FIFA Arrests Made for Fraud

[silkyman]

Not sure where to put this really, but wow.

Six top FIFA officials arrested for fraud and racketeering.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32895057

 

[Womble98]

A start, a good one at that. I was reading, federal indictments by the US have something like an 80% success rate as they only pursue cases with a high chance of getting a sentence.


Also, the fact that the Swiss, yes, the Swiss who historically protected the Nazi's have decided to help the US viewing FIFA as too corrupt speaks volumes.

 

[Super_horns]

The beginning of the end?

Let's hope so - Qatar might start to get worried.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

They will probably all end up guys who were about to vote 'against' Blatter in this vote.

at least when Blatter gets his 90% approval vote we can all back him again.

 

[DarkSithLord]

The beginning of the end?

Let's hope so - Qatar might start to get worried.

I bloody hope so! But I have a nagging feeling that BigDave is right. It will be Sepp rounding up those who werent gonna vote for him?

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

I will only be happy once Fifa hold their own internal investigation with no one else allowed to check it all then give us the true facts to these arrests of course.

 

[rudebwoyben]

They will probably all end up guys who were about to vote 'against' Blatter in this vote.

at least when Blatter gets his 90% approval vote we can all back him again.

Nope, the arrested people are from the CONCACAF and COMNEBOL federations, which are all solidly pro-Blatter.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

that could be interesting then.

I do like how Blatter says its nothing against him yet keeps away from the US.

I thin alas its not enough to stop these 2 ridiculous world cups, but would be nice if them countries which failed could sue and get their millions back which was spent/wasted in trying to win a competition that was as such rigged from the start

 

[DarkSithLord]

Rob Harris ‏@RobHarris 11m11 minutes ago
Statement from Swiss authorities: They'll question "10 persons who took part in voting on the allocation of the 2018 & 2022 World Cup"

 

[rudebwoyben]

It sounds like the evidence under which the FIFA executives have been arrested was gathered by Chuck Blazer who turned informer for the FBI, so I don't think there'll be anything there that will incriminate those two World Cup finals. He had a microphone and a recorder concealed within a brooch.
The best news is that the utterly loathsome Jack Warner is one of those arrested.

 

[rudebwoyben]

Rob Harris ‏@RobHarris 11m11 minutes ago
Statement from Swiss authorities: They'll question "10 persons who took part in voting on the allocation of the 2018 & 2022 World Cup"

Interesting, maybe this investigation will roll up other trails of corruption and skulduggery.

 

[DarkSithLord]

Link to Live Fifa News Conference - http://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/news...609064.html?intcmp=fifacom_hp_module_news_top

 

[rudebwoyben]

And now the Swiss authorities are going to look into the process by which the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals were awarded.

I'm going to get the popcorn out.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

Fifa have come out to say the 2 world cups will go ahead as planned.

Russian Tv has come out to say this is just a US political swipe at Russia trying to Use sport to hurt them.

shall be interesting anyway.

the thing I find sad is its bloody clear that the world cups now are corrupt and bought ont he sly, but the only reason press and police are now involved was Fifa took too big a gamble on Qatar and it just blatently stood out.

but people and especially our English Fa were quite happy to allow it to happen as long as the right types of countries got the competition anyway, we could have used mass backhanders and all kinds of tricks for the world cup, but had we got it we'd all accepted it as fine.

whole bloody lot top to bottom is a disease

 

[George Reilly's Hairpiece]

It sounds like the evidence under which the FIFA executives have been arrested was gathered by Chuck Blazer who turned informer for the FBI, so I don't think there'll be anything there that will incriminate those two World Cup finals. He had a microphone and a recorder concealed within a brooch.
The best news is that the utterly loathsome Jack Warner is one of those arrested.

I'd pretty much resigned myself to the fact that FIFA were the untouchables. I suppose it was going to take someone senior from the inside to give a way in to make that kind of action possible.

Can Blatter ride even this kind of storm out or will he go down in a Blazer Glory?

 

[Pliny Harris]

Really hope the charges extend to all the construction deaths.

The corruption is horrible and on such a huge scale which inevitably led to them happening, but some direct justice for those working in woeful conditions is top of my list.

 

[rudebwoyben]

I think we have to take our hats off to some of our press, who have campaigned for a long time about this and are now being vindicated.
This has been a long-going operation by the FBI, but I hadn't heard much recently. It seems like they now think they have sufficient evidence to make that strike and arrest the FIFA executives concerned.

 

[rudebwoyben]

It's hilarious how FIFA are trying to spin this as a good day for them and that they welcome the arrests..
"Fifa welcomes actions that can help contribute to rooting out any wrongdoing in football ... We are pleased to see that the investigation is being energetically pursued for the good of football and believe that it will help to reinforce measures that Fifa has already taken."

Does that mean that they set up this meeting so that it would be easier for the Swiss authorities to arrest them all in one fell swoop?

 

[George Reilly's Hairpiece]

"I didn't know their hands were in the cookie jar" said Mr Blatter as he absent mindedly, and co-incidentally, wiped some crumbs off his tie.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

What I still do not understand is how can the FBI somehow find something when of course that in-depth full blown internal investigation Fifa did found everyone was completely clean.....well apart from the FA of course.

its as if the FBI is somehow suggesting they may have been telling some porkies on that report...........clearly cannot be!

 

[rudebwoyben]

The FBI~ had arrested Chuck Blazer for corruption a while ago. In return for a lighter sentence, he had agreed to turn informer on FIFA. That's where they've got their evidence from.
Chuck Blazer had an apartment in New York that was solely for his cats!

 

[DarkSithLord]

FBI agents are raiding @CONCACAF HQ in Miami now: @AP latest: http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/soccer-world-shocked-fifa-raids-31328846…

 

[TheWednesday]

Hopefully the beginning of the end for the corruption within FIFA, sadly though I can't see it and wouldn't be surprised if there's something shady about the arrests themselves. Just shows how much corruption there is when a man like Sepp Blatter pisses the votes every time despite being despised by most.

 

[Son of Cod]

Worth pointing out how this has happened in the same week social media sites have picked up on how a lot of the multi national sponsors of the Qatar World Cup have been subject to a range of online guerrilla graphics denouncing their involvement. Probably just a coincidence, but interesting nevertheless.

 

[rudebwoyben]

The US Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, is giving a press conference about the FBI investigation and the arrests. Pretty damning stuff: Lynch says Fifa officials used their positions of trust within their respective organizations to solicit bribes from sports marketers: “They did this over and over. Year after year. Tournament after tournament.”

 

[rudebwoyben]

Richard Weber, chief of the IRS criminal investigation, now at the dais.
“This really is the World Cup of fraud,” he says, “and today we are issuing Fifa a red card.”

 

[rudebwoyben]

The only problem I have with all of this is that now in addition to claiming that they won the Second World War single-handedly and made the
World free, the USA will now be able to claim that they've saved World Football...
Otherwise, it's been a beautiful and momentous day for football fans all over the World. Even if Blatter has not as yet been implicated in this, this is surely a sign that his reign has been compromised.
I'm just surprised more people haven't commented on this thread.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

The biggest bit of this entire thing for me was the lines...

took bribes for the 2011 Presidential Election.

Now how on earth they can actually have a vote to re-appoint Blatter on that news.

 

[DarkSithLord]

"New development here in Zurich ... Swiss justice ministry says 6 of the 7 arrested in FIFA probe oppose extradition to US."

 

[rudebwoyben]

No shit Sherlock!