The Official Football Thread

[KiraYamatoFan]

Now, this could get big, people:

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

Spoiler for big read:

ZURICH — Swiss authorities began an extraordinary early-morning operation here Wednesday to arrest several top soccer officials and extradite them to the United States on federal corruption charges.

As leaders of FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, gathered for their annual meeting, Swiss law enforcement officials arrived unannounced at the Baur au Lac hotel, an elegant five-star property with views of the Alps and Lake Zurich. The arrests were made at the request of the United States Justice Department, which brought charges in the Eastern District of New York, based in Brooklyn, according to law enforcement officials.

Prosecutors planned to unseal an indictment soon against more than 10 officials, not all of whom are in Zurich, three law enforcement officials said. The charges include wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering.

The arrests were a startling blow to FIFA, a multibillion-dollar organization that governs the world’s most popular sport but has been plagued by accusations of bribery for decades.

The inquiry is also a major threat to Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s longtime president who is generally recognized as the most powerful person in sports, though law enforcement officials said he was not charged. An election, seemingly pre-ordained to give him a fifth term as president, is scheduled for Friday.

The case is the most significant yet for United States Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, who took office last month. She previously served as the United States attorney in Brooklyn, where she supervised the FIFA investigation.

With more than $1.5 billion in reserves, FIFA is as much a global financial conglomerate as a sports organization. With countries around the world competing aggressively to win the bid to host the World Cup, Mr. Blatter has commanded the fealty of anyone who wanted a piece of that revenue stream. He and FIFA have weathered corruption controversies in the past, but none involved charges of federal crimes in a United States court.

United States law gives the Justice Department wide authority to bring cases against foreign nationals living abroad, an authority that prosecutors have used repeatedly in international terrorism cases. Those cases can hinge on the slightest connection to the United States, like the use of an American bank or Internet service provider.

Switzerland’s treaty with the United States is unusual in that it gives Swiss authorities the power to refuse extradition for tax crimes, but on matters of general criminal law, the Swiss have agreed to turn people over for prosecution in American courts.

The case further mars the reputation of FIFA’s leader, Mr. Blatter, who has for years acted as a de facto head of state. Politicians, star players, national soccer officials and global corporations that want their brands attached to the sport have long genuflected before him.

Critics of FIFA point to the lack of transparency regarding executive salaries and resource allocations for an organization that, by its own admission, had revenue of $5.7 billion from 2011 to 2014. Policy decisions are also often taken without debate or explanation, and a small group of officials — known as the executive committee — operates with outsize power. FIFA has for years operated with little oversight and even less transparency. Alexandra Wrage, a governance consultant who once unsuccessfully attempted to help overhaul FIFA’s methods, famously labeled the organization "byzantine and impenetrable."

Law enforcement officials said much of the inquiry involves Concacaf, one of the six regional confederations that compose FIFA. Concacaf — which stands for Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football — includes major countries like the United States and Mexico, and also tiny ones like Barbados and Montserrat.

Concacaf was led from 1990 to 2011 by Mr. Warner, the longtime head of Trinidad & Tobago’s federation. A key powerbroker in FIFA’s governing executive committee, Mr. Warner had been dogged by accusations of corruption. He was accused of illegally profiting from the resale of tickets to the 2006 World Cup, and of withholding the bonuses of the Trinidad players who participated in that tournament.

Mr. Warner resigned his positions in FIFA, Concacaf and his national association in 2011 amid mounting evidence that he had been part of an attempt to buy the votes of Caribbean federation officials in the 2010 FIFA presidential election. A 2013 Concacaf report also found that he had received tens of millions of dollars in misappropriated funds.

But according to the rules of FIFA at the time, Mr. Warner’s resignation led to the immediate closure of all ethics committee cases against him. “The presumption of innocence is maintained,” FIFA said in a short statement announcing his departure.

No recent incident better encapsulated FIFA’s unusual power dynamic than the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments, which many observers found to be flawed from the start: the decision to award two tournaments at once, critics said, would invite vote-trading and other inducements.

Since only the 24 members of the executive committee would decide on the hosts, persuading even a few of them might be enough to swing the vote. Even before the vote took place, two committee members — Amos Adamu of Nigeria and Reynald Temarii of Tahiti — were suspended after an investigation by The Sunday Times caught both men on tape asking for payments in exchange for their support. It was later revealed by England’s bid chief that four ExCo members had solicited bribes from him for their votes; one asked for $2.5 million, while another, Nicolas Leoz of Paraguay, requested a knighthood.

As new accounts of bribery continued to emerge — a whistleblower who worked for the Qatar bid team claimed that several African officials were paid $1.5 million each to support Qatar — FIFA in 2012 started an investigation of the bid process. It was led by a former United States attorney, Michael J. Garcia, who spent nearly two years compiling a report. That report, however, has never been made public; instead, the top judge on the ethics committee, the German Joachim Eckert, released a summary of the report. In it, he declared that while violations of the code of ethics had occurred, they had not affected the integrity of the vote.

Within hours, Garcia had criticised Eckert’s summary as incorrect and incomplete, charging that it contained “numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts.” Nonetheless, FIFA moved quickly to embrace the report’s absolution of the bid process. Qatar World Cup officials said the review had upheld “the integrity and quality of our bid,” And Russia’s sports minister, Vitaly Mutko, told reporters, “I hope we will not have talk about this again.”

Take down the FIFA bastards, boys! Hopefully, they will also get the snake's head as well. It it was for me, the 2022 World Cup should be stripped away from Qatar so a new bid takes place.

[Terrestrial Dream]

What a great news.
Apparently conviction rate for US federal indictment is quite high because of the process is very difficult to go through.

[germanturkey]

good. give 2022 to the US.

[SuitUp]

I love the irony of how the US gained jurisdiction of the case, by investigating bribes during the election of the venue for the 2016 Copa América, wich they were awarded
Also, Blatter doesn't seem fazed at all and actually wants to continue with the elections, when even UEFA has condenmend the FIFA as corrupt on a press release...

[Azuma Denton]

2022 supposed to be held in any Asia country.
I say we give it to China...

[Terrestrial Dream]

I would prefer Australia if we are picking a AFC nation.

[KiraYamatoFan]

Originally Posted by Terrestrial Dream

I would prefer Australia if we are picking a AFC nation.

That 2022 World Cup was clearly destined to Australia if the purpose was to find a brand new market with a genuinely growing interest in football as a sport. And besides, Australia has minimal risk for shit stuff (human right violations, crazy politics, etc.) happening. Back to the time the bids were going on, experts and evaluating committees said that England (2018) and Australia (2022) would be the best choices and I still stand by their position today.

[Azuma Denton]

We are supposed to be excited on rumours about player transfer like every other years, but instead here we are getting news about FIFA corruption (finally someone take an action).

Anyway to anyone confused about the recent incident, this video best describe what happened...

YouTube

https://youtu.be/DlJEt2KU33I

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

[SuitUp]

Ha, tomorrow italian media are running a history about how FIFA instructed refs to let Korea advance in the 2002 WC... That was hardly a secret but the fact that they're running it now means they have some new evidence or something

[Blaat]

^ They're still bitter about that?

[hawkeyesvn]

Originally Posted by Blaat

^ They're still bitter about that?

A lot of people are still bitter about that! Especially when your Korean neighbor love to brag about how awesome his national team did in 2002 WC every time you meet him -.-.

[Terrestrial Dream]

Originally Posted by SuitUp

Ha, tomorrow italian media are running a history about how FIFA instructed refs to let Korea advance in the 2002 WC... That was hardly a secret but the fact that they're running it now means they have some new evidence or something

Did FIFA paid Vieri to miss the open goal as well?

The ref favored Korea, no question, but this is getting way blown out of portion. This is an example of a youtube video, with selective clips and ominous music, can do.

[germanturkey]

pretty routine for arsenal. dominant performance.

[Irenicus]

Watched the FA Cup Final from the local English pub. It was Gunner city in there.

Cheered Theo's name 'til my voice was hoarse when he scored. Slapped hands with random dudes after the Alexis beauty. Had a guy in a Tottenham shirt take it off and it down the ground after the third goal with Mertesacker. Good times.

The team played like they were trying to humiliate Barcelona. Wengerball perfection. Le Boss got everything right. Tactics Tim didn't stand a chance.

WE ARE KINGS OF THE FA CUP AND I FEEL FINE

[Nerroth]

The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup is set to kick off here in Canada next week, and the turf surface at BC Place (where the final will be hosted) was recently upgraded for the event:

Still not quite the same as having a natural grass or hybrid surface on there, but hopefully that might be easier to push as an option in Vancouver if the TFC/Argo thing ends up working out in Toronto.

[Irenicus]

Absolutely extraordinary game for the Champions League final. Two brilliant teams going at it.

Barcelona was dominant for much of the game, pressed all over the pitch when they lost the ball, pushed all out forward when on offense (when three out of five advancing players are the MSN...), and very effective at possession, often leading Juve around the nose. When Juve had a strong period in the second half, Mascherano did excellently to keep them off.

Juventus was often on the back foot, but fought for every ball, to the very last second. The Vidal-Pogba duo battled everywhere, Tevez was extraordinary at ball control, and Marchisio was absolutely magnificent and his moment of genius allowed Morata to equalize.

What a game in a time of Football in Crisis™.

[KiraYamatoFan]

Watching Pirlo's sad face at the end of the match was heart-wrenching. It felt like he aged 10 years older within minutes or seconds.

[risingstar3110]

To be fair, Barcelona was quite clear favourite to win today. And Juventus put up quite a good contest thank to Buffon and Pirlo. So they should be proud.

[germanturkey]

this was the expected outcome. can't be too surprised by it. that said, i was going for juve this time around. since i just don't like barca..

[Azuma Denton]

Congratz Xavi for winning the treble in his last year with Barca.
Congratz too to Vermaelen for winning the treble in just one game appearance...