Remember earlier in the year when the US DOJ got involved and decided it cared enough about soccer to blow it up from the inside and destroy the FIFA establishment and went about arresting and indicting 14 high ranking officials, forcing the resignation of Blatter, only to see him back out of it until they could find a replacement?
Right, well it looks like FIFA finally had enough of the situation and has now Pete Rose style banned Blatter from soccer for the next 8 years. Oh, and if that wasn't enough, they went the extra step in banning UEFA president Michel Platini as well. So basically, the 2 most powerful people in the world of soccer just got kicked out of the sport.
Of course, both men continue to deny any wrongdoing and claim that the media is just out to get them, but it won't matter, they're now gone from the game, and I highly doubt they'll be seen in its circles again. Which is good for the game, and lets hope its just the tip of trying to root out the corruption from the underbelly of the planet's most popular game.
EDIT/UPDATE: from ltrepeter2000 below:
HEREHere is a much better summary of what has gone down in regards this case. Originally it was only 14 people arrested, but now the US has increased the total number of people indicted to 39 people.
The Swiss have launched their own criminal investigation into Blatter and Platini that had a bigger effect on them being banned today.
The Germans also have launched a criminal investigation into members of their own Football Federation regarding bribes and the award of World Cups.
Comments
Did you listen to his press conference after? A lot of the word "sorry" used but only in the context of "feel sorry for me" " feel sorry for the game of futbol"
Yeah, he actually believes he did nothing wrong. Glad they finally rid the game of him, but there's a lot more corruption than just at the top. If they're using him as a fall guy, things won't improve much.
Platini got the same eight year ban, and everyone assumed he was going to succeed Blatter. Most of the cronies are still under US federal investigation. I think the only people left running FIFA are the ones who honestly want to clean it up, but were unable to fight the corruption from inside. This is a systematic dismantling of a corrupt organization, both from within and without.
I am surprised about Platini, I thought he was one of the good guys.
haha noooope. In fact I'm probably more glad about his ban than Blatter's, since I had just assumed nothing would change with Blatter gone and Platini taking the reigns.
Always two, there are. A master, and an apprentice.
I want to preface this comment by saying that, by all accounts, Seth Blatter is a shit of human being.
That being said, there's a lot of cultures where bribery isn't seen as immoral or corrupt - they just view it as paying for a service, no different than paying for a haircut. So, it's quite possible that he really doesn't understand why he's in trouble.
Good point on the bribes, but when an multi-national organization of this size has explicit rules against it (and its not like he was only there a few months) he has no excuse to act so ignorant of the rule. Most of those countries that do not frown on bribery tend to be much less established economies as well so I am not willing to give Blatter a pass.
In other shocking news, Blatter said at a meandering mess of press conference that he blames the United States for his ban. He made a jab that if we had been awarded the 2022 World Cup, the investigation would never have happened. The guy is an egomaniacal sociopath.
I still think it's funny, though, that basically the entire civilized world despised Blatter and knew FIFA was corrupt as hell, yet could do nothing about it, and then along come the Americans, who give half a shit about the sport, and basically bring the entire organization to its knees overnight. I think the rest of the world should now be forced to call the sport soccer.
(Read in French accent)
I had to LOL at that!
I sort of agree with him because honestly, the US was just the first country to do something about he and his cronies corruption. It would have happened regardless, the US getting jipped out of a world cup just expedited it.
Just like the Japanese in WW2, the US only halfway cared right up until they messed with us. And really the US has virtually nothing to lose if FIFA stays mad about it, soccer is like the 5th most important sport to the U.S. market.
I know there is some sense that hosting the Olympics or World Cup brings in an economic boom for the host country, but looking at what Brazil has gone through to host both, I am not sure the benefits outweigh the costs for most countries. The infrastructure sits unused after these events after spending billions. Europe and the U.S. could host either event next week without much strain. Hell each country has to have at least one nice stadium, pick a place in between the two countries in each game as a neutral site and host the games all over the world, enough of this wasteful spending.
That's optimistic.
Football..Baseball..Basketball...????...Soccer
doesn't sound that optimistic...
This is pulled straight outta my rectal region, but I'd imagine football, baseball, basketball, hockey, NASCAR and golf all pull better ratings than soccer. The World Cup is gonna get its numbers, but as for sustained interest in the sport, I doubt it.
My guess is that it's 5th, before hockey and Golf (outside of the majors). Soccer has been getting excellent ratings lately on NBC Sports (it's the only live action available when it airs on Saturday and Sunday mornings).
Does not compute.
Soccer is actually growing pretty fast here as far as viewership. Even just MLS is making huge progress.
That was actually more of a comment about the NBC Sports channel.
Let's not forget fishing. Lotsa fishing on TV these days. Hunting? You betcha! Soccer? Naa, not so much.
The biggest reason that the US finally started looking into it is that when it comes to advertising dollars that support both the Olympics and the World Cup, US companies cough up roughly 80% of those dollars is my understanding. The return on investment of those dollars sometimes is difficult to see when the sport is going to places that provide minimal exposure at best for these companies to new markets. Think Budweiser advertising for the World Cup thats going to be held in alcohol dry country Qatar. There is also the issue of these companies being associated with a World Cup that is estimated to possibly kill as many as 7000 migrant workers tasked with constructing the necessary infrastructure for this event in 100+ degree temperatures. It works out to something like 2 per day essentially. And that doesnt include those companies being associated with the massive bribery schemes, etc.
In many areas of the U.S. the infrastructure already exist to host something like the World Cup.
Pick a an area like the research triangle in NC.
Colleges abound with football stadiums, dorms, access to airports in Charlotte, it's a transport hub with air rail, trucking.
For us, this stuff is easy.
The World Cup is a national event, so you don't have to isolate it, you spread it around like they did in Brazil. There are what, 8 Groups in the World Cup Stage Round? So you need at least 8 venues for that round across the country. LA, NY, Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, and Denver to create a fairly even regional split. Elimination rounds in NY, LA, Chicago, and Miami. World Cup Final in LA or NY.
Of course, the infrastructure to make this happen is already in place, but that's the exact reason the World Cup isn't coming. There's no cash cow for the WC leaders to siphon money off of in venue development to pad their checkbooks. We could literally host without investing a dime into development, and that makes us unattractive as a host.
We'll host one within 20 years. Book it.
2022 was ours, but Qatar stole it with bribes, and the winter thing will be an utter shitshow. We'll probably get 2026 or 2030. especially if anyone but Sheikh Sulamon wins the FIFA presidency.
I still have this hope that whoever is running FIFA now will break under the pressure of the HUNDREDS OF DEATHS happening in Qatar to essentially slave laborers being used to build the infrastructure for 2022, and it'll come back to USA/Australia/Whoever else.
We're hosting the Copa America Centenario next summer, so that is a pretty good representation of host venues.
I understand what World Cup is.
Played soccer for 13 years followed by Rugby the East Coast and around the Pacific Rim for 10.
My point was that we could do it so easily, we could take a much smaller area and do it without having to change much at all.
HERE
Here is a much better summary of what has gone down in regards this case. Originally it was only 14 people arrested, but now the US has increased the total number of people indicted to 39 people.
The Swiss have launched their own criminal investigation into Blatter and Platini that had a bigger effect on them being banned today.
The Germans also have launched a criminal investigation into members of their own Football Federation regarding bribes and the award of World Cups.
Great information! If you don't mind, I'll update the OP with this information, citing you, so you don't phreak out on me.
No worries, not concerned about being cited. Just was making sure people knew how much larger its gotten. Lot of folks at DOJ hoping to make a career out of FIFA. My buddies that are way more into futbol have said there are expectations that even the 39 number could grow to somewhere in the 130-140 range once the first level of deals are made to get the people that put up the real money behind the bribes. Most of those people unfortunately will be a hell of a lot more difficult to extradite than the FIFA officials caught in Switzerland.
Popular candidate for replacement of Sepp Blatter is African candidate Tokyo Sexwale. The web of scandal isn't the only thing that sounds funny at FIFA.
Tokyo Sexwale is a strong candidate, but don't count out the darkhorse.
I know, how to fix FIFA, let's put toilet water on it.
But toilet water doesn't have what FIFA needs. FIFA needs electrolytes.
Sexwale, Champagne, and Prince Ali are all fantastic candidates to replace Blatter. But we'll probably get stuck with Sheikh Salman.
I wonder who is more corrupt, FIFA or the NCAA? I guess FIFA is worldwide so it is worse but it would still be an interesting study to read if anyone has done one
FIFA and it's not really close.
FIFA is so corrupt that it's not even worth studying if anyone comes close.
The NCAA's problem is more incompetence than corruption. The NCAA makes so much money exploiting the archaic amateurism rules that they don't really have to be on the take in their business dealings.
PS, if Google asks you, "Did you mean Tokyo sex whale?" the answer is no.
Something something Katy Perry concert