FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Sepp Blatter Quits

[Burner Account]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/s...ab-top-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

United States law enforcement officials declared in forceful terms on Wednesday that their broad investigation of FIFA had only begun and pledged to rid the international soccer organization of systemic corruption.

The promise that the investigation would continue raised the specter of more arrests, but officials would not comment on whether they were investigating Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president and the man widely regarded as the most powerful person in sports. One federal law enforcement official said Mr. Blatter’s fate would “depend on where the investigation goes from here.”

 

[Panteras]

In other words play prisoner's dilemma with all of the accused to get to Blatter

 

[Mount Suribachi]

Very interested to see who those bribes came from.

Depends on what they define as "bribes". Its like Jack Warner, he wasn't always in envelopes full of cash. Sometimes FIFA might award the TV rights to a company that just happened to be owned by his son. Or they might award $10M to a soccer charity for the building of pitches for poor kids - a charity of which he just happens to be the patron. Stuff like that. Looking at some of the graphics the US government have produced, it looks like a lot of the money went through intermediaries who "brokered" deals.

Whatever, until Blatter is rotting in a prison cell and Qatar have been stripped of the 2022 World Cup, this is all window dressing.

 

[cutchemist42]

http://www.atlredline.com/only-the-...source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

This article gave me a legit thought; was this actually easier for the United States to do because soccer isn't the most loved sport in the country?

 

[cutchemist42]

SBNation breakdown:

http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2015...-from-the-fifa-corruption-investigation-press

 

[Mount Suribachi]

Question is how do you actually clean it up? Sure, fire a bunch of folks but without structural changes their replacements will end up the same.

The structure is in large part the problem. Blatter loves to go on about how "democratic" FIFA is, and its true, it is. Each country gets 1 vote. Burma has as many votes as Germany. Cuba has as many votes as England. Which is wonderfully "democratic", but the problem is, 75% of the worlds nations are not western liberal democracies with the rule of law, free speech and freedom of the press. Corruption is just a part of everyday life all over the world.

Which makes the system open to abuse. For a $10k bribe to the head of their FA, Blatter can buy the vote of a tiny nation like Tonga, or Vanuatu, instantly nullifying the big, rich, powerful nations like England or Germany who will play by the rules.

How to fix it is the question because all the turkeys who grew fat on Blatter aren't going to decide to vote for Christmas just because the FBI turned up. My #1 priority would be to get FIFA the hell out of Switzerland to a country were they can't maintain the veil of secrecy, where their accounts and records can be open to scrutiny. But like I said, the turkeys aren't likely to vote for Christmas.

 

[Tuggy]

These are rich people, they have no desire to do time and If the evidence the FBI has is enough to cause them doubt then these people will talk in a heartbeat.

I think this could get nasty.

Exactly. This isn't like gang members who won't talk to protect theirs brothers...

 

[Mount Suribachi]

http://www.atlredline.com/only-the-...source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

This article gave me a legit thought; was this actually easier for the United States to do because soccer isn't the most loved sport in the country?

Kinda like how the USADA focussed all their attention on bringing down Lance Armstrong and completely ignored the NFL?

 

[Chimaera]

The burden of proof for charging federal cases is far higher. They also have whistle blowers who have already entered guilty pleas.

They probably will stick. These people probably have no interest in serving time either. If they have anything on Blatter, they'll give it up.

I meant that they're not going to clean it all up, and they're not going to get the who's who.

Sure, they'll get a president of a federation or two from South America or Africa taking a bribe.

They might even get a few guys who work in the FIFA hierarchy. But they're not going to clean it up.

The money is too great, and the oversight is too small.

When you're talking about the biggest sport in the world, with the ability to make or break a countries economic future (sans the US and a few others) along with enough ad and revenue money to make the year for some of these companies that are involved, it's hard to see how it's going to be brought down by some investigation by the FBI.

Maybe I'm a cynic, but its not like they haven't known they were corrupt. It's always been that way. I would not be shocked to see that the American bid was involved in some shady dealing. Where there's money to be made, and there's a truck load of money to be made, corruption will exist.

 

[Shrimper]

This is amazing.

I look forward to seeing that Qatar offered xx million for a World Cup whilst we offered some Jellies Eels and cockles in Whitstable.

 

[Burner Account]

In other words play prisoner's dilemma with all of the accused to get to Blatter

That's exactly how they got these 14. Blazer is coughing up almost $4-million and rolling on them.

 

[Chimaera]

http://www.atlredline.com/only-the-...source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

This article gave me a legit thought; was this actually easier for the United States to do because soccer isn't the most loved sport in the country?

Maybe more so because their economic well being isn't tied into the sport.

Sure, they'd profit from the World Cup. Sure, some people care about soccer here. But not to the extent to where it's an economic lifeblood.

 

[Uncle Rotter]

This is amazing.

I look forward to seeing that Qatar offered xx million for a World Cup whilst we offered some Jellies Eels and cockles in Whitstable.

All you needed to do was offer some Knighthoods. Is that so hard?

 

[mouser]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...latter-election-were-corrupt-FBI-alleges.html

18.45
MORE BREAKING NEWS - Sky are claiming that police have told ALL Swiss nationals working for Fifa - and that'll include Sepp Blatter - that they cannot leave the country!

18.43

Here's more on the BREAKING NEWS that European football's governing body, Uefa, has called for Friday's Fifa presidential election to be postponed:

Quote We strongly believe the Fifa Congress should be postponed with new Fifa presidential elections to be organised within the next six months - Uefa secretary general Gianni Infantino at the Sheraton Hotel

 

[cutchemist42]

Kinda like how the USADA focussed all their attention on bringing down Lance Armstrong and completely ignored the NFL?

Basically yeah. Even MLB and its players got trouted out before the government which just shows the clout the NFL has.

 

[cgf]

I find it odd that so many think this will change a single thing in FIFA. They'll be a little more discrete for a few years before sliding back into the brazenly corrupt cartel that they have always been.

 

[cgf]

Hopefully, in addition to nailing FIFA, they slam Traffic and something changes with 3rd party ownership. There's been talks of banning it, but it really needs to be highlighted how wrong this **** is.

Traffic Sports Marketing owns the rights to hundreds of South American (mostly Brazilian and Argentine) players.

For every Neymar, who got to Barca and got paid, there's 100 of others who got shopped around the world and had their careers ruined over transfer money.

And there's thousands who never would have had careers without third party investors paying for their training and getting clubs to give them a chance. It's odd to me how villified 3rd party ownership is when it's a net positive for the sport and the development of the game outside of the rich EU nations.

 

[Just Win]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...latter-election-were-corrupt-FBI-alleges.html

Good news. Now put Blatter behind barred windows.

 

[Halladay]

They should be going after the ncaa instead.

 

[bam09]

I find it odd that so many think this will change a single thing in FIFA. They'll be a little more discrete for a few years before sliding back into the brazenly corrupt cartel that they have always been.

Yep, especially with Platini already posturing as the White Knight in all of this.

 

[Dave is a killer]

They should be going after the ncaa instead.

They are.

 

[mouser]

Skimmed through the indictment. Doesn't seem to clearly state it in there, but the separate DOJ posting says many of the unnamed co-conspirators described in the indictment have already plead guilty under seal.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/nine-...ecutives-indicted-racketeering-conspiracy-and

The Convicted Individuals and Corporations

The following individuals and corporations previously pleaded guilty under seal:

On July 15, 2013, the defendant Daryll Warner, son of defendant Jack Warner and a former FIFA development officer, waived indictment and pleaded guilty to a two-count information charging him with wire fraud and the structuring of financial transactions.

On Oct. 25, 2013, the defendant Daryan Warner waived indictment and pleaded guilty to a three-count information charging him with wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and the structuring of financial transactions. Daryan Warner forfeited over $1.1 million around the time of his plea and has agreed to pay a second forfeiture money judgment at the time of sentencing.

On Nov. 25, 2013, the defendant Charles Blazer, the former CONCACAF general secretary and a former FIFA executive committee member, waived indictment and pleaded guilty to a 10-count information charging him with racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, income tax evasion and failure to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR). Blazer forfeited over $1.9 million at the time of his plea and has agreed to pay a second amount to be determined at the time of sentencing.

On Dec. 12, 2014, the defendant José Hawilla, the owner and founder of the Traffic Group, the Brazilian sports marketing conglomerate, waived indictment and pleaded guilty to a four-count information charging him with racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Hawilla also agreed to forfeit over $151 million, $25 million of which was paid at the time of his plea.

On May 14, 2015, the defendants Traffic Sports USA Inc. and Traffic Sports International Inc. pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy.

José Hawilla is described as "co-conspirator #2", the founder of the Traffic Group that provided a large portion of the bribes referenced in the indictment. The company Traffic Group itself has also plead guilty already as well.

In other words the Feds should have pretty rock-solid evidence of who was paid what in all the charges involving payments from Traffic Group--a large % of the charges involve them.

 

[Alex Jones]

FIFA isnt a bank, people will proobably go to jail.

 

[cgf]

FIFA isnt a bank, people will proobably go to jail.

People may go to jail. But FIFA won't change.

 

[Chileiceman]

You can read through the indictment here: http://www.nationallawjournal.com/c...2615549854&curindex=0&slreturn=20150427141826

This has nothing to do with Qatar or Russia. it's all to do with Traffic, Torneos y Competencias, some sports marketing firm in New Jersey and Nike paying bribes to acquire media and sponsorship rights to CONMEBOL and CONCACAf reps, as well as a few national federation leaders. It also outlines the incident that gor Jack Warner kicked out.

Nicolas Leoz and dead Julio Grondona (co-conspiror #10) are such crooks. Leoz is especially disgusting. Every dollar earned by Traffic through media rights has been by bribing. It's unbelievable. What a black eye for CONMEBOL. Can't say I'm too shocked by the CONCACAF stuff, wouldn't expect anything less. Tiny federations with no oversight.