FIFA President Blatter accuses US authorities and British press of campaign to topple him

[RandySF]

Personal Note: Blatter thinks America cares enough about soccer to derail his position.

Newly re-elected Fifa president Sepp Blatter has launched an astonishing attack on the US justice system and the British media in the wake of the string of bribery charges against senior officials that plunged world football into chaos last week.

As he denied being the unnamed high-ranking official who authorised the payment of a $10m bribe to disgraced former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner, as alleged in last week’s US indictment, Blatter targeted his enemies and warned: “I forgive but I don’t forget.”

Emboldened after being re-elected for a fifth term in office, he turned on his accusers and claimed that the timing of the raid by the Swiss police, who have been cooperating with a long-running FBI investigation, was designed to remove him from office and motivated by revenge.

Swiss police swooped on the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich on Wednesday and arrested seven senior Fifa executives, including vice-presidents Jeffrey Webb and Eugenio Figueredo, prompting a renewed wave of furious calls for reform and for Blatter’s resignation.


http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/may/30/sepp-blatter-accuses-us-and-british-media-campaign-topple

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. The threats from some European countries

to pull out of FIFA will hurt him where it matters, in the pocketbook.

Been following this though media outside the US, though ESPN is doing a good job out of it. And the rumors are starting again, like they did after the world cup in Brazil.

[RandySF]

2. FIFA could not possibly survive without UEFA.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. The rumors MIGHT include CONCACAF

Mexico is still sore (for good reason) after the two goals annulled in the game with Brazil. The rumors were that the only reason they did not pull out of the tournament was because of the salaries of the technical staff and a few other things. But if they had... Mexicans would have been behind El Tri 1000 percent.

[malaise]

10. Not one of them will pull out

They make the most money from football.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Unless they decide to form their own league

there have been rumors of this for years, since they are not that happy

[DetlefK]

14. TV-rights of broadcasting games. That's where the money is. Not stadiums.

If UEFA can convince the media-corporations to negotiate hard on the TV-rights of the 2018 World Cup... That's gonna hurt. That's gonna hurt FIFA's profit really bad.

[malaise]

15. Huh?

Look rights have been sold ages ago.
Clearly you know nothing about the fan base for World Cup football. And fans have no clue about those who control football on this planet.

For the record Europe has long been more tied up with FIFA than England.

England was obsessed with her FA and did not play in a World Cup until 1950. The first World Cup was in Uruguay back in the 30s.

International Sports organizations are linked to the right wing of the planet -monarchs, the military, fascists and the most undemocratic people on the planet. Most are very upset that others have learned to loot as well as they looted for decades.

[freshwest]

4. This is what the media focused on the trials and tribunals of this crook?

It's like the gossip or society pages in newspapers years ago.

The bigger story are the many who died or were displaced, and the ecological destruction by these modern day circuses.

The wrote the story as if it was a fluff piece.

No offense for your post, but the priorities on these stories are all wrong, iMHO!

[Are_grits_groceries]

5. It's time for UEFA and others to withdraw from FIFA.

Blatter will not change and even though I think the IRS will catch him, a new organization needs to be formed.
Will all corruption be rooted out? No. It's always around, but a FIFA is nothing but corruption.

[LittleBlue]

6. They were. At least the British press were

extremely bitter that Qatar got the WC. They acted like only western Europe should ever host WC and wrote anti-Arab articles that were openly racist.

But that doesn't change the fact that he and FIFA have been corrupt for a long time. Regardless, I don't think this crackdown would have happened if he'd awarded 2018 to Britain/Holland and 2022 to the USA.

[malaise]

9. Do not forget that both England and the US bid for 2018 and 2022

There is definitely something wrong with making people spend millions to bid to host international events when members willingly accept bribes for votes.

That said did England have a problem when one of the Princes was sharing gifts for the 2012 Olympic bid?

There is absolutely no doubt that international sports organizations need to clean up their ethics, but it is also true that Britain and the US (and their global business interests) have a sense of entitlement re contracts, bids and much more.

As others have said, this looks petty given the criminality of US banks and the lack of prosecutions related to the destruction of the global economy. Further the timing suggests that they were attempting to interfere with the election.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. That's because Qatar is an absurd place to hold the soccer World Cup

They're having to build all the stadia from scratch, and are killing hundreds of migrant workers to do so. They said they'd be able to host it in the Northern Hemisphere summer, which everyone apart from the bribed FIFA officials agreed was impossible, and now they've admitted it is impossible, and so it's been moved to November and December, disrupting the normal soccer seasonal leagues. Qatar has no history of soccer, and no team that could possibly hold its own in a competition - but being the hosts means they have to get a place in the finals. There's practically nothing for the fans to do when not at a game. It's a country of only 200,000 citizens and 1.8 million migrant workers. A World Cup usually attracts about a million tourists.

It was the equivalent of hosting the Summer Olympics in Alaska in January. Nothing has ever screamed 'corruption' more than giving the World Cup to Qatar.

[Tarheel_Dem]

7. My my, Putin said the same thing, so it must be true.

[malaise]

8. Is he wrong? n/t

[RandySF]

16. I would think so.

I don't see the American government caring enough about soccer to care much about soccer to carry out some vendetta.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

12. He's certainly right about the British press, but probably wrong about the American authorities.

Most of the British press - and a great many other people, in Britain and elsewhere - are fed up with a crook holding the most important sporting office in the world (unless you view the IOC, who are also a bunch of crooks, as more important, I guess...)