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FIFA In Ruins After Police Raid!!!

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    FIFA In Ruins After Police Raid!!!

    Swiss arrest top global soccer officials in U.S., Swiss corruption cases

    BY MIKE COLLETT AND BRIAN HOMEWOOD
    Wed May 27, 2015 7:18am EDT
    Reuters


    Swiss police arrested some of the most powerful figures in global soccer on Wednesday, announcing a criminal investigation into the awarding of the next two World Cups and plunging the world's most popular sport into turmoil.

    In addition to the Swiss criminal probe, nine soccer officials and five sports media and promotions executives face extradition to the United States on corruption charges involving more than $150 million in bribes, U.S. authorities said.

    Those arrested did not include Sepp Blatter, the Swiss head of FIFA, but included several just below him in the hierarchy of the wealthiest and most powerful sports body on earth.

    Of those 14 indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice, seven officials of soccer's governing body FIFA, including FIFA vice president Jeffrey Webb, were arrested in Zurich. Four people and two corporate defendants had already pleaded guilty to various charges, the department said.

    The Miami, Florida, headquarters of CONCACAF, the soccer federation that governs North America, Central America and the Caribbean, were being searched on Wednesday, the DoJ said.

    "As charged in the indictment, the defendants fostered a culture of corruption and greed that created an uneven playing field for the biggest sport in the world," said FBI Director James Comey. "Undisclosed and illegal payments, kickbacks, and bribes became a way of doing business at FIFA."

    The arrests by plain-clothes Swiss police were made at dawn at a plush Zurich hotel where FIFA officials are staying ahead of a vote this week where they have been expected to easily anoint Blatter for a fifth term in office.

    "DIFFICULT MOMENT"BILLIONS

    The international governing body of soccer collects billions of dollars in revenue, mostly from sponsorship and television rights for World Cups.

    It has persistently been dogged by reports of corruption which it says it investigates itself, but until now it has escaped major criminal cases in any country.

    In particular, the decision to award the World Cup to Qatar, a tiny desert country with no domestic tradition of soccer, was heavily criticized by soccer officials in Western countries. FIFA was forced to acknowledge that it is too hot to play soccer there in the summer when the cup is traditionally held, forcing schedules around the globe to be rewritten to move the cup.

    Qatar's stock market fell sharply as news of the Swiss investigation emerged. A Russian official said his country would still host the 2018 World Cup.

    Three years ago FIFA hired a former U.S. prosecutor to examine allegations of bribery over the awarding of the World Cups to Qatar and Russia, but last year it refused to publish his report, releasing only a summary in which it said there were no major irregularities. The investigator quit, saying his report had been mischaracterized.

    Most of the arrested officials are in Switzerland for the FIFA Congress, where Blatter faces a challenge from Jordan's Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein in an election on Friday to lead the organization. Other potential challengers to Blatter have all dropped out the race.

    Prince Ali, who has promised to clean up FIFA if elected to the top job, called it "a sad day for football".

    CONCACAF FOCUS

    Much of the U.S. enquiry focuses on CONCACAF, whose Trinidadian former boss Warner was regularly dogged by accusations of corruption before he resigned in 2011, at which point FIFA terminated its investigations of him.

    U.S. law gives its courts broad powers to investigate crimes committed by foreigners on foreign soil if money passes through U.S. banks or other activity takes place there.

    Damian Collins, a British member of parliament who founded the reform group New FIFA Now, said the arrests and could have a massive impact on the governing body.

    "The chickens are finally coming home to roost and this sounds like a hugely significant development for FIFA," he told Reuters.

    "It proves that Sepp Blatter's promises over the last few years to look into corruption at FIFA have not materialized and because he has totally failed to do this, it has been left to an outside law enforcement agency to do the job and take action."

    (Additional reporting Curtis Skinner in San Francisco and Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Writing by Peter Graff and Giles Elgood)


    #2
    May it lead to the cancellation of the Soosk Desert World Cup!

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      #3
      You can get away with screwing around with Iran in AFC, but zooreshoon be Switzerland/USA nemirese.

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        #4
        Originally posted by perspolis#1 View Post
        You can get away with screwing around with Iran in AFC, but zooreshoon be Switzerland/USA nemirese.
        Not when it comes to WCQ, that's where we will show them who's got zoor and gheyrat!

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          #5
          And Qatar will still get the World Cup and workers will still die.

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            #6

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              #7
              It's good to see them finally being caught after their own joke of an internal investigation.
              I went to Sharif University. I'm a superior genetic mutation, an improvement on the existing mediocre stock.

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                #8
                Fifa and Qatar made a huge mistake. They gave it to Qatar when US was going head to head with them. US has all kinda resources available to them and it's so easy for them to track it down.

                I think if it was between Qatar and let's say Russia and Qatar would have won it, i don't think it would have gotten the exposure that it has now.

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by AminGP View Post
                  Fifa and Qatar made a huge mistake. They gave it to Qatar when US was going head to head with them. US has all kinda resources available to them and it's so easy for them to track it down.

                  I think if it was between Qatar and let's say Russia and Qatar would have won it, i don't think it would have gotten the exposure that it has now.
                  Given the known and public bribery that qatar did, it would not matter who they were up against for it to get to this point.
                  I went to Sharif University. I'm a superior genetic mutation, an improvement on the existing mediocre stock.

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                    #10
                    How is it possible that they are still planning on having elections on friday Not only are they corrupt, but they're also delusional. Sep has gone senile. Hope to see his ass in jail as well
                    “It is easier to fool the people, than to convince them they have been fooled." - Mark Twain

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                      #11
                      who was charged?

                      Jeffrey Webb: President of Concacaf, one of the six regional confederations that compose FIFA, and vice president of FIFA

                      Jack Warner: Former president of Concacaf and vice president of FIFA

                      Eugenio Figueredo: Former president of Conmebol, the South American federation, and outgoing FIFA vice president

                      Eduardo Li: President of Costa Rican federation, set to join FIFA executive committee this week

                      Julio Rocha: President of Nicaraguan association

                      Costas Takkas: Former president of Cayman Islands federation

                      Rafael Esquivel: President of Venezuelan association since 1988

                      Former president of Conmebol and former member of FIFA executive committee

                      Alejandro Burzaco: Argentine sports media executive

                      Aaron Davidson:Hugo Jinkis: Soccer media executive

                      Mariano Jinkis: Soccer media executive

                      Charged as intermediary who facilitated illegal payments

                      What About Sepp Blatter?

                      Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA since 1998, was not charged, though the soccer officials who were indicted might present prosecutors with information that is damaging to Mr. Blatter. An election, seemingly pre-ordained to give Mr. Blatter a fifth term as president, is scheduled for Friday in Zurich. It will go on as planned, a FIFA spokesman said.
                      “It is easier to fool the people, than to convince them they have been fooled." - Mark Twain

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                        #12
                        Originally posted by OFFSIDE_1 View Post
                        Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA since 1998, was not charged, though the soccer officials who were indicted might present prosecutors with information that is damaging to Mr. Blatter.
                        That's what I'm hoping will happen.

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                          #13
                          Guys, you need to understand the bigger picture.
                          It is a US thing, because of Russia.

                          To sum it up for you: Investigations will say that Russia bribed it's way and will lose WC 2018. Qatar will get "warned" or something and will still host 2022.
                          To rub it into Russias face, the World Cup will be given to no one less than Germany.

                          You heard it first.
                          You're welcome.
                          IRI's politics is no different than handling a pressure cooker ..... As the pressure builds up, you slowly let the steam out just a tad bit so that you don't see overflow, and once the pressure from below is less, you put the lid down again and raise the temperature.

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                            #14
                            all the people that have been indicated are from latin america
                            IRI = FAILED

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                              #15
                              Originally posted by Ali.Karimi79 View Post
                              Guys, you need to understand the bigger picture.
                              It is a US thing, because of Russia.

                              To sum it up for you: Investigations will say that Russia bribed it's way and will lose WC 2018. Qatar will get "warned" or something and will still host 2022.
                              To rub it into Russias face, the World Cup will be given to no one less than Germany.

                              You heard it first.
                              You're welcome.
                              I feel like this is the case as well. I mean why aren't any Qatari officials, AFC officials, and so on and so forth mentioned as part of the probe? This is no longer about Qatar as 2018 is nearing, but more about Russia. The American involvement, and more specifically the FBI instead of say Interpol makes this more of a political agenda in my opinion than a fight against corruption and righting the wrongs.
                              Remember RESPECT BEGETS RESPECT & Zob Ahan

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