the DOJ has something figured out.

JumpCrisscross 11y ago

In case one wonders why the United States is enforcing this: "U.S. investigators got help from Chuck Blazer, the longtime general secretary of the confederation, the New York Daily News reported in November. Blazer wore a hidden recording device in a keychain to meetings with soccer officials at the London Olympics and elsewhere, the paper said. The IRS had leverage over Blazer: He hadn’t paid taxes on millions of income for more than a decade, according to the paper. ... The choice of Qatar for the 2022 tournament angered many nations, and the U.S. in particular. The U.S. was beaten in a final vote run-off with the emirate after rival offers from Australia, South Korea and Japan had been eliminated in previous rounds. Former President Bill Clinton led a U.S. group that traveled to Zurich to make a final pitch to voters." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-27/u-s-starts-world-cup-bribery-sweep-as-swiss-police-raid-hotel http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-27/u-s-starts...

SandB0x 11y ago
> The investigation into Blazer’s tax affairs turned up some choice claims about his lifestyle - including the revelation that Concacaf paid $18,000 a month for his Trump Towers apartment, and another $6,000 a month for a second Trump Towers flat, used mainly by his cats. http://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2015/may/27/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges-live http://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2015/may/27/fifa-of...
- gadders 11y ago
  The source NY Daily News stories has more detail: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/soccer/soccer-rat-ex-u-s-soccer-exec-chuck-blazer-fbi-informant-article-1.1995761 http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/soccer/soccer-rat-ex-u-s-s...
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brosefstalin 11y ago
It's strange how hard US goes after other countries' criminals yet drags its feet when it comes to its own (e.g., Wall Street). My guess is that this has nothing to do with Qatar (2020) but Russia (2018). I think Obama is still sore that Russia gave Snowden a safe harbor. The poor sap is probably still butthurt he was duped by Assange that Snowden was on Morales' plane, too.

tragomaskhalos 11y ago

Not in time to prevent the nonsense of the Qatar world cup (nor to save the lives of the migrant workers being sacrificed to consummate that nonsense)

david927 11y ago
What makes you say that? I think this actually puts a large cloud over the Qatar world cup.
- rjaco31 11y ago
  It won't change anything for the Nepalese workers down there though.
century19 11y ago
Why not in time? Mexico '86 was supposed to be in Columbia but was moved a couple of years before. Qatar isn't until 2022.
ryanlol 11y ago
What are you talking about? The mortality rates of migrants in Qatar are exceptionally low.

NicoJuicy 11y ago

There was an interesting documentary/research episode two days ago on the Belgium "information" channel, Telefacts. It mentioned adding slavery to Russian laws for building the stadiums ( the FIFA law - http://www.ituc-csi.org/new-fifa-laws-strip-world-cup http://www.ituc-csi.org/new-fifa-laws-strip-world-cup ) , Fifa - who only wanted to use someone's "name" for "cleaning up FIFA from the inside" ( she quitted her fictional job at Fifa), the return of someone who has been trialed for bribery - he laughed with it in an interview, bribery from Qatar and Russia for holding FIFA, people/women who have been threathened for accusing the FIFA of "actions against human rights", ... The list is long :) Blatter, the president of the FIFA, likes to brag. He said: "i'm the only person who can travel without official notification, who gets received by the president of that country."

gadders 11y ago

This aweseome news. Can we do the IOC next?

freehunter 11y ago
Right after we fix the NFL and MLB.
- gadders 11y ago
  Are they that bad? I'm in the UK but I always thought they were fairly legit, if not very competent.
  - freehunter 11y ago
    It was kind of tongue in cheek. The NFL and MLB are no where near as bad as FIFA or the IOC, although they affect me more since they're sports I watch, and they're also a little more in our court since they're actually American organizations. In terms of overall human rights and corruption, FIFA and IOC rate much higher. The only people really hurt by the actions of the NFL are the players.
    - gadders 11y ago
      Sounds like the FA/Premier League that controls football (soccer) over here.
  - CSMastermind 11y ago
    Your sense is correct. They're nothing like the IOC or FIFA. It's more incompetence than corruption.
  - protomyth 11y ago
    NFL's non-profit status was a bit of a pain. Both exploit cities to get stadiums, but that requires a deeper fix (see the FX industry for a global version). Both also do stupid blackouts. Neither is in FIFA's or IOC's league.
- 11y ago

qzervaas 11y ago

I had to look up the definition of "genuflect": "Lower one's body briefly by bending one knee to the ground, typically in worship or as a sign of respect."

scrollaway 11y ago
Literally, flexing (-flect) your genu (latin for knee, "genou" in French). So, to kneel.

dcsommer 11y ago

I'm incredibly excited that finally these problems are being addressed, but I'm not sure if this is relevant to HN.

splittist 11y ago

These are "FIFA Officials" in the same way that the representatives countries send to the UN are "UN Officials", or US Congressfolk are "US Officials". They aren't people who actually do the work at FIFA. $150 million over 20 years for sports rights in Latin America seems to indicate pretty slim margins. I wonder what the deal was with bribes and kickbacks over the selection of the host country for the 2010 World Cup (i.e. South Africa)? The defendants who have copped pleas are convicted of the made-up 'crimes' of e.g. "wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and the structuring of financial transactions". http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/nine-fifa-officials-and-five-corporate-executives-indicted-racketeering-conspiracy-and http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/nine-fifa-officials-and-five-c... No doubt terrible things go on among the members and their representatives at FIFA (as they do at the UN). Perhaps someone could explain how to organise an international federation that prevents corruption in its member (i.e. owner) organisations.

ptaipale 11y ago
I don't quite understand how money laundering and fraud are "made up crimes". IMO they are very real crimes. If the convictions are wrong (i.e. not based on evidence), then say so, but claiming that crimes are "made up" is weasel language.
- splittist 11y ago
  Money laundering is a recent invention as a crime. None of the actions involved are actually criminal in themselves, it's just that they (supposedly) make it harder for the authorities to detect something they might want to be obvious, to assist in the War on Drugs, or tax avoidance, or (more recently) terrorism. As to "fraud", I actually referred to "wire fraud conspiracy", which is, more or less, once having had some sort of agreement (tacit or otherwise) to do something with a dishonest intention where a telephone was involved in some way or other. Note that you don't actually have to have followed through on that intention for the "crime" to have been committed. These defendants plead guilty, so the convictions are no doubt correct. And no doubt many millions of bribes were paid. But I think a degree of skepticism about prosecutorial conduct is appropriate no matter what the supposed target of the prosecution.

thrillgore 11y ago

My understanding is that FIFA can ban countries from the organization for whatever reasons it sees fit. This probably cost the US any future world cups for the foreseeable future.

kijin 11y ago
Why do you think the US cares? For FIFA, the US is the single largest source of television audience and therefore advertising revenue. For the US, on the other hand, soccer is just one of many sports. In fact, the US is one of very few countries where soccer is not the sport. Americans are nowhere near as desperate for soccer as FIFA is desperate for American money.
- akfanta 11y ago
  > For FIFA, the US is the single largest source of television audience and therefore advertising revenue. Are you for real? This statement is so ridiculous that I don't even know where to start. You do realize football is by a huge margin, the most popular sports on this planet, right?
  - sswezey 11y ago
    This article talks about the last world cup final: http://www.espnfc.com/fifa-world-cup/story/1950567/world-cup-final-most-watched-soccer-game-in-us-history-more-than-26-million-viewers http://www.espnfc.com/fifa-world-cup/story/1950567/world-cup... The US had 43.8 million people watching the final (in English and Spanish). Germany (who was in the final) had 34.65 million people watching. Even if Argentina had ever single person in their country watching, they'd only have 42.6 million people watching (wiki estimate). Granted Brazil almost definitely has higher viewership, but the US is definitely one of the largest.
    - thrillgore 11y ago
      Because ESPN, being the broadcast partner at the time wouldn't fudge the numbers. Riiiiight.

mykhal 11y ago

WTF? am I still at HN?

dbcooper 11y ago

According to the Economist, the 2018 and 2022 WC allocations are being investigated too: http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21652222-officials-world-footballs-governing-body-have-been-arrested-american-instigation http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21652222-... >America’s actions could force other countries to investigate FIFA more bravely. Indeed, that may already be happening. In what appears to be a separate case, Swiss officers raided FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich, seized electronic records and said they had opened criminal proceedings against “persons unknown on suspicion of criminal mismanagement and of money laundering in connection with the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 football World Cups”. According to reports, 10 FIFA members who participated in the vote for those competitions are to be questioned by police.

vfclists 11y ago

If American law enforcement authorities have some balls why don't they go after their corrupt bankers? Their bankers have been engaged in criminality upon criminality upon criminality and all they have to is pay some fines which are minuscule in comparison to the amount they robbed, in return for charges being dropped, and admission by the prosecuting authorities of no wrong doing. This is how spineless these European countries are. United Kingdom you know who I'm talking about. And it looks like Switzerland has also joined the list. Some of you European countries are so despicably shameful.

mladenkovacevic 11y ago

White House makes the first step towards enforcing mass boycott of the Russian World Cup as punishment for flexing its muscles in its old spheres of influence. I'm all for dismantling and/or restructuring FIFA, but the timing is rather opportune.

hvs 11y ago
"Flexing its muscles in its old spheres of influence" is an interesting way to say, "invading and taking over another country."
- mladenkovacevic 11y ago
  Is it interesting? I don't know, violations of international law have taken on many imaginative and interesting names in the recent past but I think the one I used is rather uninteresting comparatively.
- _nedR 11y ago
  You mean like what the US, UK and Australia did to Iraq. What punitive action did these countries face for their actions? Yes, really the whole thing makes perfect sense when viewed from an "Old Order" vs "New Order" perspective.
  - dragonwriter 11y ago
    A lot of the same people (including in the US) who aren't happy with what Russia did in Ukraine at the time it occurred also opposed what the US did in Iraq at the time that occurred.
    - _nedR 11y ago
      Note: I have edited my original comment after you replied (but before i saw it). My point is that Russia is forced to face actual consequences for its actions, whereas the Americans, and the rest have been given a free pass for doing basically the same thing.

kev6168 11y ago

This time USA has my support to be the world police! Fuck Blatter!

jstalin 11y ago

The indictment is available here: https://www.unitedstatescourts.org/federal/nyed/370520/1-0.html https://www.unitedstatescourts.org/federal/nyed/370520/1-0.h...

kaa2102 11y ago

Teachers, bikers, and now FIFA - we have no problem throwing the hammer at these folks but the criminals that threaten the world economy get a free pass.

pmcpinto 11y ago

It's time to see a serious person leading FIFA. I hope that Blatter get's arrested or that looses the elections.

venomsnake 11y ago

Can anyone explain the jurisdiction?

dragonwriter 11y ago
The charges allege a conspiracy involving (among others) US persons (individuals and corporations), making extensive use of US financial institutions, and obstruction of justice relating to US law enforcement investigation related to that conspiracy.
adestefan 11y ago
The CONCACAF headquarters is in Miami, FL. If you notice all the indictments are against current or former CONCACAF board members. The ones who are not are part of sports agents/promoters with a US presence. Chuck Blazer who was CONCACAF secretary while Wilson was president also just plead guilty to corruption charges. It's also widely believed that he's also one of the main informants.

bane 11y ago

Okay, I'll ask it: why does it take the U.S. to get involved in fighting corruption against an almost entirely non-U.S. organization that governs a sport that's not very popular here? Why isn't this happening in Europe or Central/South America where the impact is more immediate?

Cacti 11y ago
Because the vast majority of the bribing related to FIFA isn't happening in the US. That's the entire point of bribery, that you are more protected in the areas you are bribing.
infinitone 11y ago
Probably because said countries have their own interests/benefits from FIFA. More so than say the US. Just a speculation though. There's also the fact that say a country such as Argentina were to do it, no one would really take them that seriously.
InTheArena 11y ago
Contrary to popular opinion, FIFA does quite a bit of revenue in the US, and the Concacaf has been ground zero for much of the corruption issues. In many cases, money is being issued from US banks to be used in the laundering and corruption. And the US may be the one country where FIFA doesn't have enough pull to graft their way around the problem. There was a great documentary a few years ago about the US links...
mynameisvlad 11y ago
For one, I'd say that the US is the biggest entity of the bunch, and would most likely have the most pull to actually get something done.

gmisra 11y ago

For those of you who, like me, don't know much about the background and context, Bloomberg Business recently did an in-depth piece on Blatter and his ascension: http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-sepp-blatter-fifa/ http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-sepp-blatter-fifa/

Carrok 11y ago
For those of you who don't like reading, John Oliver did a fantastic segment on FIFA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlJEt2KU33I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlJEt2KU33I

randomname2 11y ago

Just to make the farce complete, FIFA and Qatar donated to the Clinton Foundation https://www.clintonfoundation.org/contributors?category=%2450%2C001%20to%20%24100%2C000&page=2 https://www.clintonfoundation.org/contributors?category=%245... as well as this: http://www.fifa.com/sustainability/news/y=2010/m=9/news=fifa-the-clinton-global-initiative-1306614.html http://www.fifa.com/sustainability/news/y=2010/m=9/news=fifa... http://sportanddev.org/en/connect/userprofile.cfm?894/FIFA-Joins-Clinton-Global-Initiative-CGI http://sportanddev.org/en/connect/userprofile.cfm?894/FIFA-J...