FIFA arrests (now with improved Blatter/Platini bans!)

[Camicon]

And beautifully timed (really, a satirist couldn't make this up), the new film United Passions - starring Tim Roth as our hero Sepp Blatter - has now been released and reviewed.

To the surprise of just about no one, it seems to be truly dire.

"Two hours of wretched, self-congratulatury Fifa history is disastrous cinema, but valuable proof of corporate insanity"

Are we sure that Sepp Blatter isn't secretly Dr Evil? This seems like something Dr Evil would do.

[The Archregimancy]

So is that their Triumph of the Will, if you forgive the analogy?

More likely their Battlefield Earth, I would think; especially given the extent to which the very existence of the film discredits the worldview of the people stumping up the cash.

[Ifreann]

Football: Bringing people together.

Including you lovely Irish people:

Some intriguing news coming out of Ireland now. John Delaney, the chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland, has apparently been on Irish radio revealing that his organisation received five million euros from Fifa in 2009 in the wake of Thierry Henry’s infamous handball to avoid any legal action. Daniel O’Donnell of the Irish Independent writes on Twitter …

John Delaney confirms that FIFA paid FAI €5 million in 2009 after the Thierry Henry handball so they wouldn't proceed with a legal case.

Same Guardian feed as before (though the most recent story as of this typing)

And only €5 million.

[New Skaaneland]

I don't think anal will be the hole but the analogy is "fuck off"

[The Archregimancy]

And only €5 million.

You sold yourselves short; other Associations wouldn't have settled for less than €50.


Meanwhile, the Village Voice reviews United Passions:

As propaganda, United Passions is as subtle as an anvil to the temple. As drama, it’s not merely ham-fisted, but pork-shouldered, bacon-wristed, and sausage-elbowed. The script is essentially a press release with speaking parts and exposition. The “action” is a dulling catalog of frictionless, uninteresting administrative scenarios captured with blandly glossy photography and slathered in a syrupy orchestral score.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2015-06-03/ ... ifa-movie/

Do you think they liked it?

[Tsaraine]

Man, United Passions could not have come out at a worse time. It was always destined to be an illustration of FIFA's attempts to polish a turd, but now it gets to be an ironic object lesson about hubris too. It seems that film reviewers are really enjoying trying out new bon mots upon its still-warm corpse.

[The Matthew Islands]

Warner saying he will reveal all is the reason they arrested them when they did. By getting them all at the same time, as opposed to piecemeal, they will all be desperate to throw everyone and their mothers under the bus in exchange for some sort of deal.

[Chestaan]

Including you lovely Irish people:



Same Guardian feed as before (though the most recent story as of this typing)

And only €5 million.

I love how Delaney was acting all high and mighty about Blatter and declaring that there needed to be a new president, then its revealed that he is part of a deal which is dodgy at best. Such a hypocrite, but no surprise.

[Laerod]

And only €5 million.

I love how Delaney was acting all high and mighty about Blatter and declaring that there needed to be a new president, then its revealed that he is part of a deal which is dodgy at best. Such a hypocrite, but no surprise.

It's unlikely any major soccer association is going to be clean. I'm looking forward to what will come to light about the World Cup in Germany in 2006. Given there's evidence of bribery in '98 and the stunt a German satirical magazine played that involved "bribing" FIFA officials with German cuckoo clocks... I won't be surprised if anything gets dug up on Beckenbauer either, not after his support for Qatar. Speaking of which, Platini, head of UEFA, also pushed them rather heavily.

It's looking like the hydra's been somewhat decapitated, but there's a bunch more ugly heads waiting to grow.

[Eastfield Lodge]

I love how Delaney was acting all high and mighty about Blatter and declaring that there needed to be a new president, then its revealed that he is part of a deal which is dodgy at best. Such a hypocrite, but no surprise.

It's unlikely any major soccer association is going to be clean. I'm looking forward to what will come to light about the World Cup in Germany in 2006. Given there's evidence of bribery in '98 and the stunt a German satirical magazine played that involved "bribing" FIFA officials with German cuckoo clocks... I won't be surprised if anything gets dug up on Beckenbauer either, not after his support for Qatar. Speaking of which, Platini, head of UEFA, also pushed them rather heavily.

It's looking like the hydra's been somewhat decapitated, but there's a bunch more ugly heads waiting to grow.

So when will the fire be applied?

[Reploid Productions]

Football: Bringing people together.

It's like the John Oliver clip I linked said: if the 'Muricans can press the investigation and find something to nail Blatter on (which seems, to this very casual observer, increasingly inevitable,) it will do untold amounts of good for international opinions of the US.

[Laerod]

It's unlikely any major soccer association is going to be clean. I'm looking forward to what will come to light about the World Cup in Germany in 2006. Given there's evidence of bribery in '98 and the stunt a German satirical magazine played that involved "bribing" FIFA officials with German cuckoo clocks... I won't be surprised if anything gets dug up on Beckenbauer either, not after his support for Qatar. Speaking of which, Platini, head of UEFA, also pushed them rather heavily.

It's looking like the hydra's been somewhat decapitated, but there's a bunch more ugly heads waiting to grow.

So when will the fire be applied?

Where's the street-wise Hercules to fight the rising odds?

[New Skaaneland]

I won't be surprised if anything gets dug up on Beckenbauer either, not after his support for Qatar. Speaking of which, Platini, head of UEFA, also pushed them rather heavily.

I'm almost positive that Platini is the worst crook of them all. I remember HIF playing away against Hannover and receiving two red cards in a crucial part of the game. The referee basically took the wrong guy and then decided to send them both off instead of regretting his mistake. Platini moved in as a head of UEFA and praised the ref's unqestionable performance.

[Laerod]

I won't be surprised if anything gets dug up on Beckenbauer either, not after his support for Qatar. Speaking of which, Platini, head of UEFA, also pushed them rather heavily.

I'm almost positive that Platini is the worst crook of them all. I remember HIF playing away against Hannover and receiving two red cards in a crucial part of the game. The referee basically took the wrong guy and then decided to send them both off instead of regretting his mistake. Platini moved in as a head of UEFA and praised the ref's unqestionable performance.

That is arguably not a very good reason to assume that Platini took money to secure votes for tournaments.

[New Skaaneland]

No, but it is a reason to hate him for the rest of my life.

[Gauthier]

Now if this was a decently scripted thriller, Jack Warner will turn up dead in the next few weeks or so just before his supposed avalanche starts tumbling.

[Vassenor]

No, but it is a reason to hate him for the rest of my life.

Seems pretty petty to me.

[Braunsia]

Jack Warner......replacing Michael Jackson as Wacko Jacko

[Hydesland]

FAI statement.

[Maineiacs]

Isn't he the one who thought the recent Onion article about FIFA granting the U.S. an extra World Cup competition to placate us was real?

So what you're saying is that because he was grasping at straws out of desperation everything he says is wrong?

I was saying nothing of the sort. I was merely asking a question because I was unaware that I was not allowed to do so without your approval.

[Shofercia]

Did you miss the recent World Cup held in Brazil? In the first game, the ref had to fake a penalty for Brazil to get them the win. In the last game they were humiliated. In between they barely won with ref support.

It's a шутка, Shofercia; you're not supposed to take it seriously.

I thought that you were seriously threatened by Brazil's national team, since I presume that you're rooting for England. Perhaps I was wrong in my presumption, and you are not rooting for a шутка. If so, my mistake.

As surprising as it is, I completely agree with you on this point. Even amongst the final four candidates, the choices were amazingly poor. FIFA really needs to do a better job during the nomination process, because the final quartet was...




It's not just about the money. It's also about the fanbase and potential fanbase. Russia has roughly 20% of current and potential European fan base. Can Europe survive without Russian teams? Yes. Can Europe continue to remain a dominant league after Asia develops in 2/3 decades without Russia? That's a much more complicated question.




I mentioned his education to show potential bias, not to talk about his qualifications. And yes, originally he was AFC's VP, but AFC didn't want him as FIFA's leader, that much was clear. And yes, there were calls, so why not timely answer said calls, instead of waiting for the week of the election?




Blatter has been the head of FIFA for 16 years. Usually when your president for 16 years, people might call you corrupt, but inexperienced is simply not the first, or second, or last word that comes to mind.

Forum coding on a phone is so difficult to use...

1: I'd argue that the European leauges have nothing to fear regarding their dominance. I'd argue that there is likely more Man United fans in Russia than there are CSKA Moscow fans.

Hell, even is south east Asia it's known that Man U have a large well established fan base already set up.

The European leauge (especially the premiere leauge) already have a firm dominance globally both financially and in terms of supporters. I can't see Russia leaving UEFA having any effect at all because I would argue Russia gets more out of UEFA (the chance to bring publicity and revenue into Russia by competing with the biggest clubs in the world) than UEFA gets from Russia.

Also, IIRC there was a prompt investigation into the world cup bids, and the person who wrote the report claimed FIFA had run a whitewash and that the Russians had conveniently had all the data from the computers they used wiped when they returned them to the company they hired them from.

They did all the arrests before the election because they knew that they would be in Zurich at the same time and this gives the authorities the best chances of getting evidence by trying to get them all to throw each other under the bus.

Personally, I think that to argue that there are more Man U fans in Russia than CSKA fans, is insanity, but since neither one of us have statistics on hand...

Furthermore, I wasn't talking about the immediate effects. I was talking about long term planning that could take up to three decades. If Russia and China develop as good an infrastructure and England and Spain currently have, then, judging by the population difference, Russia and China will dominate England. Unless you want to argue that Englishmen are just that much superior in soccer by ethnicity. Regarding the prompt investigation - ha, ha, ha. Was there a prompt investigation into the German bid, the one where OFC's voter was instructed to vote for South Africa and opted to abstain? Not particularly. But when it's a non Western European countries, (or the US,) that's when corruption starts to magically matter. As for them throwing each other under the bus - here's the thing, they could've waited until after the election. The arrests were made in a manner that might influence the election.


Anyways, regarding the whole FIFA Scandals. Guys - newsflash - FIFA's always been corrupt. Here's a Grantland article on it: http://grantland.com/the-triangle/fifa- ... r-platini/

If there’s a silver lining for long-suffering fans of backstage FIFA infighting, it’s that fate has finally given Blatter an enemy worthy of him — not an enemy with a chance to win, because that’s not in the math here, but one who’s at least got some moves. I’m not talking about any of Blatter’s three sacrificial opponents in May’s election. I’m talking about the glum-faced French civil servant who’s using them as puppet candidates in an attempt to weaken Blatter’s position — the ex-great midfielder and current president of UEFA, Michel Platini.I apologize in advance if bureaucratic procedural maneuvering is not your jam; still, though, this is pretty elegant. The one cool thing about Blatter and Havelange’s buy-off-small-countries strategy of FIFA stewardship was that it effectively disenfranchised the big European powers that had run FIFA as a kind of colonialist old-boy’s club since time immemorial. This was something that needed to happen; the new wave might have replaced exclusionary elitism with an exploitative pseudo-populism that ultimately proved far more destructive, but it was still funny to see, say, England react to having no say in the game.4 The frustrated European old guard has served as a fairly steady protest bloc against Blatter over the years. But it hasn’t been able to put together the votes to force him out.

Platini wants to change that. He’s been quietly jockeying for power against Blatter for years; if he’s not necessarily a preferable alternative — he’s widely seen as more responsible for the Qatar debacle than Blatter is — he’s at least an alternative, and he has played a shrewd and unflappable long game. When he decided not to run against Blatter this year, it briefly looked as though Sepp would enjoy a second straight unopposed reelection. Not so fast! Platini decided not to run himself. But behind the scenes, he started arranging election bids for other candidates: Michael van Praag, the former Ajax chairman and current head of the Dutch FA, and a longtime critic of Blatter. Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, a FIFA vice-president who is the son of the late king of Jordan. Most spectacularly, Luís Figo, the retired Portuguese winger who won the Ballon d’Or in 2000; Figo announced his entry into the campaign just 24 hours before the deadline, ensuring max press coverage due to the surprise. Platini didn’t openly acknowledge that he was pulling these candidates’ strings. But the signs were everywhere. To enter a FIFA presidential race, you have to have the backing of five member FAs. Someone invisibly arranged for each of the three candidates to have non-overlapping support. Someone got them to coordinate their messages: reform, credibility, how FIFA is perceived around the world. Would-be FIFA presidents who hadn’t made the five-vote cut started complaining in the press about a mysterious someone running “proxy candidates” to fight their battles for them.

It's not a battle of big countries vs small countries, as Jon Oliver idiotically implies. It's a battle for development funds and the prestige of holding a World Cup, since the World Cups produce a lot of revenue that go into development funds. We have two coalitions here. The first led by UEFA, (currently by Platini, who, btw, is even more responsible for Qatar than Blatter, according to Grantland,) and the second led by CAF-AFC, (leader yet to be decided, used to be Blatter,) with OFC, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL as potential swing votes. UEFA has several problems; first, they're not as united as CAF-AFC, and second, they're not as large. CAF-AFC can deliver 80/90 votes, and UEFA can manage 45/54. Add OFC - New Zealand into the mix, (that's 10,) and certain CONCACAF countries that need the funds desperately, (Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, etc,) and you get a comfortable number, CONMEBOL or not, although originally it was part of the coalition. So please guys, stop fucking pretending it's about corruption, or like Jon Oliver's stupid point, "if US gets Blatter, America will be loved all over the World". Yes, I can see it now, Russians, Chinese, Iraqis, Libyans, Iranians, Syrians, etc, are just lining up to kiss Lynch over getting Blatter; the procession will be led by UKIP. Ridiculous? Yes, but so is Oliver's jubilee, or the claim that it's all over corruption.

In fact, prior to the Havelange-Blatter coalition, prior to 1974, the leaders came from France, England or Belgium. That's it. Just three countries representing all of the World: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_FIFA

And from 1930 until 2010, every other World Cup was in a Western European or allied country, like Sweden or Switzerland. And oh boy, were deals in the making! Uruguay got the first World Cup, as an experiment. This was followed by Italy and France, and then WWII happened. Following WWII the World Cup was held in Brazil, Switzerland, Sweden, Chile, England, Mexico, West Germany, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, Italy, United States, France, South Korea/Japan and Germany. Although we shouldn't forget that South Africa could've won the 2006 World Cup in Germany, had the voting been fair, but then the trend was broken. For three cups in a row it's BRICS hosting, and then Qatar. Ouch!

Speaking of being a poor sport, have you guys heard what Jordan, Prince Ali's home country is up to? http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Tensio ... ons-404828

Tensions between Jordan and the Palestinian Authority are mounting over the elections for the presidency of the International Federation of Football (FIFA). The Jordanians claim that Jibril Rajoub, Chairman of the Palestinian Football Association (PFA), did not vote for their candidate, Prince Ali, during FIFA’s 65th Congress last week in Zurich – a claim that Rajoub, who holds Jordanian citizenship, has strongly denied. The Jordanians insist that Rajoub had voted for Sepp Blatter, the current president of FIFA. Jordanian media outlets on Tuesday quoted an official source in Amman as saying that Rajoub has been declared persona non grata and banned from entering the kingdom.

Many Jordanians have also called on their government to revoke Rajoub’s Jordanian citizenship and ban him permanently from entering the kingdom. Despite the decision, Rajoub was permitted to cross into the West Bank on Monday after arriving at the Queen Alia International Airport from Tunisia, The Jordan Times reported. It said that as Rajoub arrived at the airport, authorities ordered him to return onboard the same plane, but mediators convinced the Jordanians to allow him to travel to the West Bank. On Tuesday, PA President Mahmoud Abbas visited Prince Ali at his home in Amman in a bid to ease tensions between the two sides. Abbas was accompanied by several senior Palestinian officials, including Majed Faraj, commander of the General Intelligence Force in the West Bank. Following the visit, Abbas was quoted as saying that “Jordan and Palestine are one people living in two states.” Abbas expressed hope that nothing would negatively impact this relationship. “The Jordanian people and government have always supported the Palestinian cause,” Abbas stressed. However, he did not say whether Rajoub had indeed voted for Blatter.

Interesting interpretation of free speech by some in Jordan, including, allegedly, the authorities there. "He voted against us, ban him!"

[Ifreann]

I'm almost positive that Platini is the worst crook of them all. I remember HIF playing away against Hannover and receiving two red cards in a crucial part of the game. The referee basically took the wrong guy and then decided to send them both off instead of regretting his mistake. Platini moved in as a head of UEFA and praised the ref's unqestionable performance.

That is arguably not a very good reason to assume that Platini took money to secure votes for tournaments.

You're talking to a person who thinks his team's rivals, Malmo FF, and their ultras are the ones who made the US authorities start investigating FIFA. Somehow.

[West Aurelia]

Just when you thought FIFA couldn't get any worse: Germany bribed Saudi Arabia with RPGs in its bid to host the 2006 World Cup. This is an extraordinary claim, but it's also FIFA. What do you guys think?

[Gauthier]

Just when you thought FIFA couldn't get any worse: Germany bribed Saudi Arabia with RPGs in its bid to host the 2006 World Cup. This is an extraordinary claim, but it's also FIFA. What do you guys think?

I didn't know there was demand for D&D in Riyadh.

[Seraven]

Just when you thought FIFA couldn't get any worse: Germany bribed Saudi Arabia with RPGs in its bid to host the 2006 World Cup. This is an extraordinary claim, but it's also FIFA. What do you guys think?

More to come later, I believe.

Maybe later China will bid 2026 World Cup and will gives nuclear missile to bribe.