Sepp Blatter finally calls Qatar WC a "mistake"

[khodam]

FIFA needs to be investigated by the member government agencies like FBI.

[KC McElroy]

I can't say I didn't see this coming although I expected South America and the US to be part of it too.

http://www.espnfc.us/fifa-world-cup/...uld-leave-fifa

German Football League (DFL) president Dr. Reinhard Rauball has claimed UEFA could leave FIFA if the World Cup bidding report is not published in full.

A 42-page summary of the report into the 2018 and 2022 tournaments was released on Thursday, clearing Russia and Qatar as hosts and accusing several other bidding nations of impropriety.

However, investigator Michael Garcia said the summarised version released by judge Joachim Eckert "contains numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions detailed in the investigatory chamber's report."

FIFA confirmed on Friday that he had lodged his intention to appeal.

Eckert, the chairman of the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA's independent ethics committee, expressed surprise at Garcia's response, but the situation has increased calls for the full report to be made public.

Rauball has now told kicker that, if world football's governing body fails to release the full details, their European counterparts could force an exit from FIFA jurisdiction.

He said the report appeared to be a "serious attempt" to investigate the bidding process for the two tournaments but added: "The result was a breakdown in communication, and it has shaken the foundations of FIFA in a way I've never experienced before.

"As a solution, two things must happen: Not only must the decision of the ethics committee be published, but Mr Garcia's bill of indictment too, so it becomes clear what the charges were and how they were judged.

"Additionally, the areas that were not evaluated [in the report] and whether that was justified [should be published]. It must be made public. That is the only way FIFA can deal with the complete loss of credibility.

"If this doesn't happen and the crisis is not resolved in a credible manner, you have to entertain the question of whether you are actually still in good hands with FIFA."

Asked about the potential consequences if that were not the case, he said: "One option that would have to bear serious consideration is certainly that UEFA leaves FIFA."

The president of the German FA (DFB), Wolfgang Niersbach, had also been critical of the report process, telling ARD Tagesschau: "Things haven't exactly been cleared up in the way we all hoped, so that all the public's doubts were washed away."

The 42-page summary had been particularly critical of England, but Football Association chairman Greg Dyke described the process as "a bit of a joke" in an interview with Sky Sports News.

The situation has led two members of FIFA's Executive Committee to call for Garcia's full report to be made public in order to ensure "complete transparency."

FIFA vice president and CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb and Sunil Gulati, the president of the USA Soccer Federation, released a joint statement on Friday, which read: "Given the disagreement between the two chairmen of the Investigatory and Adjudicatory Chambers of the ethics committee, and to ensure complete transparency, we believe the full report conducted by the FIFA ethics committee ... should be made public as soon as possible."

[hzv]

FIFA files criminal complaint over World Cup bids

Soccer body's head Sepp Blatter confirms organization filed a legal complaint to Swiss courts over 2018, 2022 awards

[OFFSIDE_1]

Fifa whistle blower Phaedra Al-Majid fears for her safety


http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/30122601

"Fifa whistleblower Phaedra Al-Majid says she will "look over my shoulder for the rest of my life" after making allegations of corruption against Qatar's successful 2022 World Cup bid"

[OFFSIDE_1]

FIFA To Review World Cup Corruption Report

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/...ruption-report

"Soccer's governing body said today it will further review the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, reopening for scrutiny the mechanism by which Russia and Qatar were awarded the tournaments."

[OFFSIDE_1]

not so good news:

FIFA dismisses Garcia's appeal of World Cup probe

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/fifa-re...8583--sow.html

"GENEVA (AP) -- The status of Russia and Qatar as World Cup hosts seemed even more secure Tuesday after FIFA dismissed ethics prosecutor Michael Garcia's appeal against the handling of his investigation into the bidding process.

FIFA said its appeals panel ruled the case ''not admissible.''

The former U.S. Attorney had objected to ethics judge Joachim Eckert's summary of the World Cup bid investigation, claiming ''numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations'' of his work.

Eckert sought to close the case against all nine bidding candidates last month. He concluded that any corruption or rule-breaking was of ''very limited scope'' and did not influence the votes. The FIFA executive committee chose Russia to host the World Cup in 2018 and Qatar won the vote for the 2022 tournament.

It was unclear if Garcia can take his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport."

[OFFSIDE_1]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/blatter...2414--sow.html

Blatter warns Qatar over imported national team

Zurich (AFP) - FIFA president Sepp Blatter on Friday warned Qatar against trying to form an imported team for the 2022 World Cup they will host and labelled the foreign team it used at the world handball championships as an "absurdity".

"The nation of 2.2 million faces the huge challenge of forming a competitive national football team by 2022. However, this cannot be achieved by quickly naturalising players," Blatter said in a commentary for the FIFA Weekly journal.

He said that football's world body does not allow this, unlike the International Handball Federation.

According to Blatter, Qatar's players, who reached last weekend's final at the handball world championships "contradict the spirit of a national team".

The Qatar squad included players born in Bosnia-Hercegovina, France, Spain, Cuba and Montenegro. Several had played for other national teams prior to the tournament but handball allows players to play for more than one country.

"The fact that sport builds social bridges and brings cultures together cannot be stressed often enough," said the FIFA president, who is campaigning for a new term in May's election.

"However, what happened at this year's men's world handball championship in Qatar stretched this notion to the point of absurdity," he said.

Under FIFA rules, a player has to have been born in the country he represents or his parents have to have been were born there. Otherwise, the player must have spent at least five years living there to qualify.

[Z Joon]

Looks like Qatar did not pay Sepp recently

[eerooni]

Humanity in general, as a race is corrupt, and the bozos at FIFA are no exception, what protects us are the laws that are meant to create a proper balance, but when the few do much to alter the law or the truth and the many sit back and let it happen that's when you get injustice, which we are experiencing now! FIFA will never take the WC 2022 from Qatar because a lot of money and I mean crap load of cash and other perks were dished out by Qatar FA To get this World Cup! To investigate this effectively you need to clean house at FIFA and they don't take crap from no body!...

[DRCha]

I get the feeling that this will be the most energy-less World Cup ever. Players will be slow and unimaginative due to the heat. Most of the seats will be empty due to the fans preferring to avoid the heat and the strict laws.

[Kiarash]

I get the feeling that this will be the most energy-less World Cup ever. Players will be slow and unimaginative due to the heat. Most of the seats will be empty due to the fans preferring to avoid the heat and the strict laws.

I'm boycotting this World Cup completely.

[Ali.Karimi79]

I'm boycotting this World Cup completely.

same here.
I am sure we are heading towards WW3 anyways.

[Surenas]

same here.
I am sure we are heading towards WW3 anyways.

Would be shame, I want to see the progress of TM.

[Martin-Reza]

Football in general is going down the drain. They failed to live up to the needs of the present, officials still living in the past.

Many results are just random, influenced by refereeing decisions. Since World Cup, I only watch TM with some very rare exceptions.

[Surenas]

Actually TM-Games makes me even more furious, because it's the moment you face the incompetence of Asia.
To be honest Football have lost much of his shine, since the PL in England became a role model for success by investors, it destroys the whole Football competition.
I mean in the past we also had investors in both Clubs from Milan or OM in France, but it did not distort the competition like nowadays, today its almost impossible to find a Team, which is competitive alongside Teams like Barca, Real, Bayern, PSG, Chelsea, Man City.

Only Dortmund and Atletico were almost able to reach the Throne of Europe, but only for a short period, these Teams can't be on the same Level as the Teams above over a longer Period, there were days in Football, when Teams like Red Star were the Champions of Europe, it will never happen again sadly.

It's nice to see around the world that we have a strong tendency of more competitive reams at national teams level.
In the past teams like Argentinia, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Netherlands literally beat the crap out of weaker teams, but if you look back to WC 2014, it was possible - apart from Referee decisions - for Iran to beat Argentinia, it was possible for Algeria to beat Germany, Chile could beat Brazil and they degraded Spain, this is the good part, Football became much more fun, but not the Club Football sadly, WC 2022 will be a joke, mark my words in 7 years.