Civil war at FIFA now, Warner opens the box...

[Triggaaar]

The problem is that Coca Cola and adidas can easily be replaced. Unlike the Tiger Woods scenario, where the sponsors could transfer their allegiance to another player, there is only one World Cup, and it is a very lucrative competition.

I don't see your point - if Coca Cola and Adidas customers put pressure on them (reduced spending), and they were replaced, we'd just just do the same with the replacement sponsers. It would hurt the pocket of FIFA. We need the US on board, they're great at this sort of thing.

 

[Tooting Gull]

It's weird how England only got 2 votes in the vote for 2018 after FIFA said ours was the best bed, I can't remember what the excuses were for us not getting more, something like us being over-confident - as if that is part of the selection criteria.

It's not that weird, when you remember Blatter told the voters just before they voted that the English press would be a nightmare. It was certainly enough of a steer to make some of the weasels who had promised their votes change their mind.

If a judge had said that to a jury before they retired to decide on their verdict, the case would have been thrown out. It's a bit like saying 'This bloke is probably guilty, and if you let him off, he could be round your house trying to attack your wife'.

That was our main beef, I'm certain there was more actual 'corruption' for the other 2022 tournament, and Australia have more to moan about there.

 

[Triggaaar]

That was our main beef, I'm certain there was more actual 'corruption' for the other 2022 tournament, and Australia have more to moan about there.

Well that's utter nonsense. If the World Cup can be bought, then it will be bought every time, not just for 2022. Add the fact the Lord Treisman has said they were asked for bribes from 3 of the delegates (and we know he wasn't lying). And why was Putin only going to fly over once it was announced that they'd won?

It's not that weird, when you remember Blatter told the voters just before they voted that the English press would be a nightmare. It was certainly enough of a steer to make some of the weasels who had promised their votes change their mind.

Yes that could easily change the minds of some. His comments alone are proof that the process is a farce. When FIFA say that our bid is the best, but then say don't vote for us because we have a free press, then the 2018 vote was no fairer than the 2022 vote.

If a judge had said that to a jury before they retired to decide on their verdict, the case would have been thrown out.

Quite.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Addidas and Coca-Cola put a lot more into a world cup than Murdoch.

I trust you will boycott Falmer and all Albion matches when we take our pieces of silver and line up against Murdock`s millionaires in a season or two.

I'm not saying that Murdoch puts anything into football. Like Blatter, he takes his money FROM football fans and thinks this gives him the right to shape the game. No-one challenges him. Individual gestures are pointless. Even I pay my subscription to Sky Sports.

 

[Acker79]

Regarding Addidas Martin Samuel mentioned they need to tread carefully:

Adidas, a leading sponsor of FIFA, has denounced corruption allegations as bad for the game. 'The negative tenor of the public debate is neither good for the sport of football, nor for FIFA as an institution and its partners,' read a statement.

To take this guff seriously, it helps not to have read Pitch Invasion by Barbara Smit, which details the iniquitous passage of the company through sport's corridors of power.
Take this excerpt in which Horst Dassler, father of the modern adidas, and his business partner, Andre Guelfi, conspire to get Helmut Kaser, general secretary of FIFA, removed from office.
'Horst asked me if I couldn't work something out to eliminate Kaser,' said Guelfi. 'I told him (Kaser) that, if he refused, we would make his life a misery. I told him he had better leave with his head held high and negotiate for his safety.'

The man who got Kaser's job was Sepp Blatter, now FIFA president. 'A puppet,' Dassler called him.

Maybe the noted moralists at adidas should pipe down, lest the spotlight swivel in their direction. Remember that World Cup ball?


Read more: Martin Samuel: Michel Platini is not on the ball over Qatar plan | Mail Online

 

[Tooting Gull]

Well that's utter nonsense. .

It's hardly utter nonsense, 2022 was a far more outrageous decision than ours (Russia had at least a credible case for getting it for the first time). Qatar was a joke, and therefore far more likely to have been for other reasons. Don't get me wrong, like you it wouldn't surprise me to learn in the future money changed hands on 2018 as well, maybe it did. The Russians aren't renowned for treading lightly on this sort of thing. But Triesman - unfortunately - has been discredited by our own FA, which won't help. At the end of the day we don't know so it's best guess time, and I think Qatar is likely to have been a dodgier decision than Russia.

 

[Gully]

The performances by Blatter in the last few days remind me of the end of some of the World's great dictators, they deny everything that has gone on during their watch, that they are not responsible for it and some phoney ethics committee has cleared them of all wrongdoing...finally, pressure from ordinary people, who don't fall for their brand of propaganda, results in their downfall.

Blatter's days are numbered, as are those of many around him, sadly the damage to the reputation of World football seems to have been done.

In response to the comment from Tooting, I always thought it a bit strange that Blatter was keen to decide where the World Cup would take place in 2022 at the same time as 2018 when traditionally they had been chosen individually. What better reason than the result had already been decided in favour of Qatar and those running the show saw it as their last chance to milk some money from the sacred cow that is FIFA, before the whole shambles came down around them.

 

[Tooting Gull]

Regarding Addidas Martin Samuel mentioned they need to tread carefully:

Have you got pictures of Martin Samuel on your wall?

 

[Acker79]

Have you got pictures of Martin Samuel on your wall?

Yes.

 

[drew]

The idea of Uefa pulling out of Fifa is probably the best and now is the ideal time. We are in the middle of the Euro qualifiers so that tournament should remain unaffected and so there would be about 8 months in which to sort out the Fifa mess. The only immediate danger (if you see it as that) would be that Fifa would not allow non-European players to play in European leagues without forfeiting the right to play for their respective countries as well. They could carrying on playing in the hope that the mess is sorted before the next World Cup qualifying begins but in the meantime, for example, African players would not be able to compete in the African Cup of Nations, unless of course The Confederation of African Football also breaks away! The only downside of Uefa doing this is that their commander in chief is staunchly anti British but that may be a price worth paying.

 

[Simster]

Depressingly, I don't see ANYTHING changing in the corridors of power at FIFA. It seems to me that a couple of lambs are being sacrificed but because they are a completely unaccountable body, there is little anyone can do about it. You'd think the nation of Switzerland are probably best positioned to look into the corruption allegations, but seeing as FIFA sit on £1.6bn, they are presumably too scared to rock the boat for fear of that cash leaving their banking system. Just a hunch.

I have to say, my suspicion is that this will die a death after a couple of corrupt minor officials are thrown to the lions, and will only rear it's head again as we approach Qatar 2022. I'm half expecting some construction-related shambles (perhaps deaths of some Indian workers), some human rights abuses (some sort of local protest quashed with rubber bullets), numbers of foreign supporters massively down owing to alcohol ban rumours and over-zealous policing scare stories. Throw in a couple of big name countries failing to qualify (lets say England and France) and it could be the recipe for disaster that might call into question the money from key sponsors like Coca Cola and Mastercard, because they will want answers as to why the biggest sporting event in the world was a total shambles. Until then, the muck-raking from the British press will simply be rubbished as the sour grapes that, to an extent, it is.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

The performances by Blatter in the last few days remind me of the end of some of the World's great dictators

Something tells me he would quite like that comparison.

 

[hillianseagull]

FA ask FIFA to cancel tomorrows election. SSN

 

[Tooting Gull]

Depressingly, I don't see ANYTHING changing in the corridors of power at FIFA. It seems to me that a couple of lambs are being sacrificed but because they are a completely unaccountable body, there is little anyone can do about it. You'd think the nation of Switzerland are probably best positioned to look into the corruption allegations, but seeing as FIFA sit on £1.6bn, they are presumably too scared to rock the boat for fear of that cash leaving their banking system. Just a hunch.

I have to say, my suspicion is that this will die a death after a couple of corrupt minor officials are thrown to the lions, and will only rear it's head again as we approach Qatar 2022. I'm half expecting some construction-related shambles (perhaps deaths of some Indian workers), some human rights abuses (some sort of local protest quashed with rubber bullets), numbers of foreign supporters massively down owing to alcohol ban rumours and over-zealous policing scare stories. Throw in a couple of big name countries failing to qualify (lets say England and France) and it could be the recipe for disaster that might call into question the money from key sponsors like Coca Cola and Mastercard, because they will want answers as to why the biggest sporting event in the world was a total shambles. Until then, the muck-raking from the British press will simply be rubbished as the sour grapes that, to an extent, it is.

I honestly think you're wrong there mate. It could be sponsor-led, or come from the US, as has been suggested. After the week's events and yesterday's deluded display there will be ramifications for Blatter, would you give that bloke hundreds of millions of your money?

And there's a lot more to this than sour grapes and muck-raking. Andrew Jennings has produced some superb investigative journalism on FIFA with very little help, and he started it long before we were bidding for World Cups. Everyone else has just caught up.

I do agree with you about Switzerland though, they are best placed to make FIFA's life difficult, but with the money in the vaults, and the kudos and flow of high-spending VIP visitors, I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

FA ask FIFA to cancel tomorrows election. SSN

Do you honestly think FIFA care one jot what the FA think or say - just look at the way they dismissed the Triesman report out of hand (although it sounds like the Brits couldn't agree amongst themselves quite what the bribes were, that they were asked for).

 

[Simster]

I hope you're right Tooting. It's just that it only seems to be the BRITISH press responsible for the investigations. Where are the journalists from other developed nations? The impression will always be that it is only the British who won't accept that FIFA can carry on as a corrupt organisation.

I'd happily be proved wrong, but I just don't see who is going to do the clean up. Did you see that press conference on Saturday from that "independent ethics committee" or whatever? Absolutely laughable load of old waffle. Do they really think they are convincing anyone?

 

[piersa]

Give it time and i think they guilty parties will start to blame each other and the FIFA walls will crumble. It may take time, but imo it will happen. I also believe there is far more skull dugarry going on than we already think.

 

[Tooting Gull]

Yup, I think the 'FIFA Ethics Committee' goes straight in at No1 in the 2011 oxymoron chart.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

This whole thing is a face. I'd be suprised if Qatar WC ever takes place, there's just no way it is safe for fans or players. If it does take place the attendances will be abysmal.

Does anyone want it there, apart from the a few rich Qatari's? But because of bribes, we're having it there and we have to invent new technology to allow a VERY simple game involving grass, a few painted lines, 4 flags and posts at either end to take place without being a HAZARD to those taking part.

 

[Easy 10]

I'd happily be proved wrong, but I just don't see who is going to do the clean up. Did you see that press conference on Saturday from that "independent ethics committee" or whatever? Absolutely laughable load of old waffle. Do they really think they are convincing anyone?

No, I don't think they do. And yesterdays press conference with Blatter ws even worse - the reporters were actually openly laughing at him as he went to leave the room (after spending half an hour avoiding questions), so much so that he felt moved to return to the podium to blast them for their "lack of respect". He's a dead man walking.

One way or another, I think we are seeing the end-game of FIFA in its current format. The FA and other football associations carry little sway with them of course. But when the likes of Coca Cola and Adidas start getting uncomfortable with having their brand associatied with what is becoming an increasingly discredited and ridiculed organisation, something has to give. If major sponsors start walking away, then I think its only a matter of time before Blatter either steps down or is removed by a vote of no confidence from the other FIFA committee members. Jack Warner has a mountain of mud he can sling, so if he's going down, he won't be going quietly.