FIFA In Ruins After Police Raid!!!

[OFFSIDE_1]

^ and now he says:

Sepp Blatter: 'Liberating' to leave FIFA; expects 2016 election

"GENEVA (AP) — Sepp Blatter says deciding to leave FIFA was "liberating" and he expects the election to replace him will be in early 2016.

In an interview published Saturday, Blatter explains his planned FIFA exit announced June 2 amid American and Swiss investigations of corruption in world soccer.

Blatter tells his local Swiss newspaper Walliser Bote: "It was the only way to take away the pressure from FIFA and my employees, including (pressure) from the sponsors. To remove FIFA and me personally from the line of fire."

Asked "hand on heart" if he would renege on his promise to go, Blatter says "I am not a candidate, but the elected president. And I want to hand over FIFA in good condition."

[OFFSIDE_1]

https://news.yahoo.com/video/russia-...124313251.html

"Russia And Qatar May Lose World Cups
by Wochit 0:48 mins

Leading Fifa official Domenico Scala has said Russia and Qatar could lose the 2018 and 2022 World Cups respectively--if evidence emerges of bribery. The countries deny any wrongdoing in their bidding processes, and Scala admits he has not seen evidence of corruption. American lawyer Michael Garcia was previously hired by Fifa to investigate the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding processes. In November, Fifa released findings from his two-year inquiry as a summary of his full 430-page report. However, Garcia complained Fifa's representation of his work was "erroneous".

[OFFSIDE_1]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...b0ecec71bc62eb

Russia, Qatar World Cups Linked To 28 Acts Of Possible Money Laundering

BERN, Switzerland — Swiss federal prosecutors have new evidence of 28 acts of possible money laundering linked to FIFA's 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid contests.

The office of Switzerland's attorney general says it now has 81 "suspicious activity reports" filed by banks in the country.

Attorney-General Michael Lauber said last month his team had 53 suspicious incidents to study in a "huge and complex case."

Swiss prosecutors are working with a separate United States probe of racketeering and bribery implicating senior FIFA officials.

Though Lauber's case focuses on the 2018-2022 contests won by Russia and Qatar, respectively, he said it could include other FIFA business.

His office says Sunday that all new reports "are related to the (attorney general's) investigation into the allocation of the football World Cups 2018 and 2022.

[Bi-honar]

^^^ Russians, money laundering?! Impossible.

On a more serious note, I was told by a French chef who worked extensively in Switzerland (Geneva, Zurich and Bern) that they were running the entire underground economy there with drugs and prostitution (which is apparently in high demand with bankers and diplomats), so finding traces of Russian laundered money all over Switzerland should neither come as a surprise to anyone nor mean it's related to their World Cup bid.

[OFFSIDE_1]

Where is El Chapo when you need him .....

[Javeed]

A U.S. Senate panel invited FIFA President Sepp Blatter to answer questions at a hearing this Wednesday about the corruption scandal that has badly tarnished soccer's global governing body but FIFA declined on his behalf, a congressional official said.

"Sen. Moran's office reached out to FIFA to explore the possibility of having Mr. Blatter testify but the organization declined," said Garrette Turner, spokesman for Senator Jerry Moran, the Republican chairman of the consumer protection subcommittee, which is holding the hearing.

FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment and Blatter's legal representative in the U.S. declined to comment.

Blatter said last week in an interview with German newspaper Welt am Sonntag that he "won't take any travel risks until everything has been cleared up".

The 79-year-old Swiss national did not attend the final of FIFA's Women's World Cup in Vancouver earlier this month but says he intends to be in Russia in late July for the draw for qualifying games for the 2018 World Cup.

Also missing from the hearing will be U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) top elected official, President Sunil Gulati, who is a member of FIFA's executive committee representing the North America region. He has been USSF president since 2006.

The USSF will be represented instead by CEO and Secretary General Dan Flynn.

Senator Moran's office said that Flynn was "the highest ranking official U.S. Soccer was willing to send" to testify at the hearing.

The USSF did not respond to a question from Reuters about why Flynn and not Gulati was appearing.

The three other witnesses are Michael Hershman, a private investigator who served on FIFA's independent governance committee from 2011 to 2013, Sunjeev Bery, an official of Amnesty International, and Andrew Jennings, a British investigative journalist who led efforts to expose corruption in FIFA.

Senators will ask what if anything, current American soccer executives knew about alleged corruption in the sport's governing bodies, congressional aides said.

Former U.S. soccer official Chuck Blazer, who was a FIFA executive committee member for 17 years, has been at the center of the corruption scandal. He has pleaded guilty to a series of offences related to bribery and is cooperating with authorities.

SPONSORS' ROLE

The subcommittee will also explore what role and responsibilities corporate sponsors do and should play in the governance of the world's most popular sport, the aides said.

In late May, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York indicted nine soccer officials, most of whom held FIFA positions or had previously held such positions, and five sports media and promotions executives in schemes involving $150 million in bribes over a period of 24 years. Prosecutors said their investigation exposed complex money laundering schemes, millions of dollars in untaxed income and tens of millions of dollars in offshore accounts held by the soccer officials.

The indictment included reference to an unnamed sportswear company that has been widely identified as Oregon-based Nike Inc (NKE.N). The indictment references payments made in "marketing fees" to the Brazilian national soccer federation, that were not in the company's initial contract.

Nike said there is no allegation in the indictment that it engaged in criminal conduct.

Congressional aides said senators are likely to ask witnesses detailed questions about what U.S. soccer officials knew about the kind of corruption and dysfunction inside FIFA and its regional affiliates. In particular, they will want to know what the officials did or did not do about it, and what they plan to do to clean up the sport, the aides said.

In a statement last week, Moran said: "This hearing on the recent FIFA scandals will begin the discussion about our country's own participation in the organization, ways the United States and our allies can work to reform FIFA, and how we can restore integrity to the game so many Americans and citizens of the world enjoy."

Congressional aides said that senators will question witnesses as to whether they think major U.S. corporations should play a larger role in ensuring that FIFA and other soccer organizations look after the human rights concerns of workers involved in major FIFA projects, such as the construction of stadiums for the 2022 World Cup competition in Qatar.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...source=twitter

[Bi-honar]

First extradition to US - I guess more to follow:


Switzerland extradites first official to U.S. in FIFA case

Reuters
ZURICH | BY KATHARINA BART
Thu Jul 16, 2015 6:15am EDT Related: WORLD, SPORTS

Swiss authorities said on Thursday they had extradited to the United States an official detained in a U.S. corruption investigation into world soccer's governing body FIFA.

They did not name the official, but the news came six days after a source told Reuters that Jeffrey Webb - one of seven current and former FIFA employees arrested in Switzerland in May - had agreed not to fight his extradition.

The allegations under investigation by U.S. and Swiss authorities cover bribery, fraud and money laundering, including possible corruption in the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively.

They have rocked the administration of the world's most popular sport, raised questions for the game's powerful commercial sponsors, and forced FIFA President Sepp Blatter to announce he will step down.

A Swiss justice official said: "The first of the seven FIFA officials being held in custody in Switzerland was extradited to the U.S. on 15 July.

"He was handed over to a three-man U.S. police escort in Zurich who accompanied him on the flight to New York."

Webb and the six others were arrested by Swiss police in a dawn raid on a luxury Zurich hotel two days before a FIFA Congress in May where Blatter was re-elected for a fifth term.

An indictment unsealed by U.S. prosecutors in Brooklyn charged soccer officials and marketing executives with exploiting the sport for their own gain through bribes of $150 million over 24 years.

Amid an international uproar, Blatter announced days later he would lay down his mandate at an extraordinary FIFA Congress which will take place between December and February, and would not stand again.

Webb, a citizen of the Cayman Islands, is charged with racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering. He has been provisionally banned from his posts at FIFA and CONCACAF, the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football.

Neither his lawyer nor a U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman responded to requests for comment on Thursday.

The U.S. indictment describes Webb as using his influential positions to solicit bribes from sports marketing companies in exchange for the commercial rights to soccer matches.

Six other officials -- Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha, Eugenio Figueredo, Rafael Esquivel, Jose Maria Marin and Costas Takkas -- remain detained in Switzerland and are contesting their extradition.

[Bi-honar]

BREAKING...

Swiss open criminal investigation of world soccer chief Blatter

[AIrani]

I do not understand.

There are many corruption in the USA and nobody gets extradited to other countries, but the reverse happens other countries are extraditing people. I do not understand the fairness or equal treatment.

The whole thing started in the USA for Winter games in Utah. Then other countries started bribing each other and finally Qatar made the situation worse for FIFA. There was NO way Qatar could get support with bribing.

Russia is okay in my view. Qatar is not okay. USA is as corrupt as any other country. They were upset because Israel was in trouble of being boycotted. Israel lobby blew the whistle too long. LOL.

[Go_Daei]

^ they used american banks to wire money back and forth.. imagine a case of Heroin going thru Iran from balochestan to kurdestan... to ultimately get to Europe.. If busted in Iran would sepah look other way?

[Bi-honar]

The plot thickens...

Sepp Blatter, Michel Platini handed 90-day FIFA suspensions

[teammelli91]

^ Just 90 days? Or is that the first punishment leading to eventually more.

[Gotham]

^ Just 90 days? Or is that the first punishment leading to eventually more.

An extra 45 days could be added I read from an article.

[OFFSIDE_1]

Blatter confesses:

http://soccer.nbcsports.com/2015/10/...artner=ya5nbcs

Blatter: 2022 World Cup meant to be in USA; attacks Platini, wants return

"Sepp Blatter has either officially lost the plot, or he’s just gone on a rant and has decided to spill the beans"

"In 2010 we had a discussion of the World Cup and then we went to a double decision. For the World Cups it was agreed that we go to Russia because it’s never been in Russia, eastern Europe, and for 2022 we go back to America. And so we will have the World Cup in the two biggest political powers. And everything was good until the moment when Sarkozy came in a meeting with the crown prince of Qatar, who is now the ruler of Qatar (Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani). And at a lunch afterwards with Mr. Platini he said it would be good to go to Qatar. And this has changed all pattern. There was an election by secret ballot. Four votes from Europe went away from the USA and so the result was fourteen to eight. If you put the four votes, it would have been twelve to ten. If the USA was given the World Cup, we would only speak about the wonderful World Cup 2018 in Russia and we would not speak about any problems at FIFA"

[BacheLot]

^or perhaps just pandering to US litigators demands and saying what they want him to say..!!???

he knows full well that by now him and FIFA is just a thing of the past for him and he will never again be associated with FIFA in any capacity & that US justice department and their continuing investigation deeper into his past misconduct is indeed his biggest impediment to ever be able to put this whole saga behind him and move on with his life in (what should still be a relatively very comfortable) retirement, away from football..!!

Blatter seems to be anymore the thing of the past and Platini now seems to be the next big target of US litigators..!!

whether all this culminate in Qatar loosing the right to host WC remains the bigger question still..!!