USA sucks at soccer, now we have a reason to hate it: endemic corruption!

[marylander1940]

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.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/sports/soccer/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges-blatter-isnt-among-them.html?_r=0

 

Qatari officials bribed and lied about the weather in their country and others things to get the World Cup.

 

[bigvalboy]

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.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/sports/soccer/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges-blatter-isnt-among-them.html?_r=0

 

Qatari officials bribed and lied about the weather in their country and others things to get the World Cup.

 

 

This is going to be an ongoing and fascinating story Marylander. I heard also that now that bids for Qatar and Russia for 2022, are in doubt. Two decades of corruption, and this is most likely only the tip of the iceberg....unbelievable. (This sort of puts "deflagate" in perspective.)

[marylander1940]

This is going to be an ongoing and fascinating story Marylander. I heard also that now that bids for Qatar and Russia for 2022, are in doubt. Two decades of corruption, and this is most likely only the tip of the iceberg....unbelievable. (This sort of puts "deflagate" in perspective.)

 

At first I thought Russia should have been punished losing the 2018 Fifa world cup because of Crimea... now I think it should be left in place so they have another 50 billion dollars Sochi.

 

 

http://roadsandkingdoms.com/uploads/2014/03/crater.jpg

[bigvalboy]

Now we realize that those bids are not earned but most likely bought...

[marylander1940]

Now we realize that those bids are not earned but most likely bought...

 

Would you like to have a Fifa World Cup in Kansas? They could buy it very easily...

 

http://images.alternet.org/images/managed/storyimages_koch.jpg_310x220

[mike carey]

I heard a comment piece in this on the radio this afternoon. Apparently the desk clerk at the hotel rang the rooms and said, 'We will be coming up to see you, if you don't open the door when we knock we will smash it open'.

[+ dutchmuch]

Money is the only way to get FIFA's attention, hopefully the end result is the ouster of Sepp Blatter.

[bigvalboy]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/25/revealed-qatars-world-cup-slaves

"The more you know"....

( the last few paragraphs of the article were deleted. The software does not support more than 1000 words) click on the link to read the article in it's entirety.)

 

 

Revealed: Qatar's World Cup 'slaves'

Exclusive: Abuse and exploitation of migrant workers preparing emirate for 2022

 

World Cup construction 'will leave 4,000 migrant workers dead'

Analysis: Qatar 2022 puts Fifa's reputation on the line

 

Dozens of Nepalese migrant labourers have died in Qatar in recent weeks and thousands more are enduring appalling labour abuses, a Guardian investigation has found, raising serious questions about Qatar's preparations to host the 2022 World Cup.

 

This summer, Nepalese workers died at a rate of almost one a day in Qatar, many of them young men who had sudden heart attacks. The investigation found evidence to suggest that thousands of Nepalese, who make up the single largest group of labourers in Qatar, face exploitation and abuses that amount to modern-day slavery, as defined by the International Labour Organisation, during a building binge paving the way for 2022.

 

According to documents obtained from the Nepalese embassy in Doha, at least 44 workers died between 4 June and 8 August. More than half died of heart attacks, heart failure or workplace accidents.

 

 

 

The allegations suggest a chain of exploitation leading from poor Nepalese villages to Qatari leaders. The overall picture is of one of the richest nations exploiting one of the poorest to get ready for the world's most popular sporting tournament.

 

"We'd like to leave, but the company won't let us," said one Nepalese migrant employed at Lusail City development, a $45bn (£28bn) city being built from scratch which will include the 90,000-seater stadium that will host the World Cup final. "I'm angry about how this company is treating us, but we're helpless. I regret coming here, but what to do? We were compelled to come just to make a living, but we've had no luck."

 

The body tasked with organising the World Cup, the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, told the Guardian that work had yet to begin on projects directly related to the World Cup. However, it said it was "deeply concerned with the allegations that have been made against certain contractors/sub-contractors working on Lusail City's construction site and considers this issue to be of the utmost seriousness". It added: "We have been informed that the relevant government authorities are conducting an investigation into the allegations."

 

The Guardian's investigation also found men throughout the wider Qatari construction industry sleeping 12 to a room in places and getting sick through repulsive conditions in filthy hostels. Some say they have been forced to work without pay and left begging for food.

 

"We were working on an empty stomach for 24 hours; 12 hours' work and then no food all night," said Ram Kumar Mahara, 27. "When I complained, my manager assaulted me, kicked me out of the labour camp I lived in and refused to pay me anything. I had to beg for food from other workers."

 

Almost all migrant workers have huge debts from Nepal, accrued in order to pay recruitment agents for their jobs. The obligation to repay these debts, combined with the non-payment of wages, confiscation of documents and inability of workers to leave their place of work, constitute forced labour, a form of modern-day slavery estimated to affect up to 21 million people across the globe. So entrenched is this exploitation that the Nepalese ambassador to Qatar, Maya Kumari Sharma, recently described the emirate as an "open jail".

 

http://i.guim.co.uk/static/w-620/h--/q-95/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/9/25/1380123617011/Nepal-embassy-record-008.jpg

Record of deaths in July 2013, from all causes, held by the Nepalese embassy in Doha. Photograph: /guardian.co.uk

"The evidence uncovered by the Guardian is clear proof of the use of systematic forced labour in Qatar," said Aidan McQuade, director of Anti-Slavery International, which was founded in 1839. "In fact, these working conditions and the astonishing number of deaths of vulnerable workers go beyond forced labour to the slavery of old where human beings were treated as objects. There is no longer a risk that the World Cup might be built on forced labour. It is already happening."

 

Qatar has the highest ratio of migrant workers to domestic population in the world: more than 90% of the workforce are immigrants and the country is expected to recruit up to 1.5 million more labourers to build the stadiums, roads, ports and hotels needed for the tournament. Nepalese account for about 40% of migrant labourers in Qatar. More than 100,000 Nepalese left for the emirate last year.

 

The murky system of recruitment brokers in Asia and labour contractors in Qatar leaves them vulnerable to exploitation. The supreme committee has insisted that decent labour standards will be set for all World Cup contracts, but underneath it a complex web of project managers, construction firms and labour suppliers, employment contractors and recruitment agents operate.

 

According to some estimates, Qatar will spend $100bn on infrastructure projects to support the World Cup. As well as nine state-of-the-art stadiums, the country has committed to $20bn worth of new roads, $4bn for a causeway connecting Qatar to Bahrain, $24bn for a high-speed rail network, and 55,000 hotel rooms to accommodate visiting fans and has almost completed a new airport.

 

The World Cup is part of an even bigger programme of construction in Qatar designed to remake the tiny desert kingdom over the next two decades. Qatar has yet to start building stadiums for 2022, but has embarked on the big infrastructure projects likesuch as Lusail City that, according to the US project managers, Parsons, "will play a major role during the 2022 Fifa World Cup". The British engineering company Halcrow, part of the CH2M Hill group, is a lead consultant on the Lusail project responsible for "infrastructure design and construction supervision". CH2M Hill was recently appointed the official programme management consultant to the supreme committee. It says it has a "zero tolerance policy for the use of forced labour and other human trafficking practices".

 

Halcrow said: "Our supervision role of specific construction packages ensures adherence to site contract regulation for health, safety and environment. The terms of employment of a contractor's labour force is not under our direct purview."

 

Some Nepalese working at Lusail City tell desperate stories. They are saddled with huge debts they are paying back at interest rates of up to 36%, yet say they are forced to work without pay.

 

"The company has kept two months' salary from each of us to stop us running away," said one man who gave his name as SBD and who works at the Lusail City marina. SBD said he was employed by a subcontractor that supplies labourers for the project. Some workers say their subcontrator has confiscated their passports and refused to issue the ID cards they are entitled to under Qatari law. "Our manager always promises he'll issue [our cards] 'next week'," added a scaffolder who said he had worked in Qatar for two years without being given an ID card.

 

Without official documentation, migrant workers are in effect reduced to the status of illegal aliens, often unable to leave their place of work without fear of arrest and not entitled to any legal protection. Under the state-run kafala sponsorship system, workers are also unable to change jobs or leave the country without their sponsor company's permission.

 

A third worker, who was equally reluctant to give his name for fear of reprisal, added: "We'd like to leave, but the company won't let us. If we run away, we become illegal and that makes it hard to find another job. The police could catch us at any time and send us back home. We can't get a resident permit if we leave."

 

Other workers said they were forced to work long hours in temperatures of up to 50C (122F) without access to drinking water.

 

http://i.guim.co.uk/static/w-620/h--/q-95/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/9/20/1379694291346/grieving-parents-Nepal-007.jpg

[+ honcho]

I hesitate to use the "like" button at the end of the posting above , but I can say I'm truly

appreciatve that it was posted and appalled at what was described.

[+ quoththeraven]

I hesitate to use the "like" button at the end of the posting above , but I can say I'm truly

appreciatve that it was posted and appalled at what was described.

 

Which, just to be clear, is what I meant by hitting the "like" button. I "liked" that this was brought to our attention, not that it happened.

[marylander1940]

America's most popular fake newsman took on the scandal involving the world's most popular sport. Jon Stewart addressed the corruption allegations facing soccer’s governing body, FIFA, who had several of their officials arrested this week by Swiss authorities. "FIFA is so bad, they got arrested by the Swiss," Stewart joked. His grilling wasn’t just reserved for FIFA, though, as he also went after the American banks accused of laundering money for the organization saying, "You know Americans might not watch soccer but we will gladly, nay, enthusiastically, finance and launder it’s dirty dirty money." But in the end, FIFA has made it clear that there are currently no intentions on changing the venue of any upcoming World Cups, to which Stewart responded, "Look if there's one thing we at FIFA pride ourselves on, it’s when we get bribed, we stay bribed."

 

https://www.yahoo.com/tv/jon-stewart-has-a-ball-with-fifa-scandal-120118474945.html

[bigvalboy]

America's most popular fake newsman took on the scandal involving the world's most popular sport. Jon Stewart addressed the corruption allegations facing soccer’s governing body, FIFA, who had several of their officials arrested this week by Swiss authorities. "FIFA is so bad, they got arrested by the Swiss," Stewart joked. His grilling wasn’t just reserved for FIFA, though, as he also went after the American banks accused of laundering money for the organization saying, "You know Americans might not watch soccer but we will gladly, nay, enthusiastically, finance and launder it’s dirty dirty money." But in the end, FIFA has made it clear that there are currently no intentions on changing the venue of any upcoming World Cups, to which Stewart responded, "Look if there's one thing we at FIFA pride ourselves on, it’s when we get bribed, we stay bribed."

 

https://www.yahoo.com/tv/jon-stewart-has-a-ball-with-fifa-scandal-120118474945.html

 

And now this...

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/fifa-president-blatter-asks-elected-despite-crisis-053912036--spt.html

 

And thanks for the link Marylander..funny stuff.

[curiousnomore]

Thanks for posting this.

 

But, the US doesn't suck at Soccer because of corruption. The US sucks at Soccer because our best athletes play "Real" sports.

[+ WilliamM]

The US sucks at Soccer because our best athletes play "Real" sports.

 

By acccident, I was in Europe during two of the last three World Cup events (2010, 2006). I may be wrong, but my impression is the rest of world considers soccer (really 'football') a real sport! It is the U.S. that is out of step.

[+ quoththeraven]

By acccident, I was in Europe during two of the last three World Cup events (2010, 2006). I may be wrong, but my impression is the rest of world considers soccer (really 'football') a real sport! It is the U.S. that is out of step.

 

I agree. Just because those sports that are most popular in the US may involve more contact doesn't make them more real. There's an argument to be made that the finesse, strategy, and tactics of soccer (football to everyone else) are more what sport is all about than, say, baseball (whose players don't have to be in great physical shape) or US football.

 

When it comes to overall physical fitness, ballet dancers and their compatriots in modern dance have pro athletes beat anyway.

[curiousnomore]

I couldn't resist having a little fun with this one. Substitute "other" and you have my "real" opinion.

[+ WilliamM]

There's an argument to be made that the finesse, strategy, and tactics of soccer (football to everyone else) are more what sport is all about than, say, baseball (whose players don't have to be in great physical shape) or US football.

 

I agree. But, baseball players have to be in decent shape to play 162 games a year and sometimes a month of post-season games. Some teams seem to handle it better, like the Giants and Cardinals. The two teams have gone deep into the post-season lately and are in first place in their respective divisions this morning. It has to be the teams because the rosters turn over quickly in baseball.

 

Again, soccer (and perhaps tennis) are in an entirely diferent world on fitness. Elite tennis players, like Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Serena Williams, have several fitness coaches.

[bigvalboy]

Got to hot in the kitchen?

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/soccer-fc-yahoo/sepp-blatter-resigns-as-fifa-president-165551478.html

 

Sepp Blatter resigns as FIFA president

 

http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/OcKfpr30LsaYcVq6lcerBQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTYzOTtpbD1wbGFuZTtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz05NjA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/Part-PAR-Par8183632-1-1-0.jpg

 

 

Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s long-time president, announced on Tuesday that he will be resigning as soon as an extraordinary FIFA congress has elected a successor.

 

Blatter had won a fifth term as president just last Friday and seemed to feel vindicated in two victory speeches, after yet another round of scandals had beset him and his organization. A recent indictment by a the Department of Justice had led to the arrest of nine of his close associates last week.

 

The move comes as a total shock to the soccer world, which had assumed Blatter would remain in power through the end of his new four-year term, extending his reign to two decades.

[marylander1940]

It was about time for him to resign.

 

now let's go for the bankers who caused the 2008 financial crisis!

[bigvalboy]

.... I'm sure he knows a banker or two....or three.

[+ WilliamM]

.... I'm sure he knows a banker or two....or three.

Just got home after seeing Entourage: The Film, which fans will like, not so sure about folks who did not watch HBO. Blatter's gone, great news. Better by far than Entourage.