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Sepp Blatter to quit as president amid corruption scandal
- rilindo 11y agoI guess John Oliver will be drinking Budlight Lime live.
- taco_emoji 11y agoDid Budweiser have anything to do with this?
- jonknee 11y agoI'm sure sponsor pressure had a lot to do with it. You can sell "It's just the Americans" about the DOJ investigations to a lot of your voters, but when the money goes away you don't have the means of control.
- JibberMeTimbers 11y agoContext: https://youtu.be/qr6ar3xJL_Q?t=702 https://youtu.be/qr6ar3xJL_Q?t=702
- 404error 11y agoNot sure but he touched on something that might have struck a nerve. The ONLY people who could do something about FIFA were the sponsors. Threaten to cut down the money tree and change will come faster than you think.
- jleyank 11y agoOffhand, the only other agency that might have sufficient weight to move things behind the scenes was UEFA. They have the teams, the money and most of the relevant fans. If they move in sync with Brazil and Argentina, FIFA runs out of relevant matches.
- cschmidt 11y agoHe appealed to FIFA advertisers to help him go away https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr6ar3xJL_Q&t=12m20s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr6ar3xJL_Q&t=12m20s
- taco_emoji 11y agoRight, that's why I'm asking, DID the advertisers have anything to do with this?
- number_six 11y agoAnd telling us how delicious it tastes.
- eitally 11y agoHopefully he'll be indicted on corruption/racketeering charges anyway.
- siculars 11y agoMcDonalds paired with Lime-Rita's for John Oliver. The most powerful or prescient talking head on TV? Quite possibly.
- joshstrange 11y agoHis show is awesome and really hit the ground running! Really makes the Colbert Report replacement (The Nightly Show) look terrible by comparison (started around the same time but to be fair LWT is once a week while TNS is 4 days/week). Looking forward to other things that John will bring into the light, I've learned quite a bit from his show (or rather his show has wetted my appetite to do more research on topics he covers).
- adevine 11y agoThe thing I like so much about LWT is that some of the segments are a good 12-15 minutes long, which is an eternity in TV land. With that time, he can actually dig into topics with more depth to give viewers a better understanding of the background and what is happening (and still manage to be hilarious). I think back to his bit on the supplements industry as a good example of this. I NEVER see this type of analysis on any news shows besides Frontline.
- jonknee 11y ago> I NEVER see this type of analysis on any news shows besides Frontline. The two things those have in common is the lack of commercials. It gives much more time (10 more minutes in a 30 minute show!) and lets you not have to recap after a break. It will be interesting to see how Vice's new nightly news show on HBO will work.
- tertius 11y agoRemember, it's still a comedy show and he himself does not claim otherwise. Chunks of salt.
- mason240 11y ago
- coob 11y agoGood riddance. Hopefully the next president won't be another corrupt liar (Platini, Warner etc).
- ConAntonakos 11y agoGoodbye, you slithering snake. Here is to a new generation of reform in the FIFA organization.
- dba7dba 11y agoWill Putin come to his aid?
- jodah 11y agoIt's funny, the parallels between Putin and Blatter. They both have tried hard to hold onto power, knowing that when they lose it the skeletons will start flying out of the closet.
- dragonwriter 11y ago> Will Putin come to his aid? Putin already tried to do so [0] by painting the corruption investigation as unjust US persecution. [0] Well, more likely tried to pre-empt any effect the investigation of FIFA corruption would have on Russia's 2018 World Cup, but it amounts to the same thing in effect.
- caskance 11y agoAs long as the 2018 World Cup stays in Russia and attendance isn't hurt, why should he care?
- 1337biz 11y agoJust wondering - has anyone heared any other side of the story? Whenever a story appears to be such clear cut black and white with one evil villain, my septics radar goes up.
- jacquesm 11y agoSometimes evil villains simply are evil villains. Septics? ;)
- asavadatti 11y agoskeptics?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- foobarqux 11y agoI suspect he was at least complicit. One other side of the story is this: Why does the US care? The answer is that if getting the World Cup essentially requires bribes then that makes it impossible for the US to compete, because bribery is prosecuted in the US. So this is less about justice than economic benefit. It's FIFA regime change.
- dragonwriter 11y ago> Whenever a story appears to be such clear cut black and white with one evil villain Whoever said there was one evil villain? Note that while Blatter may be implicated in the corruption investigation, one of the specific schemes already charged was an attempt to use bribes to motivate people to vote for Blatter's opponent in a previous FIFA election. This doesn't look as much like a hierarchical conspiracy with one bad actor at the top, as a whole nest of -- sometimes cooperating, sometimes competing -- bad actors.
- LanceH 11y agoI think this translates as, "Sepp Blatter can't make travel commitments required of his position without facing extradition."
- sageabilly 11y agoSeems a lot like he's stepping down now to avoid being dragged down later.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- jonknee 11y agoObviously that's just internal investigations. The DOJ doesn't care about your employment status.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- dragonwriter 11y ago> I thought by FIFA's bylaws once a person leaves their position, all investigations into any ethics issues cease? Or is that just internal investigations? Its just internal FIFA investigations. If a private organizations by-laws could cut-off criminal investigations, every criminal would be creating their own organizations with by-laws structured in a convenient way to do that.
- Tobani 11y agoWhy would FIFA's bylaws have anything to do with a criminal investigation?
- msandford 11y agoI don't think FIFA's bylaws can somehow supersede those of every country on earth. This is a criminal investigation into FIFA by the US, not a FIFA investigation into a FIFA official by another FIFA official. I know that the TPP is happening and it's being done without much oversight. But I suspect that if FIFA had somehow attained worldwide diplomatic immunity for its officials we'd know about it. And once an official stepped down, well, they'd then lose that immunity (not that it's ever existed) and would again be open to prosecution.
- justinsingh 11y agoOne of Taleb's tweets stated: "From Mafia history: Feds close progressively the circle around the big fish via associates. They get him last to avoid plea bargaining." The circle was being closed, and hopefully Blatter will still face some consequence while he attempts to run away from this mess.
- wtvanhest 11y agoFor an interesting take on the FIFA charges, YC's Casetext had several articles published by Heather Lowe - Legal Counsel and Director of Government Affairs at Global Financial Integrity: FIFA: The Bribery Case with No Bribery Charge https://casetext.com/posts/xyrwas9p8swf80k9-fifa-the-bribery-case-with-no-bribery-charge https://casetext.com/posts/xyrwas9p8swf80k9-fifa-the-bribery... Can Victims Sue for Damages? https://casetext.com/posts/pz8uyoy048izr529-can-fifa-victims-sue-for-damages https://casetext.com/posts/pz8uyoy048izr529-can-fifa-victims...
- thrillgore 11y agoYou can always count on Americans to do the right thing after they've tried everything else.
- hsod 11y agowhat else did they try?
- spdy 11y agoLooks like they planned this before the election. There was no suitable candidate who would be able to do the job that has to be done now. Now its time to find one. And i would be surprised if they can connect him with bribery etc. He strikes me as that kind of person who likes power over a bag of money.
- pdabbadabba 11y agoThe problem with corruption is that, in the absence of careful enforcement, you don't have to choose. Blatter has had both power and, I'd wager, a great deal of money for quite some time now.
- dragonwriter 11y ago> And i would be surprised if they can connect him with bribery etc. He strikes me as that kind of person who likes power over a bag of money. Money and power are generally fungible, and you don't have to handle a bag of money at either end to be part of a conspiracy that involves financial crimes. The leaders of criminal conspiracies probably generally prefer power to money, with money being interesting, to the extent it is, as a means to power.
- EnderMB 11y agoIt's convenient that he steps down now, mere days after the election that swore him into power once again. If he stepped down during the election Prince Ali would have won. This way, Blatter can call his own election and personally vouch for a new candidate to take over. To me, Blatter was just the face of corruption. I simply cannot see someone from inside FIFA being able to resolve the corruption problems, mostly because these people are the problem. This isn't a new thing, and this isn't something that arrived with Blatter. Some journalists have been investigating corruption in FIFA for decades. Hell, most countries have been a part of it. It's only surfacing now because the bribery is so blatant, and our bribes simply weren't enough. People will cheer and say that "we finally did it", but I cannot see anything truly changing. The only way FIFA will change is through the authorities.
- makeitsuckless 11y agoThe "FIFA is corrupt to the core" argument misunderstands the nature of FIFA's corruption. It's only the few decision makers that are relevant, it isn't like a government where there is something to be gained by bribery on each level, even the lowest civil servant. Unlike corruption in a nation, we are not talking about a culture of corruption that involves millions. There's no point in bribing just a lowly FIFA official or bureaucrat, most you can buy that way is easier access to the big boys. That small group of corrupt decision makers is now rapidly diminishing, and there is not a long line of eager replacements, especially now that the feds are looking over their shoulders.
- dragonwriter 11y ago> That small group of corrupt decision makers is now rapidly diminishing, and there is not a long line of eager replacements, especially now that the feds are looking over their shoulders. And not just the (US) Feds -- the Swiss are conducting a separate corruption investigation relating to the 2018 and 2022 world cups, and other governments are interested as well. Essentially, the fact that the World Cup is a big national prestige event and that past corruption has been brought into the light means there is likely going to be intense scrutiny from all sides going forward -- sure, for every beneficiary of corruption there are lots of losers, and when those losers are major nation states, they have a pretty impressive ability, if they turn their will to it, to address any problems, especially if given the convenient excuse provided by actual corruption to prosecute.
- mksndz 11y agoToo bad he didnt go out with a 'bang' like former FIA prez Max Mosley http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1728032,00.html http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1728032,00...
- chasing 11y agoNow FIFA needs to disband itself entirely.
- garagemc2 11y agoThank you USA.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- phantom_oracle 11y agoIn the infamous words from the handbook of Hydra: ======================================= Cut off 1 head and 2 more will appear ======================================= Hail FIFA!