Not holding my breath at all. Especially now with these news.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.
Not holding my breath at all. Especially now with these news.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.
The most corrupt candidate came in second place the reformer came 3rd, the likely moderately corrupt White guy won.Can someone summarize the implications of this election?
More of the same.Can someone summarize the implications of this election?
@Cellar-Door summed it up nicely.Can someone summarize the implications of this election?
As they should, though, right? I have only a layman's familiarity with FIFA history, but haven't the last 20 years been about the developing world basically sucking players' time and money from the actual money-making, more-upright, more-professionally-managed leagues in UEFA? I mean, some confederation had to win power here, it's not like they were going to elect a total outsider.UEFA wins this round.
But a huge chunk of the players and the TV money comes from outside of Europe. FIFA would be incredibly rich even if none of the Euro leagues existed.As they should, though, right? I have only a layman's familiarity with FIFA history, but haven't the last 20 years been about the developing world basically sucking players' time and money from the actual money-making, more-upright, more-professionally-managed leagues in UEFA? I mean, some confederation had to win power here, it's not like they were going to elect a total outsider.
Kind of but not really. Yes they bribed the little countries, but they also had the support of Asia which is a massive money maker, and Africa which adds a good amount of money and a lot of the best players.Am I conflating something? I thought Havelange and Blatter and all their cronies rose to power and maintained it by basically leveraging the more-numerous-in-votes poorer countries, handing them money with no oversight, and basically weighted the power of world football away from Europe. And that this resulted in, among other things, shitty timing and more intransigent rules on international breaks, less cooperation with clubs, poorer management of tournaments, more money generated from european players being diverted to poorer countries' FAs (to continue buying their votes), and of course corrupt awarding of the world cup itself.
Infantino may be no revolutionary and certainly no saint, but if I've got that right, then I've got to imagine that his tenure may lessen the tension between the core of club football and its periphery.
Tokyo Sexwale is dirty, but at least he's an honest to God anti-apartheid hero.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.
Organizations reeling from scandal rarely ask the government to reimburse them for their employees’ crimes. More often, they pay penalties.
But FIFA, the ruling body of global soccer at the center of a sprawling corruption case in the United States, is out to reclaim tens of millions of dollars.
On Tuesday, FIFA asked the United States Department of Justice for a share of the hundreds of millions that authorities stand to collect from thethird of the defendants who have so far admitted to participating in longstanding bribery and kickback schemes.
More valuable to FIFA than the money — which in the case of court-ordered restitution often amounts to pennies on the dollar — is what fighting for it symbolizes, legal experts say. The claim seeks to cement FIFA’s place as a victim in the eyes of both prosecutors and the public, and to telegraph the organization’s distance from generations of disgraced leaders, some ousted as recently as December.
Gulati outranked him in a number of respects, and may have facilitated his rise. What I love about the Chuck Blazer story is how over-the-top and cartoonish the brazenness of his corruption was. I mean, if I can borrow the word "flaming" from a less-savory context, Blazer was flamingly corrupt. At the very least, Gulati has a Moriarty-like ability to avoid being at the scene of the crime or connected to it in any way. At the very most, he may actually be an honest politician. Having sat in a classroom for a semester while he taught, he struck me as incredibly sincere and passionate about soccer's potential to positively impact the world, and gave the impression of being a true believer. I imagine, perhaps naively, that if the likes of Valcke or Platini were to teach a class twice a year (to say nothing of, say, Jack Warner), their cynicism would become apparent after too long. But then again I was 20 years old, and probably possessed a far higher opinion of my opinion than it deserved - and still may.Was there anything left for Gulati to take, or did Chuck Blazer suck up all the graft possible? I mean, Chuck was an awesomely productive graft-sucker.
That last paragraph is a total joke, of course. But thus far the only evidence points to the USSF operating as best they can in an obviously corrupt environment and there isn't yet much evidence that they partook. AFAIK, Blazer's corruption most stemmed from his role as General Secretary of CONCACAF.“What did U.S. Soccer know?” asked Senator Jerry Moran, Republican of Kansas and the chairman of the subcommittee on consumer protection, who had called the hearing. “What should you have known?”
Daniel Flynn, chief executive and secretary general of U.S. Soccer, answered those questions in place of Mr. Gulati, the president of U.S. Soccer and a top executive in FIFA. Mr. Flynn, who was not under oath, fumbled at times and once paused to consult with an adviser sitting behind him in the hearing room.
He repeatedly sought to distance U.S. Soccer from FIFA, painting the national organization as a dissenting member that had lobbied for more transparency in the global body.
“I knew nothing about any corruption,” Mr. Flynn said, though he later added that he had experienced “a level of discomfort” with the way FIFA did business but had not had “cold facts” on which to act.
The signature of Mr. Infantino, former legal director for UEFA, European soccer’s ruling body, reportedly appears on two contracts in question, which govern media rights from 2003 to 2009 for various soccer tournaments, including the Champions League.
Those contracts awarded business rights to Cross Trading, a marketing agency owned by Hugo Jinkis and Mariano Jinkis, a father and son indicted by the United States last spring on separate allegations of bribery and corruption. Both men have not pleaded to United States charges against them, and they remain in Argentina under house arrest.
. . .
The rights sold by UEFA to the Jinkises were, according to The Guardian, flipped to a third party, Teleamazonas of Ecuador, for three times what Cross Trading had paid for them, raising suspicions that UEFA sold them for far less than their market value.
Ha, right, FIFA's membership will vote for the reform candidate. Sure.That's one outcome, another is Prince Ali of Jordan wins.
Jerome Valcke: Fuck That GuyFatma Samoura of Senegal has been appointed as General Secretary, replacing Jérôme Valcke. She's a UN diplomat and has no prior experience in soccer whatsoever, which is probably a good thing under the circumstances. And of course, that she is a "she" is a notable change of pace for FIFA, too.
Sunil is the same type of hack as the rest, and will continue to be one through his next 3-5 terms as president of USSF.Sunil is basically a lapdog until the moment the US gets 2026.
The president of FIFA spends time ensuring that the proper protocol for storing meeting minutes is followed? Okay.The email exchange that makes mention of the deletion of audio files refers to a copy of the original audio file of the meeting that was improperly stored on a local drive.
Went to same HS as Gulati, about a decade later. A band I'm in has a fellow member of his class, and we played one of their high school reunions where he attended. I did not know that until after gig. A less cool story - LOL.I took micro with Gulati at Columbia.
Cool story, I know.