
FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S - bdehaaff
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/sports/soccer/fifa-officials-face-corruption-charges-in-us.html?_r=0
======
austenallred
It seems like the DOJ is doing the same thing they would do against a gang;
get a few lower-level people to take a plea deal and hand over the kingpin.
There's no way Blatter gets through this unscathed.

It will be interesting to see if the World Cup will be moved now; it never
made sense to have it in Qatar in the first place (no infrastructure,
_incredibly_ hot during the summer, hundreds of migrant workers dying and
injured because of the insane conditions they're working under to prepare the
stadiums. It's really, really messed up.

I've never seen /r/soccer so happy about _anything_ \- this news has 99%+
upvotes.

~~~
petepete
It'll be the top post ever in /r/soccer in no time, it's already fourth and
was only submitted four hours ago.

I truly hope that Blatter is ousted, the Qatar decision is reversed and given
to a nation that with a less-appalling human rights record and some actual
interest in football. I can't name a single Qatari club or player and know
nothing of their league (other than Gabriel Batistuta played there for a year
at the end of his career), and I'd consider myself to be someone who knowns a
fair bit about football.

~~~
iwwr
Apparently, hosting a World Cup has become a net negative to a country. The
costs (significant and increasing) go to the government and the profits go to
FIFA and the sponsors.

~~~
xasos
Yep, its really sad. It also applies for events like the Olympics, where
infrastructure improvements are mandatory, and costs far outweigh any profit
they may receive.

~~~
Ntrails
Counterpoint - the infrastructure stays around. The stadiums get used and re-
used, transport improvements benefit locals in perpetuity, tourism/trade
brings in money to the economy, not to mention there are general "morale"
reasons to host.

These are not profit making events to host, or at least they ought not to be.
The benefits are varied and certainly not trivially reducible to profit/loss
on the event itself.

~~~
nissehulth
Lots of stuff built is just a giant money pit and nobody benefit from it after
the games.

[http://www.reuters.com/news/picture/ghosts-of-olympics-
past?...](http://www.reuters.com/news/picture/ghosts-of-olympics-
past?articleId=USRTR30UOB)

[http://www.businessinsider.com/sochi-olympics-ghost-
city-201...](http://www.businessinsider.com/sochi-olympics-ghost-
city-2014-8?IR=T)

[http://distractify.com/culture/sports/haunting-images-of-
aba...](http://distractify.com/culture/sports/haunting-images-of-abandoned-
olympic-venues/)

~~~
Ntrails
Surely that's a question of implementation not inevitability?

~~~
dragonwriter
> Surely that's a question of implementation not inevitability?

Not really. While there might be some cases where some of the infrastructure
is something where the operating/maintenance costs would be justified but
which didn't get built because of the up-front capital costs, and where
hosting a special event which happened to need the same infrastructure might
provide an excuse (or an otherwise-unavailable source of funding) for the
capital costs, that's rather exceptional. Normally, the most of the
infrastructure needed for the event consists of things for which the
operations/maintenance costs would not be justified once the event is over.

~~~
mynameisvlad
Vancouver 2010 is a _fantastic_ example of just that. Yes, there were some
developments which could have gone better (Olympic Village, for one), but some
much needed infrastructure and stadium upgrades came out of it:

\- Sea to Sky Highway went from being a ridiculously dangerous road between
Vancouver and Whistler to being a pretty good road (still twisty, but there's
only so much that can be done about that), and sorely needed these
improvements for many, many years without budget for it.

\- Canada Line also received a whole bunch of federal money to get built,
probably bringing it ahead of schedule by many years. An airport transit line
was badly needed in Vancouver, especially with $40 cab rides to downtown.

\- BC Place's renovations got a major budget boost from the Olympics, allowing
it to be turned into a great venue. The pressurized roof was a huge annoyance
(air locks, yay! /s) and collapsed on several occasions, so the new
retractable roof probably wouldn't have happened without the Olympic money.

\- Cypress Mountain finally got off their ass and built a proper lodge with
proper facilities to support the Olympics.

Vancouver also reused a lot of existing stadiums and infrastructure, opting to
upgrade rather than build from scratch. It was honestly an example of a
really, _really_ well executed Olympics with a lasting legacy. There have been
complainers the entire time, but honestly, it made Vancouver a better city.
Closing of Granville for theentirety of the games also allowed the city to
experiment with closing off city blocks for events, and that now has become a
yearly tradition (along with Robson St). On a more sentimental note, it
brought the country together in a unified passion which I had not seen before
and have not seen since. It was truly a spectacular experience. I like
rewatching the closing comments on CTV
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX_dndXEGHI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX_dndXEGHI))
as well as Stephen Brunt's video essay
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz8tzP3oeDg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz8tzP3oeDg))
every so often to remember that.

~~~
kuschku
This is exactly what I’m talking about – Vancouver 2010, or Kiel+Munich 1972
are perfect examples for reusing existing infrastructure and upgrading it.

Even London 2012 was a great example – reusing infrastructure, upgrading it,
etc is a good way to do it.

Another good idea: One of the recent UEFA cups was hosted by two countries
together (actually, several of them were). Which is another good idea, several
less developed countries working together to still get the profit off of the
games, but sharing the costs.

~~~
tripzilch
So that's about .. once or twice per century?

------
JumpCrisscross
In case one wonders why the United States is enforcing this:

"U.S. investigators got help from Chuck Blazer, the longtime general secretary
of the confederation, the New York Daily News reported in November. Blazer
wore a hidden recording device in a keychain to meetings with soccer officials
at the London Olympics and elsewhere, the paper said. The IRS had leverage
over Blazer: He hadn’t paid taxes on millions of income for more than a
decade, according to the paper.

...

The choice of Qatar for the 2022 tournament angered many nations, and the U.S.
in particular. The U.S. was beaten in a final vote run-off with the emirate
after rival offers from Australia, South Korea and Japan had been eliminated
in previous rounds. Former President Bill Clinton led a U.S. group that
traveled to Zurich to make a final pitch to voters."

[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-27/u-s-
starts...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-27/u-s-starts-world-
cup-bribery-sweep-as-swiss-police-raid-hotel)

~~~
SandB0x
> The investigation into Blazer’s tax affairs turned up some choice claims
> about his lifestyle - including the revelation that Concacaf paid $18,000 a
> month for his Trump Towers apartment, and another $6,000 a month for a
> second Trump Towers flat, used mainly by his cats.

[http://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2015/may/27/fifa-
of...](http://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2015/may/27/fifa-officials-
arrested-on-corruption-charges-live)

~~~
gadders
The source NY Daily News stories has more detail:
[http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/soccer/soccer-rat-ex-u-
s-s...](http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/soccer/soccer-rat-ex-u-s-soccer-
exec-chuck-blazer-fbi-informant-article-1.1995761)

------
iaw
Wow. I'm impressed and somewhat surprised that the U.S. would be the entity to
enforce this given the relative lack of presence FIFA has in the U.S.

Maybe it's because the U.S. lost the world cup (as in hosting privileges)?

~~~
sschueller
I'm disgusted that the Swiss let this thing go on for so long and still give
FIFA non-profit status.

~~~
oliyoung
Not just FIFA, the IOC aren't exactly squeaky clean either

~~~
sjwright
Certainly, but the Olympics is something of a 20th century anachronism,
celebrating a bunch of sports that few people have any genuine interest in. It
is slowly becoming little more than a sports-themed fireworks roadshow.

FIFA controls the most popular and most profitable sport in the world. Period.

------
bane
Okay, I'll ask it: why does it take the U.S. to get involved in fighting
corruption against an almost entirely non-U.S. organization that governs a
sport that's not very popular here? Why isn't this happening in Europe or
Central/South America where the impact is more immediate?

~~~
InTheArena
Contrary to popular opinion, FIFA does quite a bit of revenue in the US, and
the Concacaf has been ground zero for much of the corruption issues. In many
cases, money is being issued from US banks to be used in the laundering and
corruption.

And the US may be the one country where FIFA doesn't have enough pull to graft
their way around the problem.

There was a great documentary a few years ago about the US links...

------
dbcooper
According to the _Economist_ , the 2018 and 2022 WC allocations are being
investigated too:

[http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-
finance/21652222-...](http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-
finance/21652222-officials-world-footballs-governing-body-have-been-arrested-
american-instigation)

>America’s actions could force other countries to investigate FIFA more
bravely. Indeed, that may already be happening. In what appears to be a
separate case, Swiss officers raided FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich, seized
electronic records and said they had opened criminal proceedings against
“persons unknown on suspicion of criminal mismanagement and of money
laundering in connection with the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 football
World Cups”. According to reports, 10 FIFA members who participated in the
vote for those competitions are to be questioned by police.

------
tragomaskhalos
Not in time to prevent the nonsense of the Qatar world cup (nor to save the
lives of the migrant workers being sacrificed to consummate that nonsense)

~~~
david927
What makes you say that? I think this actually puts a large cloud over the
Qatar world cup.

~~~
rjaco31
It won't change anything for the Nepalese workers down there though.

------
gadders
This aweseome news. Can we do the IOC next?

~~~
freehunter
Right after we fix the NFL and MLB.

~~~
gadders
Are they that bad? I'm in the UK but I always thought they were fairly legit,
if not very competent.

~~~
freehunter
It was kind of tongue in cheek. The NFL and MLB are no where near as bad as
FIFA or the IOC, although they affect me more since they're sports I watch,
and they're also a little more in our court since they're actually American
organizations. In terms of overall human rights and corruption, FIFA and IOC
rate much higher. The only people really hurt by the actions of the NFL are
the players.

~~~
gadders
Sounds like the FA/Premier League that controls football (soccer) over here.

------
damian2000
Blatter is coming under pressure to resign, but he's still the favourite to
win a 5th term in office as president of FIFA...

[http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/32891267](http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/32891267)

The guy was pretty unpopular when he appeared at the Asian Cup Final - booed
by just about everyone in the stadium.

~~~
sschueller
Blatter can't show his face anymore even in some of the most nobel restaurants
in Zürich because other guests will heckle him.

He needs to go and so does the non-profit status of FIFA.

~~~
bontoJR
For Swiss people, Blatter is a kind of reason to be ashamed. Funny fact: every
single time I am abroad and someone reminds me we have Blatter, I freak out...

I hope he will get caught if he's involved and that his face will disappear
forever from the football world. That sport is amazing, but in the last
(almost) 20 years, it has been ruled by a man with a dubious integrity.

~~~
hav
> Funny fact: every single time I am abroad and someone reminds me we have
> Blatter, I freak out...

Pardon my ignorance, but why would this make you actually freak out? Are you
related? I'm not trying to be obtuse, it just doesn't make sense to me.

~~~
bontoJR
Because this implies that every Swiss citizen is like him... that is usually
what they try to say/joke about...

------
thrillgore
My understanding is that FIFA can ban countries from the organization for
whatever reasons it sees fit. This probably cost the US any future world cups
for the foreseeable future.

~~~
kijin
Why do you think the US cares?

For FIFA, the US is the single largest source of television audience and
therefore advertising revenue.

For the US, on the other hand, soccer is just one of many sports. In fact, the
US is one of very few countries where soccer is not _the_ sport.

Americans are nowhere near as desperate for soccer as FIFA is desperate for
American money.

~~~
akfanta
> For FIFA, the US is the single largest source of television audience and
> therefore advertising revenue.

Are you for real? This statement is so ridiculous that I don't even know where
to start. You do realize football is by a huge margin, the most popular sports
on this planet, right?

~~~
sswezey
This article talks about the last world cup final:

[http://www.espnfc.com/fifa-world-cup/story/1950567/world-
cup...](http://www.espnfc.com/fifa-world-cup/story/1950567/world-cup-final-
most-watched-soccer-game-in-us-history-more-than-26-million-viewers)

The US had 43.8 million people watching the final (in English and Spanish).
Germany (who was in the final) had 34.65 million people watching. Even if
Argentina had ever single person in their country watching, they'd only have
42.6 million people watching (wiki estimate). Granted Brazil almost definitely
has higher viewership, but the US is definitely one of the largest.

~~~
akfanta
I don't get the point, those are hardly the only countries watch world cup.
For a event like world cup final, it's the single most important match in 4
years. It won't just attract fans from the countries that are in the final.

For example, the 2006 world cup attracted 4 billion viewers from China, and
their team was not even playing.[1]

[1]
[http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/fifafacts/ffprojects/ip-401_...](http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/fifafacts/ffprojects/ip-401_06e_tv_2658.pdf)

~~~
cbr
> 4 billion viewers from China

Something suspicious about that...

~~~
akfanta
How so? When you count viewership, of course they will combine number of
viewers from each match, considering most of the viewers will tune in for just
a few matches. This is common sense, I don't think there is anything
suspicious about that.

~~~
akfanta
Seriously? Down-voted for explaining my point? This place is as pathetic as
reddit.

~~~
TomGullen
4 billion viewers is a lot different to 4 billion views

------
lordnacho
One thing I don't get is why this form of corruption is illegal. FIFA is a
sort of international club, right? If I make an international group for the
placement of Tiddlywinks world cups, and I make some internal rules for it,
why does the state care how the politics turns out? Is it illegal to bribe
someone making some private decision?

~~~
hyperion2010
They are a business and are thus regulated by relevant laws. In this case FIFA
is also a monopoly. Imagine if comcast started forcing Tier3 or someone else
to pay bribes to get to their customers (heh). This is basically equivalent to
that. Tier3 could sue if it was done off the books (re: bribes) and the IRS
would go after the corp for tax evasion if they didn't report the bribe
income. Not sure how this case will proceed, but my bet is that some of the
charges will relate to tax evasion. Taking bribes is also likely only part of
the story.

~~~
kuschku
So, you mean, like Verizon did with Netflix?

------
randomname2
Just to make the farce complete, FIFA and Qatar donated to the Clinton
Foundation
[https://www.clintonfoundation.org/contributors?category=%245...](https://www.clintonfoundation.org/contributors?category=%2450%2C001%20to%20%24100%2C000&page=2)

as well as this:
[http://www.fifa.com/sustainability/news/y=2010/m=9/news=fifa...](http://www.fifa.com/sustainability/news/y=2010/m=9/news=fifa-
the-clinton-global-initiative-1306614.html)
[http://sportanddev.org/en/connect/userprofile.cfm?894/FIFA-J...](http://sportanddev.org/en/connect/userprofile.cfm?894/FIFA-
Joins-Clinton-Global-Initiative-CGI)

------
qzervaas
I had to look up the definition of "genuflect":

"Lower one's body briefly by bending one knee to the ground, typically in
worship or as a sign of respect."

~~~
scrollaway
Literally, flexing (-flect) your _genu_ (latin for knee, "genou" in French).

So, to kneel.

------
jstalin
The indictment is available here:
[https://www.unitedstatescourts.org/federal/nyed/370520/1-0.h...](https://www.unitedstatescourts.org/federal/nyed/370520/1-0.html)

------
mladenkovacevic
White House makes the first step towards enforcing mass boycott of the Russian
World Cup as punishment for flexing its muscles in its old spheres of
influence.

I'm all for dismantling and/or restructuring FIFA, but the timing is rather
opportune.

~~~
hvs
"Flexing its muscles in its old spheres of influence" is an interesting way to
say, "invading and taking over another country."

~~~
_nedR
You mean like what the US, UK and Australia did to Iraq. What punitive action
did these countries face for their actions?

Yes, really the whole thing makes perfect sense when viewed from an "Old
Order" vs "New Order" perspective.

~~~
dragonwriter
A lot of the same people (including in the US) who aren't happy with what
Russia did in Ukraine at the time it occurred also opposed what the US did in
Iraq at the time _that_ occurred.

~~~
mladenkovacevic
Nobody gives a shit what the "people" think. r/worldnews isn't going to change
foreign policy with outrage and opinions (Russian or US).

The more meaningful point to be taken from this event is that US government
can and will use its influence over public and private institutions (banks,
sporting organizations, other governments) to pressure Russia (and possibly
other BRIC nations) into abandoning their economic and strategic interests.

This is dangerous because there is no chance in hell of Russia abandoning
those interests over a soccer tournament (no matter how unfair/undeserved
those interests seem to an average Redditor trolling /r/worldnews from their
mom's basement in Illinois).

I feel that there are significant powers in Washington who sense that NATO and
US's days of being able to violate international law on a whim and without
repercussions are numbered and the only way to extend that immunity is by
raising the Iron Curtain once more.

~~~
dragonwriter
> Nobody gives a shit what the "people" think.

The effort governments (among others) put into propaganda demonstrate that
this is not true.

------
NicoJuicy
There was an interesting documentary/research episode two days ago on the
Belgium "information" channel, Telefacts.

It mentioned adding slavery to Russian laws for building the stadiums ( the
FIFA law - [http://www.ituc-csi.org/new-fifa-laws-strip-world-
cup](http://www.ituc-csi.org/new-fifa-laws-strip-world-cup) ) , Fifa - who
only wanted to use someone's "name" for "cleaning up FIFA from the inside" (
she quitted her fictional job at Fifa), the return of someone who has been
trialed for bribery - he laughed with it in an interview, bribery from Qatar
and Russia for holding FIFA, people/women who have been threathened for
accusing the FIFA of "actions against human rights", ... The list is long :)

Blatter, the president of the FIFA, likes to brag. He said: "i'm the only
person who can travel without official notification, who gets received by the
president of that country."

------
gmisra
For those of you who, like me, don't know much about the background and
context, Bloomberg Business recently did an in-depth piece on Blatter and his
ascension: [http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-sepp-blatter-
fifa/](http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-sepp-blatter-fifa/)

~~~
Carrok
For those of you who don't like reading, John Oliver did a fantastic segment
on FIFA:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlJEt2KU33I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlJEt2KU33I)

------
vfclists
If American law enforcement authorities have some balls why don't they go
after their corrupt bankers? Their bankers have been engaged in criminality
upon criminality upon criminality and all they have to is pay some fines which
are minuscule in comparison to the amount they robbed, in return for charges
being dropped, and admission by the prosecuting authorities of no wrong doing.

This is how spineless these European countries are. United Kingdom you know
who I'm talking about. And it looks like Switzerland has also joined the list.
Some of you European countries are so despicably shameful.

------
venomsnake
Can anyone explain the jurisdiction?

~~~
dragonwriter
The charges allege a conspiracy involving (among others) US persons
(individuals and corporations), making extensive use of US financial
institutions, and obstruction of justice relating to US law enforcement
investigation related to that conspiracy.

------
kaa2102
Teachers, bikers, and now FIFA - we have no problem throwing the hammer at
these folks but the criminals that threaten the world economy get a free pass.

------
pmcpinto
It's time to see a serious person leading FIFA. I hope that Blatter get's
arrested or that looses the elections.

------
dcsommer
I'm incredibly excited that finally these problems are being addressed, but
I'm not sure if this is relevant to HN.

------
kev6168
This time USA has my support to be the world police! Fuck Blatter!

------
mykhal
WTF? am I still at HN?

------
splittist
These are "FIFA Officials" in the same way that the representatives countries
send to the UN are "UN Officials", or US Congressfolk are "US Officials". They
aren't people who actually do the work at FIFA.

$150 million over 20 years for sports rights in Latin America seems to
indicate pretty slim margins. I wonder what the deal was with bribes and
kickbacks over the selection of the host country for the 2010 World Cup (i.e.
South Africa)?

The defendants who have copped pleas are convicted of the made-up 'crimes' of
e.g. "wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and the structuring
of financial transactions". [http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/nine-fifa-
officials-and-five-c...](http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/nine-fifa-officials-
and-five-corporate-executives-indicted-racketeering-conspiracy-and)

No doubt terrible things go on among the members and their representatives at
FIFA (as they do at the UN). Perhaps someone could explain how to organise an
international federation that prevents corruption in its member (i.e. owner)
organisations.

~~~
ptaipale
I don't quite understand how money laundering and fraud are "made up crimes".
IMO they are very real crimes. If the convictions are wrong (i.e. not based on
evidence), then say so, but claiming that crimes are "made up" is weasel
language.

~~~
splittist
Money laundering is a recent invention as a crime. None of the actions
involved are actually criminal in themselves, it's just that they (supposedly)
make it harder for the authorities to detect something they might want to be
obvious, to assist in the War on Drugs, or tax avoidance, or (more recently)
terrorism.

As to "fraud", I actually referred to "wire fraud conspiracy", which is, more
or less, once having had some sort of agreement (tacit or otherwise) to do
something with a dishonest intention where a telephone was involved in some
way or other. Note that you don't actually have to have followed through on
that intention for the "crime" to have been committed.

These defendants plead guilty, so the convictions are no doubt correct. And no
doubt many millions of bribes were paid. But I think a degree of skepticism
about prosecutorial conduct is appropriate no matter what the supposed target
of the prosecution.

~~~
ptaipale
Well, "recent" is relative. Modern money laundering procedures started to
develop in 1920's and 1930's; the proceeds of crime were hidden with banking
schemes, and Meyer Lansky eventually even bought a Swiss bank to help do it
for the American mob.

But I would guess that already ancient Chinese criminal gangs did something
similar, to make the proceeds of illegal activities appear legal.

~~~
splittist
Money laundering is old. Money laundering being its own stand-alone crime is
recent.

(And part of the modern trend of criminalizing the living of one's life in a
way not maximally transparent to the government.)

