Bin Hammam pulls out of FIFA presidential race

[Everest]

BBC News - Fifa: Mohamed Bin Hammam of Qatar ends presidential bid

The move came hours before the 62-year-old Asian Football Confederation chief was due to face an ethics committee hearing into bribery claims.

He said he did not want to see Fifa's name "dragged more in the mud".

Too late for that, old chum.

 

[Fef]

What an utter shambles. Sepp Blatter - take note, I'm sure that you too wouldn't like to see FIFAs name dragged through the mud either.

 

[16bha]

Unless several powerful countries grow some balls and withdraw (which would mean expulsion from World Football) then I can't see anything changing. Bin Hammams withdrawal is contrived in order to allow the status quo, and a late attempt to stop the shitcoming out. No doubt Blatter his paid him to step down from his candidature, then after Septic Bladder'svictory, yet another promise to rid the game of corruption.

What a bunch of thieves!! Sod them, let's pull out now!

 

[pasty]

Unless several powerful countries grow some balls and withdraw (which would mean expulsion from World Football) then I can't see anything changing. Bin Hammams withdrawal is contrived in order to allow the status quo, and a late attempt to stop the shitcoming out. No doubt Blatter his paid him to step down from his candidature, then after Septic Bladder'svictory, yet another promise to rid the game of corruption.

What a bunch of thieves!! Sod them, let's pull out now!

Completely agree. One of those countries though would absolutely have to be Brazil. Probably Spain, Germany, Argentina and a couple of other heavyweights as well for FIFA to take notice. I'm not convinced England have enough clout left in FIFA circles to make much of an impact if we withdrew without some big backers.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Its a shame Germany, France and a few more dont follow the FA's example.

 

[Triggaaar]

Exactly, if we pull out alone we'll miss out and the world won't even notice. We need the FA to team up with several big footballing nations and leave together, starting a non corrupt footballing committee.

 

[GT49er]

Bin Hammam pulls out of FIFA presidential race - I wonder how big a brown envelope that took? (not that I'm suggesting anything of the sort took place, of course).

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Frank Lowy the heart and brains behind the Australian Football Federation would make an outstanding FIFA President.

He's already so rich he wouldn't need to take pissy bribes.

 

[Gully]

Completely agree. One of those countries though would absolutely have to be Brazil. Probably Spain, Germany, Argentina and a couple of other heavyweights as well for FIFA to take notice. I'm not convinced England have enough clout left in FIFA circles to make much of an impact if we withdrew without some big backers.

This is probably on the mark, it would take the top dozen or so nations to withdraw from FIFA to pull the rug from under them and call an end to this sorry shambles, the organisation is clearly not fit for purpose.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

The only nations who'd potentially support England would probably be Australia and New Zealand.

 

[Gully]

The only nations who'd potentially support England would probably be Australia and New Zealand.

I think you would be surprised Tyrone, I reckon there are a fair few who would chose to put as much distance between themselves and that corrupt body as possible...I think that Germany and most of Scandinavia would be with us from the start, if we could get the likes of Brazil, Spain and Argentina on board the whole thing could quickly gather momentum.

 

[GT49er]

I think you would be surprised Tyrone, I reckon there are a fair few who would chose to put as much distance between themselves and that corrupt body as possible...I think that Germany and most of Scandinavia would be with us from the start, if we could get the likes of Brazil, Spain and Argentina on board the whole thing could quickly gather momentum.

Generally agree, but not Germany, I think, not while Beckenbauer's around.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Generally agree, but not Germany, I think, not while Beckenbauer's around.

Agreed, Germany are just as manipulative as the worst of them.

 

[Gully]

Generally agree, but not Germany, I think, not while Beckenbauer's around.

My rationale behind Germany is that they are one of the nations most likely to want to distance themselves from corruption, Beckenbauer would probably not want to sully his reputation.

Someone suggested having a Facebook group to get change in FIFA, not a bad idea, there are millions of people around the World who use it and love football...it is the sort of thing that could go viral very quickly, football is our game, time to take it back from those currently in charge!

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

I think you would be surprised Tyrone, I reckon there are a fair few who would chose to put as much distance between themselves and that corrupt body as possible...I think that Germany and most of Scandinavia would be with us from the start, if we could get the likes of Brazil, Spain and Argentina on board the whole thing could quickly gather momentum.

I can't see any of the other major blocks breaking ranks because the regions love to throw their political weight around come voting time.

Some of Oceania and possibly some CONCACAF members would be more likely to jump ship maybe though.

 

[GT49er]

My rationale behind Germany is that they are one of the nations most likely to want to distance themselves from corruption, Beckenbauer would probably not want to sully his reputation.

My feelings about Germany were based on this - hope the link works:BBC Sport - Sepp Blatter doing a wonderful job - Franz Beckenbauer. Anyway, it's on the BBC Football home page under the title "Blatter doing a great job - Beckenbauer".

Yes, haven't tried posting links before - as you can probably see!

 

[Gully]

I can't see any of the other major blocks breaking ranks because the regions love to throw their political weight around come voting time.

Some of Oceania and possibly some CONCACAF members would be more likely to jump ship maybe though.

This is the major stumbling block then, but it effectively means that national football associations are saying they don't mind the fraud and corruption by chosing to do nothing. It will be interesting to see what happens following the comments by Jack Warner, who has to rate as one of the most corrupt of the lot of them.

 

[Gully]

My feelings about Germany were based on this - hope the link works:BBC Sport - Sepp Blatter doing a wonderful job - Franz Beckenbauer. Anyway, it's on the BBC Football home page under the title "Blatter doing a great job - Beckenbauer".

Yes, haven't tried posting links before - as you can probably see!

OK, I hadn't seen that...but Beckenbauer might change his view very quickly if the ethics committe, meeting today, confirm what we all suspect about Blatter and suspend him indefinately.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

FIFA is no better than Eurovision.

 

[GT49er]

OK, I hadn't seen that...but Beckenbauer might change his view very quickly if the ethics committe, meeting today, confirm what we all suspect about Blatter and suspend him indefinately.

I think you'll find that in FIFA's vocabulary, 'Ethics Committee' roughly translates as 'Whitewash'.