FIFA Bureaucrats Arrested, to be extradited to US

The technical report was about infrastructure. The idiot that voted for us was if I remember correctly the Australian delegate.

 

I thought there wasn't a shred of evidence! You're tying yourself up in knots here, sunshine.

 

Newspapers like the ST don't just make things up. If they reported on it, they had a good reason to think it was true. In most cases, this means they have a source who was happy to give info, but didn't want to be named and who would have denied comments attributed to them if named against their wishes.

You don't make allegations of corruption against an organisation as large as FIFA without some level of proof. It's a great way to be put out of business.

The ST clearly had something that triggered their article and now that FIFA is unraveling, they're wholly vindicated (as is the BBC).

Making the allegations right before the vote made no difference. FIFA is a corrupt organisation. That is now beyond dispute. As a result, we'd have lost anyway because the vote was fixed from the start.

 

I thought John Higgins was particularly hard done by. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't he and his 'agent' get approached, didn't pick up on the offer and it was all reported a bit later. Entrapment may be fine if the target goes for the bait beyond any doubt. But not if he doesn't.

 

I hadn't realised until today that Blatter cannot be extradited from Switzerland as he is a Swiss citizen and citizens cannot be extradited from Switzerland. So my dream of him being arrested on a U.S. extradition request when he comes here to Canada for Womens' World Cup (if he still plans on coming) may become a reality.

 

Looks to be the case, indeed. That's too bad...

So what is Sepp Blatter's legacy?
So many smaller African and Asian nations feel he was instrumental in starting the game up in the less developed world. But it seems to me the only thing he set up was a way to secure votes in the general congress by buying them.

What did he really truly accomplish that was positive for global football?

 

It's all well and good taking the World Cup to less developed countries, but considering the stadia sit there rotting after the event, you have to question what Blatter has accomplished outside of saddling debt on countries that can ill afford it.

 

Arakel the ST were offering bribes to see who took the bait ... it may be newsworthy but isn't reporting in my book ... No I don't think anyone really believed the voting was ever a fair and transparent process but nor is the way we elect governments either IMO.

Once again I'll say the World Cup committee only turned against us after the ST went to press and exactly when Blatter publicly denounced us as troublemakers. Previously he was practically cooing about our bid compared to Russia's or at least that's the impression I got from the likes of Franz Beckenbaur and German television in general, also Platini had seemed impressed with us ... I can't speak for the other federations obviously but you can't deny that they tend to follow Blatter whatever.

How was the vote fixed from the start? So far the FBI haven't said Russia was bribing anyone although I'm sure they'd love to - I am guessing that if there was rigging it didn't start till after the ST report and it will probably lead back to Fifa's head office and not Moscow.

 

I was simply thinking of two recent media investigations off the top of my head.

 

Where do you think they got the idea from?

Someone told them what was going on, they decided to test the water.

It's not like a publication with limited resources just rolled out of bed one day and said "you know what, I've had an idea...".

You have no way of knowing that.

....because people took bribes?

Qatar clearly did it.

South Africa have been implicated in it.

Russia is a very corrupt nation. Anyone who thinks they'd fight a bid entirely above board when FIFA was known to be corrupt as hell is delusional.

It'll all come out soon.

Furthermore, you just said "I don't think anyone really believed the voting was ever a fair and transparent process", so make your mind up.

 

No one told them as far as I'm aware. It's a while back but I think there's others that didn't take the bait ... it was a fishing trip and yes they all do it if the prize is big enough.

I have no way of knowing that but nor do you ... Let's just say that that's how it appears to me, Blatter wasn't raging about us before the scandal, he was apoplectic afterwards.

You cannot possibly connect events that happen in the future. If there was evidence that Russia were bribing I think we'd have heard about it by now as we already have about South Africa. If there was actually rigging then I suspect it stems from Fifa's head office themselves ... BTW if you think these delegates are all so corruptible then who's to say that ours weren't at it too?

It's not fair and transparent because it is in no way proportional and it seems that if you don't vote for Blatter you get left out in the cold. Also there is no or not enough safeguards against corruption.

 

You do realise the Swiss are now investigating both the 2018 and 2022 bidding processes on the back of the FBI's investigation, right? There's a reason for that, given that the Yanks are cheerfully toasting high ranking FIFA execs over an open flame.

What if they were? No one is arguing for special treatment here so this point is completely irrelevant.

 

Of course I realise and so they should, for one thing IMO there's no way Qatar won that bid fairly. The Russian bid we'll never know until the investigation is over, it was a lot more credible than that of the Arabs.

Bribing one or two federations doesn't win you the prize, the big key to it was getting Blatter on board. He might have had his favourite, he might have been neutral but as sure as apples is apples once the ST published then any chance we had just disappeared in smoke.

 

It was reported that the russians destroyed their computers after the bid.

 

When they were asked for the computers a while back their excuse was they were borrowed and they no longer have them. They also said they have no records from the bid. And they expect people just to accept that as gospel.

 

Blazer now saying they took bribes for the 2010 World Cup AND the 1998 World Cup in France.

 

So did my ex-employers when they upgraded their systems .. in fact so have I with dead hard drives, I really don't need my bank details out their for just anyone to use.

 

Not with all data as well though.

 

If their bid was bent I reckon the FBI won't need the Russian computers, Fifa will have it all and they don't seem too security concious.

 

A lot of it will have gone, they had specialist engineering programmes that weren't compatible.

 

Seems odd but the if historical data isn't still needed then so be it. A bid for the World Cup is a bit different though.

 

I'm really not surprised, it's how half the world works - especially back then. They were probably taking bribes from France's opponents too.

 

Not strange at all really ... it took them months of redrawing still needed bridge details to the new format and if they had copied the lot they'd still be there now. Back then software companies guarded source code with their lives including the data produced with it but I imagine newer systems all use standard user data formats nowadays.

 

Why would they still need the records?

 

Amazing. Godfather's stubborn bloodymindedness fuelling nearly an entire thread.

 

Eh? ... I proved my point ages ago - this now is just wider discussion

 

Lollers.

 

Really?

 

Yes really?

 

Hang on, I'll find some crayons.

 

They don't need those records for tax reasons, they don't even need to prove they were completely above board, it would by down to others to prove they weren't

They are a communist country and the last thing they want is the NSA snooping around their government department's computers regardless of what they might find. Of course they probably still have the records but they won't give them up on America's say so, ever. They won't even acknowledge them and wouldn't unless it actually suits themselves to do so ... But that's just true to form, it's their way and no matter how you see it, it doesn't automatically make them guilty.

 

If FIFA even survive all of this it's got to change the one country one vote in order to prevent the previous scenarios. I've no wish to alienate African, Asian or Caribbean/Central/South American countries but this one vote was all that was needed to keep Blatter in power all this time.

Not sure what way would be better or fairer....population alone won't work. The USA, not even a footballing country would be too well represented.

Ideas on how best to reform?

 

Countries ranked by how many of them have the best league in the world live on Sky Sports 1 HD.

 

This is hilarious. You say you have proved your point from your keyboard? Yet you bloody-mindedly refuse to accept the wealth of circumstantial and hard evidence from everyone else that points to widespread bribe fuelled World Cup bids.

I don't know what world you live in GF, but I am full of admiration for your missus who must have to put up with it all and every day.

:sign15:

I'm off for a game of golf.

 

If it isn't a senatorial one country/one vote, and it certainly oughtn't be a House of Representatives style population based vote system. It shouldn't be market size as measured in euros/pounds/dollars, either. Can you adequately quantify player participation in a useful way for this purpose? That would give an incentive to develop the game better in each nation...just thinking out loud.

Haha...Does old brokedown Jay Demerit still have Wayne Rooney in his pocket from the 1-1 draw in the 2010 World Cup?