
How the feds took down FIFA - wglb
http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/14767250/the-exclusive-story-how-feds-took-fifa
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hackuser
I don't think these investigations depend on corruption or crime, or at least
those factors are necessary but not sufficient.

When the government investigates an individual or organization that has long
been known to be corrupt, I always think 'why them and why now?' For example,
recently they took down a local politician known for corruption for decades;
why now? There are other similarly corrupt local politicians; why not them?

Why is the FBI taking down FIFA and not the Catholic Church, which operated a
global child rapist protection racket, or Wall Street firms, whose financial
fraud harmed billions of people and nearly took down the world economy? FIFA's
crimes seem to have relatively minor consequences.

My working hypothesis is that the corrupt lose key political protection and
then their enemies pounce. But I don't really know.

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a_humean
I think in this case the difference is that FIFA doesn't yet a lot of
political power in the US compared to Europe and South America, but was in the
process of significantly expanding its influence to the US, which drew the
attention of the investigators who could act without expending domestic
political capital. One question often raised in Europe and in particular
countries that feel hard done by FIFA, like the UK, is why it took the US to
investigate and prosecute when much of the corruption is taking place at our
front door. This is largely European, South American, and African corruption
that has some US based proxies mixed in that give the US investigations a way
in.

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ivanca
Nope, this is a large amount of money, my guess is that someone at the feds
said "we want a cut" and someone at FIFA said: "give money to the US feds,
they don't even like football (soccer?) that much, why?"

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ivanca
Down votes haha, so predictable, it's so cute when people want to believe
their gov is the good one doing things to save the world from corruption.
Nope, everything a organization as big as FBI does is because something is
damaging them. The church systematically raping children is not more important
than your money, sadly.

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jedmeyers
Yeah, what you're doing right now is called "reverse cargo cult". Not only you
know that your fake airplanes are made from straw / your country's government
is corrupted but you also claim that the real airplanes are also made from
straw / other functional governments are completely corrupted.

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joe_the_user
International sports and sports bodies tend to be pretty horrible.

This article brands the International Olympic Committee "a foul band reeking
of corruption and manipulation."[1] The most recent World Cup in Brazil
elicited large protests from the poor who failed to benefit from the
development.[2]

[1] [https://www.gn.apc.org/blog/meet-ioc-foul-band-reeking-
corru...](https://www.gn.apc.org/blog/meet-ioc-foul-band-reeking-corruption-
and-manipulation-andrew-jennings)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_protests_in_Brazil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_protests_in_Brazil)

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revelation
Or rather, how the feds took down FIFA once they spared a second to give a
fuck, and even then it was just simpler to do away with all the newfangled
investigative wiretap powers and that stuff, pretend its 1900 and give someone
a sweet deal for telling them the story.

Remember the Garcia report in 2012 was forced on the FIFA as a result of many
many years of grassroots investigative journalism and activism, when the FBI
or any other law enforcement body simply didn't bother.

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toyg
To be fair, the feds got where European authorities long failed to go. In
Europe, _everyone_ knew FIFA was rotten at least since the Havelange years,
but there was no real attempt at taking down the Blatter mafia from any
country.

