Soccer's Governing Body MIred in Corruption Allegations

[Guest fountainhall]

Following the international Football Federation (FIFA) awarding the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively, I wrote in December on another Board about corruption within FIFA and in particular about the autocratic style of its President, Sepp Blatter. I’ll quote part of one post because in the last few weeks FIFA has now become totally embroiled in a whole variety of corruption allegations – and Blatter himself is finally under investigation.

 

I won’t go into all the scandals surrounding Blatter, other than to refer you to his entry on wikipedia. More than 80% centres on scandals! The BBC’s Panorama programme recently aired what was essentially an expose of FIFA corruption scandals involving around US$100 million of secret payments made to FIFA officials and Executive Committee members. Unfortunately, FIFA is an organization that is subject to very few rules and regulations, yet it generates monster profits. A small committee of just 24 representatives from football associations around the world effectively controls billions in revenues every four years. The potential for corruption is therefore enormous. Just this year, a Swiss magistrate concluded a criminal investigation by ruling that FIFA executives had taken kickbacks. Names were kept secret and everything was swept under the carpet with a fine of about US$5.5 million. When Blatter refutes all allegations of corruption within his organization, is it any surprise this judgment is never mentioned?

 

Blatter exercises enormous control over his colleagues . . . I have no doubt whatever that Blatter pushed his colleagues into approving Qatar because that’s what he wanted (dare I suggest that money had been palmed?). How else could a nation of less than 2 million souls and almost zero history in soccer win the biggest prize in world soccer?

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Today, according to the BBC’s website -

 

Fifa has opened ethics proceedings against its president, Sepp Blatter. The action follows a charge by Mohamed Bin Hammam, his rival in next week's presidency election, that Blatter knew about alleged cash payments. Bin Hammam and vice-president Jack Warner will also be at Sunday's hearing to answer charges of bribery.

 

. . . The move to place Blatter, one of the most powerful men in football, under investigation is the latest twist in an increasingly bitter fight for the presidency of the sport's global governing body . . . BBC sports editor David Bond said: "Fifa is now an organisation completely at war. They cannot possibly continue in this way . . .

 

"It feels like at last the dam is breaking around them. It is a bit like the scene at the end of Reservoir Dogs when everyone has a gun pointed at each other's heads."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/13574338.stm

[Guest]

Qatar getting the World Cup says it all.

[Guest fountainhall]

With the Qatari Mohamed Bin Hammam having dramatically pulled out of the race for the presidency of FIFA yesterday amid serious accusations that he paid out around US$1 million in cash bribes to delegates from 25 Caribbean soccer associations at a meeting in Trinidad on May 10th, the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar will finally come under the microscope. I'm putting money on the vote now being annulled and another country being given the tournament.

 

FIFA Vice President Jack Warner is quoted in today's Sunday Telegraph saying; “You will see a football tsunami that will hit Fifa and the world that will shock you."

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/international/8544176/Revealed-Fifa-s-top-secret-bribery-files-on-Mohamed-Bin-Hammam-and-Jack-Warner.html

 

He was referring to the meeting to elect the new President in Zurich this coming week. Warner himself is moored in corruption scandals, as indeed is Blatter who faces the FIA Ethics Committee tomorrow.

 

Blatter has been pulling the strings at FIFA for far too long. Many believe that much of the corruption both involves him and has his blessing. Hopefully the Swiss authorities will now launch their own in-depth independent investigation into the scandal-hit organisation that earns billions of US dollars during each World Cup tournament.