• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

FIFA Inquiry Yields Indictments; U.S. Officials Vow to Pursue More

Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Sepp Blatter Isn’t Among Them

As will I.

The whole debacle is a non-issue though in the real world, but you know that already.

I think I just doubled the size of Canada by mistake. Oh well.

If the rest of the world starts demanding that we stop calling ourselves Americans, then I say we really piss them off and legally change our name to Land of the Free.

My passport will say:

Name - Peter Grimm
Nationality - Freedom
 
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Sepp Blatter Isn’t Among Them

There is no continent called "America," there are two continents: North America and South America.

All over the world excluding Spanish-Speaking Latin America, if you say the word "American," that means someone from the United States.

You're a native English-speaker, that's obvious enough. Cut the crap. You were trying to make a point, and, guess what.... point heard. Understood. You're not the first to make it. But 350 million Americans, 100 million Canadians, and billions of others around the world are going to keep calling people from my country "Americans"

I'll be among them.

Gettin' a little hysterical there, old Grimmy boy! You spend a lot of time in the conspiracy theory forum?
 
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Sepp Blatter Isn’t Among Them

Regardless of any wrongdoing done by say, the USOC in securing bids to atlanta 1994 or salt lake olympics, that doesn't mean these FIFA assholes deserve a free pass. The world cup should not be taking place in russia or qatar - where nearly 2000 construction workers have been killed thanks to these bribes, and yes, some of us do care about that.

As for your claims of bias, there is this bit: "receiving bribes to influence the decision of where tournaments should be hosted - including the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and the 2016 Copa America in the US"

Notice the upcoming tournament in the US is part of the case

What's especially hilarious about this is the FIFA prez lashing out at any and every remote suggestion of a boycott. Well now everyone has plenty of reason to carry out those threats

Your quote about 2000 killed is insane, I bet you will never find a trustful link to prove your words. Better think twice before making such kind of statements.

What about the right of these countries to hold World Championships - this decision should be made independently. But due to TOTAL lawlessness of FIFA members it is impossible. They have always said their organization stands out of Politics and time showed it was nothing but rhetorics.
African continent suffered most of their decisions - stadiums turned to food markets, officials have no money to maintain them in proper condition for sports, they just don't carry about the future of Soccer, they want the immediate profit.

meanwhile, the Game should remain the Game.
 
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Sepp Blatter Isn’t Among Them

Your quote about 2000 killed is insane, I bet you will never find a trustful link to prove your words. Better think twice before making such kind of statements.

What about the right of these countries to hold World Championships - this decision should be made independently. But due to TOTAL lawlessness of FIFA members it is impossible. They have always said their organization stands out of Politics and time showed it was nothing but rhetorics.
African continent suffered most of their decisions - stadiums turned to food markets, officials have no money to maintain them in proper condition for sports, they just don't carry about the future of Soccer, they want the immediate profit.

meanwhile, the Game should remain the Game.

I think 2000 is on the high side, but it is certainly many hundreds.

Death Toll Amongst Qatar's 2022 Workers
 
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Sepp Blatter Isn’t Among Them

True, but if people honestly believe the game is tainted with corruption, bribery, payoffs, and so forth.... that very likely will have an effect on the game's popularity.

Look at what the steroid scandal did to baseball in the united states. It went from being the #1 sport in the 90's to #3 or #4 now. Look at what happened to boxing with its match-fixing scandals... that was once the #1 sport, now it's barely top 10.


I know for my part, anecdotal evidence of course, I am a big soccer fan when the World Cup comes around. However, this does taint soccer in a major way in my eyes.

I do believe that the decision committee was bribed, that the USA and UK were robbed of hosting world cups, and I would not be surprised to hear that referees were being paid off and that matches, groupings, pools, etc were rigged.

Those beliefs negatively affect how I, as an American, view soccer. And it's too bad, because the sport was just starting to take off stateside. But honestly, why would I want to waste my time viewing rigged matches sent to me from Qatar thanks to a hefty bribe from the Qatari friendship committee?

This kind of thing is off-putting, I'm going back to Super Bowls which at least I can trust have some aspect of sportsmanship.

There have been only isolated incidents of actual match fixing, and most of those have occurred in third world countries. The game itself is fine - the people who run it are modern day gangsters.
 
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Sepp Blatter Isn’t Among Them

As predicted - the Clintons. Oh, boy! Right? :roll: Will that couple and a child ever go away? If money is involved you can bet that the Clintons are in it somewhere. Earlier I jokingly suggested that US Attorney General will hire Bill Clinton as an impartial monitor in representing honor and justice, cough<blowjob>cough in the FIFA scam.

Firstus, Bill and Hillary won't do squat unless there is money in it for them.

Secondus, there was big money to be made in FIFA deals.

Thirdus, Bill was attracted to FIFA like a fly to a dung heap.

Lastus, ain't no sh*t going to rain down on Bill Clinton over his involvement - and millions he received in payoffs. That means that most likely the bribers will all go Scott free while the bribees will be the ones who face serious legal consequences. And thus half the problem addressed and at best half the problem solved. The US is not going after Bill & Hillary over FIFA, never happen. If Bill Clinton can't be investigated and charged it will be damned hard to go after the Clinton counterparts from other nations. A few sacrificial heads will roll in the US investigation. That will be it.

Both Bill Clinton and his family’s charity have been tied to soccer’s governing body, as well as Qatar’s disastrous World Cup bid.
And just like that, another Clinton Foundation donor is in the news.

The Clinton global charity has received between $50,000 and $100,000 from soccer’s governing body and has partnered with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association on several occasions, according to donor listings on the foundation’s website.

Several top FIFA executives were arrested Wednesday in Zurich and face corruption charges stretching back two decades, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Involvement with the embattled body extends beyond the foundation to Bill Clinton himself. The former president was an honorary chairman of the bid committee put together to promote the United States as a possible host nation for the 2018 or 2022 World Cup.
The rest here.
 
Last edited:
Good, but I doubt they will face any real consequences.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/s...rruption-charges-blatter-isnt-among-them.html

Swiss authorities conducted an extraordinary early-morning operation here Wednesday to arrest several top soccer officials and extradite them to the United States on federal corruption charges. As leaders of FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, gathered for their annual meeting, more than a dozen plainclothes Swiss law enforcement officials arrived unannounced at the Baur au Lac hotel, an elegant five-star property with views of the Alps and Lake Zurich. They went to the front desk to get room numbers and then proceeded upstairs. The arrests were carried out peacefully. One FIFA official, Eduardo Li of Costa Rica, was led by the authorities from his room to a side-door exit of the hotel. He was allowed to bring his luggage, which was adorned with FIFA logos. The charges, backed by an F.B.I. investigation, allege widespread corruption in FIFA over the past two decades, involving bids for World Cups as well as marketing and broadcast deals.

Several hours after the soccer officials were apprehended at the hotel, Swiss authorities said they had opened criminal cases related to the bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups — incidents that, more than any others, encapsulated FIFA’s unusual power dynamic. “In the course of said proceedings,” the Swiss officials said, “electronic data and documents were seized today at FIFA’s head office in Zurich.” The arrests were a startling blow to FIFA, a multibillion-dollar organization that governs the world’s most popular sport but has been plagued by accusations of bribery for decades. The inquiry is also a major threat to Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s longtime president who is generally recognized as the most powerful person in sports, though he was not charged. Blatter has for years acted as a de facto head of state. Politicians, star players, national soccer officials and global corporations that want their brands attached to the sport have long genuflected before him.

What does this have to do with the US?
 
FIFA scandal: Putin accuses U.S. of 'illegally persecuting people'

Putin rips U.S. over FIFA corruption case - CNNPolitics.com

"The USA definitely (has) nothing to do with this," the Russian President said of FIFA, which is based in Switzerland. "This is yet another obvious attempt to spread their jurisdiction to other (countries)."

"Our American partners use their own methods for their ulterior purposes,"

"They are illegally persecuting people," he said of U.S. authorities. "I do not rule out the possibility that the same goes for this situation with FIFA."

720p-Football%20helps%20to%20solve%20social%20problems%20-%20Blatter%20and%20Putin1.jpg
 
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Sepp Blatter Isn’t Among Them

So what do you call someone from Venezuela or Costa Rica? A European? An Asian? If not, what?

Y'know, in Spanish the word 'americano' doesn't refer to people from the US at all. Use that word and people always think of someone from a Latin American country. An American from the US is always referred to as an 'estado-unidense'.

South American, Central American.
 
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Sepp Blatter Isn’t Among Them

Your quote about 2000 killed is insane, I bet you will never find a trustful link to prove your words. Better think twice before making such kind of statements.

What about the right of these countries to hold World Championships - this decision should be made independently. But due to TOTAL lawlessness of FIFA members it is impossible. They have always said their organization stands out of Politics and time showed it was nothing but rhetorics.
African continent suffered most of their decisions - stadiums turned to food markets, officials have no money to maintain them in proper condition for sports, they just don't carry about the future of Soccer, they want the immediate profit.

meanwhile, the Game should remain the Game.

you really need to get to know posters before making such accusations. I frequently withhold such evidence so that i can later make a fool out of claims such as yours

The international trade union asserts that tens of thousands of migrant workers had their passports confiscated and are being held as hostages at subsistence wages until the work is complete, with a projected 4,000 casualties by that time:

Report: Qatar's World Cup Expected To Take More Lives Than 9/11
This Chart Shows the Staggering Human Cost of Staging a World Cup in Qatar | Mother Jones
Death toll among Qatar
World Report 2014: Qatar | Human Rights Watch

Any world cup put on by ANY nation should have to vow to use workers being paid a living wage, under safe conditions. If this vow is broken, they lose the world cup, period.

You're missing that in no way would russia or qatar have won the bids if not for literally bribing their way. Totalitarian regimes don't have to compete with cost saving politicians in democratic countries. If the US doled out $75 million in bribes to host the world cup, it would be the end of the careers of those responsible. Not so for dictators like putin

Nor do they deserve the right to host, for a myriad of reasons, such as Russia: unprovoked invasion of sovereign countries and repeated threats to its neighbors, oppression of lgbt and other minorities, a dictatorship; Qatar: a theocracy that's liable to brutalize any visitors from cultures who so much as drink alcohol while trying to enjoy the tournament, a freaking hot as hell desert that's forced it to be moved to winter, 90% of the population living in 1 city, its treatment of women and other minorities, no history of soccer success whatsoever

The game should remain the focus, which is why it should've gone to holland/belgium bid, two countries that are not guilty of all i just listed, have enthusiastic support of the sport, and have never hosted
 
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Sepp Blatter Isn’t Among Them

South American, Central American.

tl/dr... American fits the bill for those of us with no nationalist axe to grind.
 
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Sepp Blatter Isn’t Among Them

There have been only isolated incidents of actual match fixing, and most of those have occurred in third world countries. The game itself is fine - the people who run it are modern day gangsters.

This.

It's not about cheating in the sport, it's about cheating in the organisation of the sport. FIFA could disappear tomorrow and football's popularity would remain, probably increase. FIFA doesn't represent the sport, it's a parasite on it.
 
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Sepp Blatter Isn’t Among Them

tl/dr... American fits the bill for those of us with no nationalist axe to grind.

It fits the bill for complete ignorance. There are two different federations in the Americas.

CONCACAF stands for Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football.

CONMEBOL which in Spanish Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol or in english: South American Football Confederation.

So even the federations in this part of the world recognize the difference. Plus there are 7 continents. Of which two are North America and South America. So right there under your position you have to make distinction between North American and South American. There is no such thing as American.

Btw, what do you call people with no nationalist axe to grind from New Zealand? You call them Aussies? No, cause you call them Kiwis.
 
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Sepp Blatter Isn’t Among Them

I am a big sports fan and I could care less about this story.

Corruption is rampant in FIFA, the Olympics and probably every other major sports hierarchy. So what? Politicians do it all the time. Corporations do it all the time. EVERY major organization does it to some extent.

It amazes me how incredibly naive sports fans are. They think that because it's a sport that it should/will be more honourable.

Lololol...please.

Even if they fired every single person working for FIFA, there would still be massive corruption the second the replacements thought the spotlight was off of them.

It's called 'life'...and corruption is a huge part of it.
 
Last edited:
FIFA scandal: Putin accuses U.S. of 'illegally persecuting people'

Putin rips U.S. over FIFA corruption case - CNNPolitics.com

"The USA definitely (has) nothing to do with this," the Russian President said of FIFA, which is based in Switzerland. "This is yet another obvious attempt to spread their jurisdiction to other (countries)."

"Our American partners use their own methods for their ulterior purposes,"

"They are illegally persecuting people," he said of U.S. authorities. "I do not rule out the possibility that the same goes for this situation with FIFA."

720p-Football%20helps%20to%20solve%20social%20problems%20-%20Blatter%20and%20Putin1.jpg

vladimir-putin-sepp-blatter-2009-10-15-12-11-53.jpg
 
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Sepp Blatter Isn’t Among Them

Btw, what do you call people with no nationalist axe to grind from New Zealand? You call them Aussies? No, cause you call them Kiwis.

We're not discussing nationalities, but continents. Kiwis are Australasians, or Oceanians.
 
Re: the Quatari death toll so far.
Qatar-World-Cup-graph-update_466.png

It gets even more upseting from the fact that the the entire World Cup in Qatar is a catastrophic waste of money. Because the Qatar doesn't have one ready stadium for the world cup so every stadium have to be brand new. That at the same time the country is very small and it's people are not intersted in fotball/soccer so their will be little use of the stadiums after the Word Cup. The same goes for the infrastructure that Qatar have to spend enormous amount of new infrastructure that the Qatarian people will have little use of after the World Cup. So the Qatarian will spend up to 200 billion on a two week of propaganda for the regime with little use for the people after the tournament. That at the same time the regime are to arrogant and cruel that they not only will let thousands of workers die but also don't care for the bad PR it will lead to.

Also having the World Cup in Qatar will be very bad both for FIFA and fotball/soccer. That having the World Cup in a larger coutry could have led to a much larger interest, sponsorships and attendance to the games. That at the same having the World Cup in the winter will be very bad both for messing up the schedule for national fotball/soccer leauges and at the same time result in competion from other sports. For exampel I guess you Americans will have less interest for the World Cup then you at the same time can watch NFL, Baseball, NBA, NHL and other leauges.

Why The Qatar World Cup Is Going To Be A Disaster - Business Insider
 
Last edited:
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Sepp Blatter Isn’t Among Them

You're wrong. I think most people outside the US will be saying "thank God someone's prepared to take them on!" I think that it really takes an organisation with the resources of the FBI to have the ability to investigate this incredibly complex and wide-ranging web of corruption. It might be a bit ironic that they aren't prepared to tackle, for example, corruption in the NCAA, or in Wall Street, but whatever the poor motive, I'm delighted FIFA's finally going to get some come-uppance.

If you doubt how merited that appointment with Nemesis might be, take a look at this:







lol, so American interverntionalism is good when it's about soccer... ;)
 
Will There Be Enough Votes To Oust Sepp Blatter?

Despite the ingrained corruption that emanates from the top, Sepp Blatter will undoubtedly win yet another term as FIFA president today. There are 209 member nations and each has one vote. Blatter plays this like a Chicago politician and ensures the votes of poorer nations with financial grants to their soccer associations which is greatly appreciated.

Blatter's only opponent is Jordan's Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein who needs 105 votes to unseat the corrupt incumbent. It won't happen. Chicago machine politics on an international scale.
 
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Sepp Blatter Isn’t Among Them

lol, so American interverntionalism is good when it's about soccer... ;)

'interverntionalism' - word! That's not a word.

I'm not encouraging the US to invade Switzerland, although that would be way up my list of deserving countries!

I'm delighted that perhaps the only power on Earth with the resources capable of tackling the corruption of a global body is doing so, albeit limited to wrong-doings that are within its jurisdiction.
 
Re: FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Sepp Blatter Isn’t Among Them

'interverntionalism' - word! That's not a word.

I'm not encouraging the US to invade Switzerland, although that would be way up my list of deserving countries!

I'm delighted that perhaps the only power on Earth with the resources capable of tackling the corruption of a global body is doing so, albeit limited to wrong-doings that are within its jurisdiction.




Meanwhile, most americans think fifa must be some kind of poodle cartel or something.
 
Back
Top Bottom