quote:

The US Department of Justice statement names nine Fifa officials and five “corporate executives” who have been indicted for “racketeering conspiracy and corruption”. The statement lists the individuals as:

Jeffrey Webb: Current Fifa vice-president and executive committee member, Concacaf president, Caribbean Football Union (CFU) executive committee member and Cayman Islands Football Association (CIFA) president.

Eduardo Li: Current Fifa executive committee member-elect, Concacaf executive committee member and Costa Rican soccer federation (FEDEFUT) president.

Julio Rocha: Current Fifa development officer. Former Central American Football Union (UNCAF) president and Nicaraguan soccer federation (FENIFUT) president.

Costas Takkas: Current attaché to the Concacaf president. Former CIFA general secretary.

Jack Warner: Former Fifa vice-president and executive committee member, Concacaf president, CFU president and Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) special adviser.

Eugenio Figueredo: Current Fifa vice-president and executive committee member. Former Conmebol president and Uruguayan soccer federation (AUF) president.

Rafael Esquivel: Current Conmebol executive committee member and Venezuelan soccer federation (FVF) president.

José Maria Marin: Current member of the Fifa organising committee for the Olympic football tournaments. Former CBF president.

Nicolás Leoz: Former Fifa executive committee member and Conmebol president.

Four of the defendants were sports marketing executives:

Alejandro Burzaco: Controlling principal of Torneos y Competencias SA, a sports marketing business based in Argentina, and its affiliates.

Aaron Davidson: President of Traffic Sports USA Inc (Traffic USA).

Hugo and Mariano Jinkis: Controlling principals of Full Play Group SA, a sports marketing business based in Argentina, and its affiliates.

Pissflaps posted:

What's a 'RICO' lawsuit?

quote:

The RICO Act focuses specifically on racketeering, and it allows the leaders of a syndicate to be tried for the crimes which they ordered others to do or assisted them, closing a perceived loophole that allowed someone who told a man to, for example, murder, to be exempt from the trial because he did not actually commit the crime personally.[1]

Dr. Tough posted:

Please tell me that Qatar and Russia will have the World Cup taken away. That would be so loving funny.

quote:

In a separate move, Swiss authorities opened criminal proceedings over the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. A statement from the Swiss attorney general said they seized electronic data from Fifa’s headquarters in Zurich and opened criminal proceedings against individuals on “the suspicion of criminal mismanagement and of money laundering in connection with the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 football World Cups”.

HOTLANTA MAN posted:

The feds also raided CONCACAF HQ in Miami a couple hours ago.

If I'm on the IOC I'm torching documents.

ZenVulgarity posted:

Morrow posted:

I read the headline last night just before I went to bed and was convinced I was hallucinating.

With so many senior officials indicted in this round, many of whom have served on the executive committee, there's no way that some of them don't provide more material to the FBI. If I were any FIFA official who'd done something shady in the past twenty years, I'd start looking very closely at who has extradition treaties with the US and Switzerland.

On another note, Michael Garcia is probably having the time of his life.

Freakazoid_ posted:

I've been hearing for years about how terrible FIFA is despite having no interest in soccer.

quote:

Some of the worst offenses have gone unpunished. On the afternoon of Jan. 12, 2010, an earthquake rocked Haiti, right as the board of the nation’s soccer association was meeting in its ­Port-au-Prince headquarters. The president, Yves Jean-Bart, escaped lightly injured. As the building collapsed, rubble pinned coach Jean Yves Labaze, who died along with at least 31 others. The next day, when the phones were back up, Blatter called Jean-Bart and pledged help. FIFA said it sent $250,000 in aid to the head of North and Central American soccer at the time, Warner, in Trinidad and Tobago. A contributor from South Korea sent an additional $500,000. Jean-Bart says he got only a fraction of it. At first, “we got a small shipment of rice, but if you count it up it was worth less than $10,000,” he says. Additional assistance, for reopening offices, running matches, and other items, brought the total aid received to just $429,000, he says.

After Jean-Bart complained to FIFA and the regional confederation, Warner drew up an accounting of how the money was spent. A copy obtained by Bloomberg Businessweek shows receipts of more than $229,000 for generators, food, blankets, and other supplies from a Trinidad company whose address doesn’t appear to exist. Jean-Bart says he never received those supplies. More than $366,222 went toward bringing two Haitian soccer teams to Trinidad and other countries for matches, according to the ledger. Their flights were arranged by a Warner family travel agency, and their lodging was at Warner’s conference center—the one he built with FIFA money. Warner dragged Jean-Bart into it, too. The final section of the accounting shows $30,000 ­allocated to pay for Jean-Bart’s daughter’s medical school bills. Christina Jean-Bart says she didn’t receive any money and didn’t pursue medical school. Almost five years later, FIFA says it’s still investigating the Haitian matter.

quote:

For his 1998 campaign tour, Blatter relied on a Qatari named Mohamed bin Hammam, who ran Asia’s soccer confederation. Bin Hammam supplied cash and the use of a private jet for Blatter to crisscross Africa in pursuit of votes. In his book How They Stole the Game, David Yallop writes that cash bundles of $50,000 were handed out to African delegates in Paris before the vote.

quote:

Before the election in 2002, FIFA’s secretary general, lawyer Michel Zen-Ruffinen, compiled a report alleging abuse of power and mismanagement that was signed by 11 executive committee officers. “FIFA today is run like a dictatorship,” he wrote in the report. “It has been reduced to the Blatter organization.” Among the allegations were unauthorized payments by Blatter from FIFA accounts. All FIFA financial records from 1998 and earlier had vanished, making it impossible for FIFA staff or its KPMG auditors to assess the ­organization’s true finances, the report said.

quote:

A group of Europeans persuaded Issa Hayatou, the head of soccer in Africa, to stand against Blatter. At a meeting to discuss FIFA’s finances, the men from the Caribbean moved to put down the mutiny. Blatter backers, including the Caymans’ Webb, spoke up in Blatter’s favor. Boos and jeers rang out as dissenting voices were kept from the podium. A call from the Norwegian soccer association’s general secretary at the time, Karen Espelund, that Blatter’s opponents be heard was ignored. Blatter didn’t intervene, Espelund says. As she recalls it, the support for Blatter became strident. Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi’s son ­Al-Saadi, wearing a beret, took the stage to add his backing. A day later, Blatter wiped the floor with Hayatou, winning 139 to 56.

quote:

Less than a month before the ­election, members of the Caribbean Football Union gathered at a hotel in Trinidad to hear from bin Hammam. After he addressed the group, Warner took the stage and announced there would be gifts from bin Hammam for those in attendance. Later that day, delegates lined up at a hotel room door and entered one at a time. Inside, Caribbean soccer administrators handed each ­delegate an envelope stuffed with four stacks of $100 bills, each worth $10,000.

BigRed0427 posted:

So do we know yet what the Justice Department is looking for exactly or are they just pulling what ever bullshit they can find.

Also, no records exist after 1998? What are the odds it turns out FIFA isn't exactly financially solvent?

quote:

FBI director Comey is asked why it took so long for Fifa to be called out on the carpet. He cites the the complexity of the case in addition to the international component.

“You don’t want to bring a case until you have the goods and that takes time,” he says.

V. Illych L. posted:

tbh russia getting the WC isn't that insane imo, though obviously also corrupt

qatar, though, lol. just lol you can't even play football in qatar in the summer

quote:

Fifa’s sponsors, though, are deemed more reachable. This week has seen the launch of a campaign by the International Trade Union Confederation, Play Fair Qatar and the NewFifaNow group to shame them with the appalling conditions endured by labourers building tournament infrastructure for 2022. “As things stand,” declares Play Fair Qatar, “more than 62 workers will die for each game played during the 2022 tournament.”

To repeat: more than 62 per game. Perhaps players in every match could each wear 62 black armbands. Then again, that would probably contravene Fifa’s strict rules on what constitutes official kit, infringements of which it punishes ferociously. On infringements such as mass slave death, however, the evidence suggests it is more relaxed.

Torrannor posted:

Of course not, all of Europe is extremely grateful that you guys are taking on FIFA and Blatter. Sadly, we didn't dare/were unable to do it ourselves.

OhYeah posted:

But I have more shocking news. The Estonian representative in FIFA said that there is a small possibility that if Blatter is re-elected, that UEFA might pull out of FIFA and subsequently, from the 2018 World Cup as well.

Lid posted:

They are asking for players to play in a potentially dangerous Russia, and then compromise their European playing contracts to instead play in a literal desert because they had to move the games to winter due to a high chance of players literally dying. There are limits to what people are willing to put up with.