God bless America

[Kidlicious]

x-post?

[Sava]

No. Everything is as intended

[Imran Siddiqui]

This is a really good article on why Africa tends to support Blatter (and it isn't the hookers and blow):

http://www.colinudoh.com/2015/05/africa-blatter-africa.html

The African vote is tight. It is united. It is Blatter's. This is less about corruption, and more about delivery. And loyalty.

Africa does not trust Europe. And until Europe, or whichever candidate its flavour of the month is, shows concrete evidence that Africa's interest will be given the same seat at the table, status quo will remain.

The rest of the article details how Blatter continued Havelange's policy to expand FIFA from just a European old boy's club and spread the benefits African and Asian countries. And, of course, Blatter not only promised an African World Cup - he delivered it. That South African WC was worth it's weight in votes.

This stuff NEEDS to be taken into account when determining how to get rid of Sepp. Simply saying, well it's just bribes for hookers and blow trivializes the entire thing - and falls right into what Sepp wants you to believe is happening, btw.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I think we also tend to forget this:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/sep/20/michel-platini-politics-qatar-2022-world-cup

Blatter, who voted for the US to host the 2022 tournament but has since become an advocate of moving it to winter, said in an interview this week that there was "definitely direct political influence" on European executive committee members to vote for Qatar.

Platini sardonically added: "It's new, apparently. It was said that Europeans voted for Qatar but Qatar got 14 votes. We're only eight. If you subtract eight from 14 you get six left over."

Platini has admitted voting for Qatar

So, basically, **** UEFA on this.

[kentonio]

EUFA are horrible, but they always have the trump card of 'at least we're not FIFA bad'.

[Dinner]

This is actually a pretty good article on why Blatter wins the vote from third world countries - who cares about corruption when you are finally getting some infrastructure money from FIFA and you are worried the next guy isn't going to care so much about it (obviously that is one of the reasons Blatter makes it priority):

http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2015/5/29/8688057/sepp-blatter-fifa-corruption-presidential-election-arrests

In essence Blatter is (or at least acts like) a football socialist. Hence the have-nots in world football tend to support him. To them his individual corruption is irrelevant as they feel that plenty of would be Presidents would just forget about third world soccer.

You can't particularly blame African and Asian countries too much here. You would think though that anti-Blatter forces would figure out that the way to fight the Palpatine of Football would be to have someone who actually does care about football in the third world and is willing to invest in the have nots as well as clean up the game. I'm not sure a Middle Eastern Prince would necessarily care about the things those football associations care about.

A lot of these small countries get some fairly large handouts from fifa and a huge percentage of the money gets diverted into the pockets of just a few people. The example of the island of Monserrot (or how ever you spell it) which gets $3 million per year from fifa but half of that pays the salaries of just two people.

[Dauphin]

This is a really good article on why Africa tends to support Blatter (and it isn't the hookers and blow):

http://www.colinudoh.com/2015/05/africa-blatter-africa.html

The rest of the article details how Blatter continued Havelange's policy to expand FIFA from just a European old boy's club and spread the benefits African and Asian countries. And, of course, Blatter not only promised an African World Cup - he delivered it. That South African WC was worth it's weight in votes.

This stuff NEEDS to be taken into account when determining how to get rid of Sepp. Simply saying, well it's just bribes for hookers and blow trivializes the entire thing - and falls right into what Sepp wants you to believe is happening, btw.

In terms of how. Agree. And most people recognise that facet. Its all intertwined.

But the reason why we need to get rid of him is because of the corruption. And the focus in a criminal investigation is not going to touch the other stuff.

[Imran Siddiqui]

In terms of how. Agree. And most people recognise that facet. Its all intertwined.

But the reason why we need to get rid of him is because of the corruption.

The issue is though that no anti-corruption candidate really publicly recognized this facet in their campaign. You can't beat Blatter in a competition unless you can speak to that issue in terms of CAF (or even AFC). It's likely because these candidates were beloved by UEFA and UEFA really doesn't want more money going to developing football countries - they want it for themselves.

[Imran Siddiqui]

EUFA are horrible, but they always have the trump card of 'at least we're not FIFA bad'.

That can be debatable - I don't think Platini would be any better than Blatter as head of the organization FWIW.

I have far more faith in someone like USSF's Gulati in charge, but that'll never happen.

[kentonio]

That can be debatable - I don't think Platini would be any better than Blatter as head of the organization FWIW.

I have far more faith in someone like USSF's Gulati in charge, but that'll never happen.

It's not debatable, but I also agree with you if Platini was in Blatters shoes. The only reason its not debatable is that EUFA has considerably less power than FIFA and is held under tighter control by its members being so powerful. You can't be EUFA president and piss off more than one of England, Spain and Germany, or else your reign isn't going to last very long. Unfortunately for England, Platini usually chooses England.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Fair enough... though I hasten to add it was the UEFA reps on the Executive Committee that were essential in picking Qatar for the 2022 World Cup.

[Dauphin]

Well done Jack.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/former-fifa-vice-president-jack-warner-cites-satirical-onion-article-to-attack-us-over-bribery-accusations-10288038.html

Former Fifa vice president Jack Warner cites satirical Onion article to attack US over bribery accusations

Fifa’s ex-vice president Jack Warner cited a spoof article in the satirical Onion website as he lambasted the US authorities for accusing him of soliciting bribes.

Mr Warner, who was arrested then released on bail by authorities in his native Trinidad and Tobago last week, held up a printout of the Onion article, which reported that Fifa had awarded the World Cup to the US and already begun the tournament, in a video posted on his Facebook page.

“I look to see that Fifa has frantically announced [that in] 2015, this year ... the World Cup [will] begin May 27,” he said.

“If Fifa is so bad, why is it that USA wants to keep the Fifa World Cup? Why is it that they have begun games on May 27?”

[Imran Siddiqui]

That was so freaking hilarious .

[Saras]

I don't even consider those "sports", let alone sports.

HEY!!

[kentonio]

Blatter just resigned.