Make No Mistake, the FIFA War is Not About Football or Corruption

[malaise]

http://thewire.in/2015/05/31/make-no-mistake-the-fifa-war-is-not-about-football-or-corruption/
<snip>
Rio de Janeiro: Forget the analogies about football being more important than life and religion. The Beautiful Game has always been all about politics among nations – on and off the pitch. And now, it’s reaching Cold War levels.

On Friday, as soon as Sepp Blatter was elected president of the international football federation (FIFA) for another term, he was surrounded by African delegates, who shook his hands, hugged and kissed him. Then came the Asians followed by Latin Americans. Earlier, when Blatter delivered his victory speech – a breathless jumble of platitudes — delegates from Africa, Asia and Latin America, Russia and Oceania gave him a standing ovation. For a man who had been declared dead by the Western media just 24 hours ago, it was an incredible resurrection.

At FIFA’s convention hall in Zurich, as Blatter was being feted by the big bosses of regional and national federations, his challenger Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan sat in the front row with a long face. Giving him company in sorrow was Michel Platini, the former French footballer and president of the European football federation (UEFA). After the Jordanian conceded defeat, Platini look shattered, trying to figure out what went wrong. A day earlier, the Frenchman had hailed Prince Ali as the great hope for football and an antidote to corruption because “he is a prince and he doesn’t need the money”. But few delegates, except UEFA members and their American partners, bought Platini’s theory.

This was FIFA’s bloodiest election ever. With the 209 members of the football body divided into two camps – Europe (minus Russia and Spain) and North America versus the rest of the world – it was clear that a winner would emerge only after some serious bloodletting. But just two days before the Blatter-Prince Ali face-off, the United States weighed in with full force as the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested seven high-ranking FIFA representatives on corruption charges following a raid on their Zurich hotel. Soon after the officials – all from Central and South America – were taken into custody, US attorney-general Loretta Lynch called them “criminals” and demanded that the World Cup allotted to Russia (2018) and Qatar (2022) be cancelled.

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Sadly it was more politics than anything else

[DetlefK]

1. You really see conspiracies everywhere, do you?

Juts tell me: Is there one thing, ONE THING of international relevance, happening that IS NOT part or proof of some grand conspiracy how the Great Satan is taking over the world?



Awarding the World Cup 2022 to Qatar is so ridiculous that words fail. There is one, and only one, reason why Qatar, a burning-hot country without soccer-infrastructure or soccer-culture, would get to host the games. Money.
And if the World Cup 2022 gets investigated its only fair to investigate 2018.


Quote:
"Despite the western media dubbing this as Blatter’s way of “buying” influence and indulging in corruption, the delegates from these regions stood by him on Friday."

Absolutely incredible! Blatter gets accused of buying the influence of some delegates and those very delegates vote for him ANYWAYS. Color me shocked!




And the article describing the arrests as "kidnapping-style"... The swiss police-men drove to the hotel in civilian cars. They talked to the concierge. They arrested these people. They got in the car. The end.
Would it have been better for them to arrive with screaming sirens, shutting down the whole street while their cars park in front of the hotel?




Poor Sepp Blatter. For the past 20 years he has been the head of an organization that is a byword for corruption. If anybody tries to oust him, corruption cannot be the primary motive.
There has to be another motive.
A sinister motive.
WHAT? THE US ARE AMONG THOSE PEOPLE THAT DON'T LIKE HIM?
Case closed.
Blatter is the latest victim in the US' quest for world-dominance.

[bemildred]

2. What a farce. nt