Remember, Teixeira moved to Miami to avoid prosecution in Brazil. He's running out of places to hide.
Sepp Blatter resigns, FIFA ExCo members face extradition
- Thread starter ThePrideofShiner
- Start date
Loretta Lynch drops the hammer again at 1:30 ET: justice.gov/live-stream
I for one am looking forward to a couple of bad puns while she mean-moms FIFA. "Soccer's leaders have to learn that the whistle has blown on corruption!"
I for one am looking forward to a couple of bad puns while she mean-moms FIFA. "Soccer's leaders have to learn that the whistle has blown on corruption!"
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NYT Sports @NYTSports 26m26 minutes ago
Full list of new defendants in FIFA case (1): Alfredo Hawit; Ariel Alvarado; Rafael Callejas; Brayan Jiménez; Rafael Salguero...
NYT Sports @NYTSports 25m25 minutes ago
Full list of new defendants in FIFA case (2): Héctor Trujillo; Reynaldo Vasquez; Juan Ángel Napout; Manuel Burga; Carlos Chávez...
NYT Sports @NYTSports 24m24 minutes ago
Full list of defendants (3 of 3): Luís Chiriboga; Marco Polo del Nero; Eduardo Deluca; José Luis Meiszner; Romer Osuna; Ricardo Teixeira.
South & Central America, indeed....
NYT Sports @NYTSports 13m13 minutes ago
#FIFA indictment: "Defendants and co-conspirators involved in criminal schemes involving well over $200 million in bribes and kickbacks."
NYT Sports @NYTSports 21m21 minutes ago
FIFA indictment is 236 pages -- far bigger than the one in May.
Full list of new defendants in FIFA case (1): Alfredo Hawit; Ariel Alvarado; Rafael Callejas; Brayan Jiménez; Rafael Salguero...
NYT Sports @NYTSports 25m25 minutes ago
Full list of new defendants in FIFA case (2): Héctor Trujillo; Reynaldo Vasquez; Juan Ángel Napout; Manuel Burga; Carlos Chávez...
NYT Sports @NYTSports 24m24 minutes ago
Full list of defendants (3 of 3): Luís Chiriboga; Marco Polo del Nero; Eduardo Deluca; José Luis Meiszner; Romer Osuna; Ricardo Teixeira.
South & Central America, indeed....
NYT Sports @NYTSports 13m13 minutes ago
#FIFA indictment: "Defendants and co-conspirators involved in criminal schemes involving well over $200 million in bribes and kickbacks."
NYT Sports @NYTSports 21m21 minutes ago
FIFA indictment is 236 pages -- far bigger than the one in May.
I went over the list and this is what I could find:
Alfredo Hawit - president of CONCACAF
Ariel Alvarado - former president of Panama FA, former CONCACAF ExCo member
Rafael Callejas - president of Honduras FA; president of Honduras from 1990 to 1994
Brayan Jimenez - president of Guatemala FA
Rafael Salguero - FIFA ExCo (Guatemalan)
Hector Trujillo - secretary general of Guatemala FA
Reynaldo Vasquez - former president of El Salvador FA
Juan Angel Napout - president of CONMEBOL (Paraguayan)
Manuel Burga - former president of Peru FA
Carlos Chavez - president of Bolivia FA
Luis Chiriboga - president of Ecuador FA
Marco Polo del Nero - president of Brazil FA
Eduardo Deluca - former secretary general of CONMEBOL (Argentine)
Jose Luis Meiszner - secretary general of CONMEBOL (Argentine)
Romer Osuna - former president of Bolivia FA
Ricardo Teixeira - former president of Brazil FA
Alfredo Hawit - president of CONCACAF
Ariel Alvarado - former president of Panama FA, former CONCACAF ExCo member
Rafael Callejas - president of Honduras FA; president of Honduras from 1990 to 1994
Brayan Jimenez - president of Guatemala FA
Rafael Salguero - FIFA ExCo (Guatemalan)
Hector Trujillo - secretary general of Guatemala FA
Reynaldo Vasquez - former president of El Salvador FA
Juan Angel Napout - president of CONMEBOL (Paraguayan)
Manuel Burga - former president of Peru FA
Carlos Chavez - president of Bolivia FA
Luis Chiriboga - president of Ecuador FA
Marco Polo del Nero - president of Brazil FA
Eduardo Deluca - former secretary general of CONMEBOL (Argentine)
Jose Luis Meiszner - secretary general of CONMEBOL (Argentine)
Romer Osuna - former president of Bolivia FA
Ricardo Teixeira - former president of Brazil FA
"Eight additional defendants have agreed to plead guilty...five of them were not named in the original indictment."
"I have no direct response to Mr. Blatter, but let me just send him a quick fuck you potshot while I'm here."
FBI looking at Blatter for $100 million in bribes.
"The letter, apparently written by Havelange, talks about the payments he received from ISL. It says Blatter had "full knowledge of all activities" and was "always apprised" of them."
""I was told by two sources that have always been very reliable with good information, good intelligence, that the sum that Qatar had spent on their bid was £117m."
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/35007626
"The letter, apparently written by Havelange, talks about the payments he received from ISL. It says Blatter had "full knowledge of all activities" and was "always apprised" of them."
""I was told by two sources that have always been very reliable with good information, good intelligence, that the sum that Qatar had spent on their bid was £117m."
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/35007626
I initially read that as "payments he received from ISIL" and thought "yeah, that sounds about right."
Joke of the week. The IOC scolding FIFA about ethics.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-3354484/International-Olympic-Committee-fear-FIFA-criminal-investigations-affect-sport-organisations-five-years.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-3354484/International-Olympic-Committee-fear-FIFA-criminal-investigations-affect-sport-organisations-five-years.html
Especially since Blatter had been an IOC member for the last 16 years until this summer.
Investigation starts to creep towards American companies.
http://www.reuters.com/article/soccer-fifa-broadcasting-idUSKBN0TX06720151214#kDB0hyap4t7xbzw3.97
http://www.reuters.com/article/soccer-fifa-broadcasting-idUSKBN0TX06720151214#kDB0hyap4t7xbzw3.97
No way Fox is tied up in all this. Getting the rights to 2026 (possibly in the US) without any bidding was completely above board.
Prosecutor's may punish the banks involved. I think it's a bit of a stretch to blame the banks for not recognizing which deposits are legitimate or illegitimate when they all go to the same Caribbean accounts.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6595b09c-a02b-11e5-beba-5e33e2b79e46.html#axzz3uOomZS22
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6595b09c-a02b-11e5-beba-5e33e2b79e46.html#axzz3uOomZS22
The corruption goes all the way down as 80% of the countries refuse to disclose how FIFA money is used.. The US doesn't appear on the good or bad lists.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/fifa-corruption-80-football-associations-refuse-explain-where-they-spend-their-millions-1529521
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/fifa-corruption-80-football-associations-refuse-explain-where-they-spend-their-millions-1529521
It was a pay-off so that Fox wouldn't sue over a move of Qatar '22 to winter, I'm sure. While it seems a little unseemly, I'm not sure there's anything illegal about it.
This sounds more like the rest of FIFA's crooks deciding to cut them loose than arrests, but who knows.
both banned 8 years from soccer-related activities http://www.espnfc.com/blog-fifa/story/2765839/sepp-blatter-and-michel-platini-get-eight-year-fifa-bans
How significant is this decision? I'm giddy, but I'm tempering my excitement until I learn what are the implications of this decision.
Not as significant as we'd like it to be.
FIFA is jettisoning Blatter and Platini because they are too compromised to continue as part of the organization. The rest of FIFA hopes that if they can purge their organization of those in the public eye who are inseparably associated with FIFA's many indiscretions, eventually the spotlight will shift away from FIFA corruption and business can continue as usual.
Blatter and Platini are hardly the first crooks to rise to the top of worldwide soccer corruption and they won't be the last, either, if the underlying way in which FIFA is governed does not change. The only thing that separates Blatter from his predecessors (and likely, his successors) is that he allowed FIFA corruption to grow to such a great level that it finally spurred action from law enforcement. It's just a matter of degree.
I don't see much reason for real optimism yet. I fear that the best we can hope for is what we are seeing now -- the schadenfreude of watching these assholes get taken down. It's only whack-a-mole, though.
EDIT: Also, this is only a ban handed down by the FIFA Ethics Committee. Platini and Blatter will go to the CAS; I have no idea whether there's any likelihood their bans will be reduced.
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http://www.stltoday.com/sports/other/digest-fifa-announces-changes-for-rules-panel/article_410d72e4-160d-5444-bf90-c202eea4a718.html
This might actually work. I'm curious about this new governance panel of non-football people
Non-football people who will be elected at the FIFA Congress...by football people. This strikes me as a flaw.
All of this feels like window dressing. Still want to see the Garcia Report and see Hans Eckert fired into the sun, though I understand the former may be more complicated now given all the criminal issues being sorted out (as opposed to when it was "merely" an issue of internal FIFA ethics).
Valcke officially out as Sec. Gen.
As the article mentions, he has already been sacked before in '06 as Marketing Director so expect to see him back as FIFA president in a few years I guess.
As the article mentions, he has already been sacked before in '06 as Marketing Director so expect to see him back as FIFA president in a few years I guess.
Who is Gianni Infantino? Quite possibly the next FIFA president
The better answer to the question "Who is Gianni Infantino?" is actually "that bald guy who always does the draws for UEFA tournaments."
The better answer to the question "Who is Gianni Infantino?" is actually "that bald guy who always does the draws for UEFA tournaments."
Lengthy ESPN expose about how the FBI took down FIFA, with Chuck Blazer as the narrative-basis antihero. It being ESPN, despite all the facts being old news by several months, they term it an "Exclusive". It's definitely journalism, which is a rarity there. Some parts of the narrative are new to me, though, including:
- Blazer hung out at Elaine's, where he was commonly known to the cops and FBI agents who hung out there. One FBI agent he called when things got dicey started looking into things on the inside, and then got told to "stay away from Blazer", which she then did.
- Blazer is credited with inventing the Gold Cup, Confed Cup, and Club World Cup.
- Blazer started rigging the awarding of the World Cup with the '98 edition. He himself was apparently stunned by Qatar winning 2022, however.
- The FBI investigation started as an investigation into Eastern Europe organized crime, but really got going after anticipated match-fixing in the 2011 Gold Cup, particularly Cuba-Costa Rica.
- FIFA's real downfall was due to the misstep of hiring an honest ex-FBI agent as their head of security, Chris Eaton. After compiling his internal report on Bin Hammam's bribery efforts to get elected FIFA President in 2011, he handed over the entire file to the FBI, somewhat to spite his employers, all of whom he termed "filthy".
- After the IRS cooperated with the FBI and traced Blazer's transfers (and the fact that he hadn't, you know, even filed income taxes since 2005), they turned him in a come-to-jesus.
- The money pull quote is from Blatter, during an interview with Swiss law enforcement: "You people have no right to question my honor and integrity!"
There's also this infuriating scare-quote moment:
- Blazer hung out at Elaine's, where he was commonly known to the cops and FBI agents who hung out there. One FBI agent he called when things got dicey started looking into things on the inside, and then got told to "stay away from Blazer", which she then did.
- Blazer is credited with inventing the Gold Cup, Confed Cup, and Club World Cup.
- Blazer started rigging the awarding of the World Cup with the '98 edition. He himself was apparently stunned by Qatar winning 2022, however.
- The FBI investigation started as an investigation into Eastern Europe organized crime, but really got going after anticipated match-fixing in the 2011 Gold Cup, particularly Cuba-Costa Rica.
- FIFA's real downfall was due to the misstep of hiring an honest ex-FBI agent as their head of security, Chris Eaton. After compiling his internal report on Bin Hammam's bribery efforts to get elected FIFA President in 2011, he handed over the entire file to the FBI, somewhat to spite his employers, all of whom he termed "filthy".
- After the IRS cooperated with the FBI and traced Blazer's transfers (and the fact that he hadn't, you know, even filed income taxes since 2005), they turned him in a come-to-jesus.
- The money pull quote is from Blatter, during an interview with Swiss law enforcement: "You people have no right to question my honor and integrity!"
There's also this infuriating scare-quote moment:
But overall, a solid piece of work by ESPN's magazine team.
The USSF won't publicly endorse any candidate in the FIFA election, but they are expected to cast a vote for either Prince Ali of Jordan or UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino.
So, FIFA's big day is tomorrow...does anyone actually care enough about any of the candidates to have a rooting interest in the election? I find myself feeling pretty much the same about all of them as I do about all of the US presidential election candidates; the system is broken, and nobody has the will and wherewithal to fix it, so why should the result matter in the slightest?
I don't understand how someone could not root for Tokyo Sexwale.
Unless you actually thought one of the candidates was 100% on the level, and capable of cleaning house, of course. But I'm a huge optimist about human nature, and even I'm not that naive.
Unless you actually thought one of the candidates was 100% on the level, and capable of cleaning house, of course. But I'm a huge optimist about human nature, and even I'm not that naive.
Well, the most worst in this case is way worse than everyone else, in a tragic human rights sort of way, so obviously Salman is going to win. Prince Ali seems decent and says he wants to bring in Kofi Annan to set up an oversight council. No chance he'll win
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Both Blatter and Platini had their bans cut from 8 years to 6, effective late last year. That would (coincidentally, I'm sure) make them eligible again just before the 2022 World Cup.
Seriously. That's Dick Butkus and Rusty Kuntz levels of awesomeness, right there.
In case you missed it, USA went ahead and endorsed Prince Ali.
http://www.espnfcasia.com/united-states/story/2815420/us-soccer-to-vote-for-prince-ali-for-fifa-president
Interesting article in the New York Times this morning, describing the longshot victory plan for Prince Ali. The notion is that they get through the first round with Salman having the lead but not enough to win, Infantino a fairly strong second, and Ali a just-respectable-enough third. At that point, pressure will be put on Infantino to throw his support to Ali (rather than the other way around) on the theory that Alli will have a better chance of holding Infantino's largely-European voters than Infantino would have of holding Ali's (largely Asian/African) block away from Salman. And UEFA (rightly) hates Salman so much they just want to get the best "not Salman" candidate possible.
Sounds to me a little like the set of circumstances needed for John Kasich to win the Republican primary, but hey, you never know.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/26/sports/prince-ali-hussein-fifa-election.html?_r=0
Per Gab Marcotti, Tokyo Sexwale withdrew, and ended his speech by saying "It's your problem now!" I'm not joking.
I'm watching BBC coverage, and this is precisely what happened.
I'm guessing this is better for Salman than it is for Infantino.
Infantino: 88
Salman: 85
Ali: 27
Champagne: a bubbly 7
138 (2/3 vote) needed to win in Round 1
104 (50%+1) needed to win in Round 2
Salman: 85
Ali: 27
Champagne: a bubbly 7
138 (2/3 vote) needed to win in Round 1
104 (50%+1) needed to win in Round 2
This is my first time watching a FIFA election. Why can't they just make the first vote simple majority? Why say on the the first ballot you need 2/3? Then have it go to simple majority the second time around? Also, who are all these suits sitting down on the wide view camera? 207 country reps??... there's gotta be at 1,000 people just chilling in there... what are they doing?
How can they make corrupt backroom deals to decide the winner if someone wins on the first ballot?
Well I would have figured that the corrupt backroom deals would have been taken care of well before round 1.
As someone who doesn't get the politics of soccer... what is the theory behind this?
At the basic logistical level, by the time 2026 rolls around there will have been 3 World Cups in Europe, 2 in Asia and 1 each in Africa and S. America since the last time N. America hosted.
Beyond that, the US was singularly fucked by the Qatar win and I'm sure there's an overly simplistic belief held by the FIFAcrats that awarding us the Cup will prevent future USDOJ intervention.
edit: Also, there's a fuckton of money to be made from a US-hosted Cup. Only shame of it (for FIFA at least), is that they already awarded the TV rights to Fox without a bidding process to compensate for the Qatar Winter Cup.
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Christ this whole thing is disconcerting. Tableful of doofuses counting paper ballots while the PA system blares muzak that is sampling heavily from "If I Only Had a Brain."
I still think the new President of FIFA must look into the corrupt awarding of the 2022 World Cup.
It may be too late to take it from Russia (maybe) but not from Qatar.
Sure, but I wouldn't hold your breath on that.
Ali's votes go to Infantino instead of Salman, thankfully, and we have a new FIFA president of Italian and...Swiss origin.
Funny that they replace Blatter with a guy from a small town in Switzerland a few miles from Blatter's hometown.
UEFA wins this round.
UEFA wins this round.