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The Crooked FIFA Thread | Blatter steps down... Oh no wait he's back!
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 8:43 am
by Floex
Six football officials have been arrested over corruption charges at governing body Fifa, at a hotel in Zurich, Switzerland.
The suspects, who are said to include a Fifa vice-president, have been detained pending extradition to the US.
It involves alleged bribes worth about $100m (£65m; €92m) over two decades.
Fifa members are gathering in Zurich for their annual meeting on Friday, where incumbent President Sepp Blatter is seeking a fifth term.
However, Mr Blatter is not understood to be one of those arrested.
The New York Times says plain-clothed police officers took the room keys from the reception of Baur au Lac hotel, where the officials were staying, and headed to their rooms. It said the operation was carried out peacefully.
Jeffrey Webb - head of the confederation for North and Central America and the Caribbean - has been named as one of the officials arrested, says the BBC's Richard Conway, who is at the Zurich hotel.
Other Fifa officials seen by the BBC escorted by police from the hotel include:
Costa Rica's Eduardo Li, who was due to join Fifa's executive committee on Friday
Uruguay's Eugenio Figueredo, president of South American football governing body Conmebol
Brazil's Jose Maria Marin, a member of Fifa's club committee. Police were seen carrying his suitcase and some of his possessions in plastic bags
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32895048And so it finally begins
Re: Swiss police arrest Fifa officials in Zurich
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 8:46 am
by Skippy
I certainly hope this is the end of that circus of banana splits but given Baltter himself hasn't been arrested yet I'm not getting my hopes up
Re: Swiss police arrest Fifa officials in Zurich
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 9:05 am
by massimo
Hopefully we get some revelations out of this and Blatter is forced out. Won't hold my breath.
Maybe they'll take the Qatar World Cup away from them and give it to us.
Re: Swiss police arrest Fifa officials in Zurich
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 9:11 am
by Dual
So it begins.
Re: Swiss police arrest Fifa officials in Zurich
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 9:12 am
by Saint of Killers
Re: Swiss police arrest Fifa officials in Zurich
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 9:13 am
by SandyCoin
massimo wrote:Hopefully we get some revelations out of this and Blatter is forced out. Won't hold my breath.
Maybe they'll take the Qatar World Cup away from them and give it to us.
Give us the World Cup? Ha, that's about as likely as anything happening to Blatter.
Re: Swiss police arrest Fifa officials in Zurich
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 9:16 am
by massimo
SandyCoin wrote:massimo wrote:Hopefully we get some revelations out of this and Blatter is forced out. Won't hold my breath.
Maybe they'll take the Qatar World Cup away from them and give it to us.
Give us the World Cup? Ha, that's about as likely as anything happening to Blatter.
Re: Swiss police arrest Fifa officials in Zurich
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 9:26 am
by Tomous
So why now?
Given it's been obvious for years what goes on, how come the authorities are acting now?
Re: Swiss police arrest Fifa officials in Zurich
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 9:30 am
by Skippy
Re: Swiss police arrest Fifa officials in Zurich
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 9:35 am
by SandyCoin
Tomous wrote:So why now?
Given it's been obvious for years what goes on, how come the authorities are acting now?
I guess it's the same with the mafia. Just need some decent evidence. Hopefully that's the case and it sends a ripple effect and more start to be nabbed. I seriously doubt anything will happen to Blatter though, sadly. Smug little banana split.
Re: Swiss police arrest Fifa officials in Zurich
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 9:41 am
by Zartan
I am really happy it is the US doing this, and not us, mainly as they will just blame the UK for being bitter.
Also if it has anything to do with Qatar that could mean Platini gets hit rather than Blatter, as from what Jonathan Wilson on Football weekly reported, it was Platini and not Blatter who pushed for Qatar to win it, and Blatter if anything was not pleased they won it.
As for 2022 if it is taken from Qatar, it would probably end up in the USA, as Europe is hosting it in 2018, would be nice to see it go to Australia as they had a very strong bid for 2022
I will be looking forward to see what develops from this
Re: Swiss police arrest Fifa officials in Zurich
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 9:50 am
by Tomous
Australia would have been a great choice for 2022, in my opinion.
Re: Swiss police arrest Fifa officials in Zurich
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 10:31 am
by Moggy
England didn't bid for the 2022 World Cup (we lost to Russia) so there is no chance of us getting it.
The losing 2022 bids were from USA, South Korea, Japan and Australia. The USA got the most votes and so I assume they would get it as they were second in the bidding and have the capability of hosting a tournament at very short notice.
I doubt much is going to change at FIFA even with these arrests. It's corrupt to the very core, it would take a lot more than 6 arrests to change anything.
Re: Swiss police arrest Fifa officials in Zurich
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 10:33 am
by Harry Ola
Fifa's director of communications Walter De Gregorio wrote:First and foremost Fifa initiated this process on 18 November last year.
This smacks of Fifa throwing a few small fry under the bus to safeguard the bigger fish. You can only hope that they don't go down without a fight.
Re: Swiss police arrest Fifa officials in Zurich
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 10:41 am
by Gandalf
As it's already been said, FIFA are corrupt from top to the bottom. Like Harry just said, this is just a little sacrifice to protect the big-wigs like that little banana split Blatter.
Re: Swiss police arrest Fifa officials in Zurich
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 10:52 am
by degoose
I'm watching sky news and it feels like FIFA are going through a complete meltdown, except for Blatter of course who seems to act like a smug git all the time.
Re: Swiss police arrest Fifa officials in Zurich
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 11:04 am
by Floex
Tomous wrote:So why now?
Given it's been obvious for years what goes on, how come the authorities are acting now?
If you're talking about the timing, I believe that there is an election for the next President of FIFA. Of course, Seb Blatter is looking to serve again. This happening now should,
should, eliminate those chances of him running again.
Re: Swiss police arrest Fifa officials in Zurich
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 11:47 am
by Saint of Killers
So there are two operations going on; FBI have made arrests regarding bribes being processed through US systems, and Swiss authorities are investigating elements of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids.
Re: Swiss police arrest Fifa officials in Zurich
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 11:55 am
by Tomous
That's interesting.
There's no way the World Cup would have gone to Qatar without corruption and bribery so I guess it'll depend on how much evidence they can find.
Re: Swiss police arrest Fifa officials in Zurich
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 12:02 pm
by Saint of Killers
Russia should be stripped of their bid due to their government's intollerance to anyone who isn't heterosexual, and Qatar should be stripped of it because of that and the number of worker deaths already associated with the various building projects, also the restrictions placed on workers:
http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/the_cas ... 170314.pdf
Also