Sepp Blatter…Is he corrupt??

vinnymarsden

Once again the FIFA set up is under scrutiny for apparent dodgy dealings in the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar in 2022.
I don' think anyone will be surprised to hear it, and most of all, I don't think anyone will believe anything coming from FIFA by way of statements etc..Blatter and the entire set up appears to be one big gravy train for self appointed officials to do as they please!!
I was unaware that the voting process consists of 23 all men, all private, with no requirement for any of the 23 to explain their voting choice, no wonder corruption has crept in, or appears to have.
The heat in Qatar allegedly gets up to 45degrees plus, I think it's a joke to expect anything approaching a real and fair competition to take place in that heat.
No doubt there was, and is a lot of underhanded tricks in every walk of business where voting is used to decide something…but the entire thing appears to be "off the richter" when it comes to FIFA.
They have stolen the beautiful game, wrapped/shrouded it in their insane rules and in so doing have somehow become the legislators for all the worlds associations!
What needs to happen is ALL the worlds football governing bodies, disown FIFA and all it's pathetic plastic sham rules, and create a new world body, where everything is transparent, above board and ALL audit trackable.
Blatter is even considering standing for another term as FIFA president…heaven help the game if this clearly immoral set up is allowed to keep him as it's voice/leader…Discuss...

upperoilcan

Corruption in football !?!?!?

Well i never !!

Monkeypump

Sexism, racism, homophobia, corruption, criminals, bigots, fatcats and scumbags - football really has it all. A fine example for our kids to look up to.

Pross

Monkeypump wrote:

Sexism, racism, homophobia, corruption, criminals, bigots, fatcats and scumbags - football really has it all. A fine example for our kids to look up to.

No doping though, we know that as they don't even need to test the players.

VTech

He is very corrupt. Any organisation that allows "gifts" for members of the committee are by nature corrupt.
Houses, cash, cars, holidays. It's all wrong.

Not much to say on the subject due to the fact. It much is of good character.

cc78

Modern football is f..ked, it has been overrun and bled dry by parasites. Totally ruined.

Mikey23

Plus one...

Anonymous

The issue is also that the 'review' of the recent Qatar bid can't allow the bidding process be seen to be corrupt or it looks bad for Qatar, and as always with these things, there is never/never will be a fall guy.

It's all above board and there was no £3m paid to an official and the WC will be in the Qatari winter. Aus will be fuming, given they were immediately out of the bid, due to it needing to be in winter if in southern hemisphere.

slowmart

Does the Catholic clergy like buggering boys?

It's the same answer.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/m ... se-scandal

random man

Football must be one of, if not the most corrupt sports in the world at the moment. It'll take a long time to clean it up as there is so much money involved.

Gazzetta67

What is it with big organisations who have a set up in Switzerland ? UCI 8) ..... I think the Sunday Times has just "nailed" England's chances this time thats if they had any in the first place. just you wait to see any 50-50 decisions go in favour of the other teams as there will be a few "cards marked" :?:

nathancom

Strangely this story only really hits the UK newspapers. I can't find much about this scandal on non uk websites either, a piece on bleacher, a piece on espn and that is it. This mainly appears to be UK press vs FIFA, makes you proud of our press for once.

cc78

nathancom wrote:

Strangely this story only really hits the UK newspapers. I can't find much about this scandal on non uk websites either, a piece on bleacher, a piece on espn and that is it. This mainly appears to be UK press vs FIFA, makes you proud of our press for once.

French media have been covering it today.

VTech

I'm in dubai right now and just asked the people with me, two from the emirates and three from the USA and none have heard about this.
Either way, soccer and especially blatter makes for the worst club of crooks possible. The fact that he has ALWAYS vetoed any English opportunity to host world football and be a part of decision making.

Anonymous

Is it not the Times newspaper who have all the damning material as well?

RideOnTime

maximum wages and no sponsorship, that's the answer

debeli

cc78 wrote:

Modern football is f..ked, it has been overrun and bled dry by parasites. Totally ruined.

Football remains a very physical, visceral, sometimes beautiful game. It is one of many similar sports, but it seems to have cornered much of whatever market there is for these things.

It is not f..cked. I imagine that SB probably is corrupt and worse (he lives quite well for a sports administrator) but this is to be expected.

But the World Cup is not football, nor is FIFA, nor is UEFA or even the FA. Certainly the EPL is not football. They are just industries or governing bodies or both.

The success of the Qatar 2022 bid was a farce. For all the reasons given (no culture of football, repressive regime, tiny population, temperatures unsuited to exciting games and many others) it was a joke. It was bought. That was clear from the first moment.

But that does not signify the death of football. Nor does it suggest it is being bled dry by parasites. Some unseemly characters have dipped their beaks into the gravy train and they will be gently brushed aside to live in wealthy retirement. It has happened since the dawn of time. It will keep happening.

But football is not them and they are not football. Football is an under-11 match on a frozen, lumpy, sloping pitch in December... and football is Bergkamp's insane goal against Argentna in 1998 from De Boer's insane pass.

And football is the dodgy burgers they sell outside The Emirates which I continue to buy despte knowing they might kill me.

Football is excellent.

I am right.

markhewitt1978

I am right.

No; because I don't like the game, but the politics is sometimes interesting.

It's clear that Blatter needs to go, but his situation is not unusual, when you compare it to the likes of Ecclestone in Formula 1. F1 has been suffering from similar issues for a while, taking the races to places with little interest in motorsport and little motorsport heritage. The difference here is that with F1 the race does go to the highest bidder or the one who has offered the biggest bribes and they make no apology for that!

Perhaps one way of making the World Cup bid process 'fair' is just to straight out say that whoever offers FIFA the most cash gets the nod!

cc78

Debeli wrote:

cc78 wrote:

Modern football is f..ked, it has been overrun and bled dry by parasites. Totally ruined.

Football remains a very physical, visceral, sometimes beautiful game. It is one of many similar sports, but it seems to have cornered much of whatever market there is for these things.

It is not f..cked. I imagine that SB probably is corrupt and worse (he lives quite well for a sports administrator) but this is to be expected.

But the World Cup is not football, nor is FIFA, nor is UEFA or even the FA. Certainly the EPL is not football. They are just industries or governing bodies or both.

The success of the Qatar 2022 bid was a farce. For all the reasons given (no culture of football, repressive regime, tiny population, temperatures unsuited to exciting games and many others) it was a joke. It was bought. That was clear from the first moment.

But that does not signify the death of football. Nor does it suggest it is being bled dry by parasites. Some unseemly characters have dipped their beaks into the gravy train and they will be gently brushed aside to live in wealthy retirement. It has happened since the dawn of time. It will keep happening.

But football is not them and they are not football. Football is an under-11 match on a frozen, lumpy, sloping pitch in December... and football is Bergkamp's insane goal against Argentna in 1998 from De Boer's insane pass.

And football is the dodgy burgers they sell outside The Emirates which I continue to buy despte knowing they might kill me.

Football is excellent.

I am right.

Some of what you say is correct, perhaps what I should have said was that modern top-level football is f..ked. People like you and me still love the game despite its many (growing) flaws. And that Bergkamp goal is one of the best ever.

What concerns me is that the small bubble of clubs who take part in the EPL and the Champions League, plus the superclubs like Barca and Real Madrid, are drawing more and more fans, particularly kids, who would normally support and sustain their local teams. That's not healthy. The money involved at the top level in players' wages, transfer fees, agents' payments, ticket prices (how much do you pay for the Emirates BTW?) etc etc etc is just obscene, indefensibly so. The European Cup has already been turned into a circus and now we have the greatest tournament of all, the World Cup, tarnished by corruption.

And we have Brazil, the biggest football nation on Earth, spending wild sums of money to host the tournament while millions of people lack basic amenities, let alone the money to buy tickets for the tournament taking place in their own backyard. Of course this has happened with past tournaments but that's not an excuse. It's not right.

debeli

cc78 wrote:

Some of what you say is correct, perhaps what I should have said was that modern top-level football is f..ked. People like you and me still love the game despite its many (growing) flaws. And that Bergkamp goal is one of the best ever.

What concerns me is that the small bubble of clubs who take part in the EPL and the Champions League, plus the superclubs like Barca and Real Madrid, are drawing more and more fans, particularly kids, who would normally support and sustain their local teams. That's not healthy. The money involved at the top level in players' wages, transfer fees, agents' payments, ticket prices (how much do you pay for the Emirates BTW?) etc etc etc is just obscene, indefensibly so. The European Cup has already been turned into a circus and now we have the greatest tournament of all, the World Cup, tarnished by corruption.

And we have Brazil, the biggest football nation on Earth, spending wild sums of money to host the tournament while millions of people lack basic amenities, let alone the money to buy tickets for the tournament taking place in their own backyard. Of course this has happened with past tournaments but that's not an excuse. It's not right.

I agree with pretty much all of that.

Tickets to the Emirates? Don't ask. We are 100 miles+ from the ground these days, so it is diesel, tickets, snacks and Arsenal Red membership to even be on the list to get them...

We (middle child and I) go to maybe 2 Gunners games a season, usually away games (cheaper and closer and the dans are louder). But.. we have a Conference side on our doorstep (nearly) and we go there - he more than I. The quality is lower, the songs are worse and the noise levels can be disappointingly underwhelming, but it is still a good watch and only a tenner or so at the gate.

But the prices at Highbu.... The Emirates sort of prove your point. As a boy in London I could take the tube or bus to The Bridge or Highbury and buy a ticket at the turnstile. My dad would take the money out of his wallet for three or four of us.... Who carries up to £200 in their wallet these days for a ninety-minute diversion for afew kids?

Football will continue its move onto TV and TV (and other media) will choose the prices, the players and the timings of big games.

And yes, SB is as bent as a nine-bob note.

♠ChumBucket♠

Money + Power = Corruption!

finchy

This is the REAL scandal surrounding the Qatar World Cup.

mamba80

cant see how anyone can defend football, from hyper competitive dads, shouting at their kids, abusing officals, at this imaginary u11s game in December, multi millionaire players and managers with little talent paying little tax and dodgy deals signed with a stuffed envelope...all this goes back decades and FA has done sweet FA about it, because they are just as morally deficient.

why anyone supports a sport that we are no good at, encourages bad sportsmanship and has now been shown to utterly corrupt is beyond me.

apart from that, love the "beautiful" game!

cc78

Debeli wrote:

cc78 wrote:

Some of what you say is correct, perhaps what I should have said was that modern top-level football is f..ked. People like you and me still love the game despite its many (growing) flaws. And that Bergkamp goal is one of the best ever.

What concerns me is that the small bubble of clubs who take part in the EPL and the Champions League, plus the superclubs like Barca and Real Madrid, are drawing more and more fans, particularly kids, who would normally support and sustain their local teams. That's not healthy. The money involved at the top level in players' wages, transfer fees, agents' payments, ticket prices (how much do you pay for the Emirates BTW?) etc etc etc is just obscene, indefensibly so. The European Cup has already been turned into a circus and now we have the greatest tournament of all, the World Cup, tarnished by corruption.

And we have Brazil, the biggest football nation on Earth, spending wild sums of money to host the tournament while millions of people lack basic amenities, let alone the money to buy tickets for the tournament taking place in their own backyard. Of course this has happened with past tournaments but that's not an excuse. It's not right.

I agree with pretty much all of that.

Tickets to the Emirates? Don't ask. We are 100 miles+ from the ground these days, so it is diesel, tickets, snacks and Arsenal Red membership to even be on the list to get them...

We (middle child and I) go to maybe 2 Gunners games a season, usually away games (cheaper and closer and the dans are louder). But.. we have a Conference side on our doorstep (nearly) and we go there - he more than I. The quality is lower, the songs are worse and the noise levels can be disappointingly underwhelming, but it is still a good watch and only a tenner or so at the gate.

But the prices at Highbu.... The Emirates sort of prove your point. As a boy in London I could take the tube or bus to The Bridge or Highbury and buy a ticket at the turnstile. My dad would take the money out of his wallet for three or four of us.... Who carries up to £200 in their wallet these days for a ninety-minute diversion for afew kids?

Football will continue its move onto TV and TV (and other media) will choose the prices, the players and the timings of big games.

And yes, SB is as bent as a nine-bob note.

Fair play to you for going to watch your local team. I would be very interested to see how attendances at these clubs have changed in the last few years, as the rise of Sky and the superclubs has taken hold.

I grew up in Glasgow, whenever I go back there now I notice immediately the number of kids running around in Barca/Man U/Chelsea tops is far greater than it used to be; conversely there are a far fewer Rangers and Celtic tops. In recent times there are obviously other factors at play there as well but it doesn't augur well for the future of these clubs, in my view. I imagine it is a similar situation in other cities across Europe where clubs who used to be big names now have no chance whatsoever of competing beyond their own domestic leagues.

I think it would probably be best if the superclubs hived off to form their own megaleague, they could play on a pitch marked out with gold, and then everyone else could get on with "normal" football again.

markhewitt1978

mamba80 wrote:

why anyone supports a sport that we are no good at, encourages bad sportsmanship and has now been shown to utterly corrupt is beyond me.
!

Saying "we are no good at it" is not correct. The success of the home nation teams or otherwise doesn't indicate if we are good at the sport or not. Certainly the Premier League is one of the most successful in the world, so I think we're doing ok. That said I still don't like football.

finchy

mamba80 wrote:

cant see how anyone can defend football, from hyper competitive dads, shouting at their kids, abusing officals, at this imaginary u11s game in December, multi millionaire players and managers with little talent paying little tax and dodgy deals signed with a stuffed envelope...all this goes back decades and FA has done sweet FA about it, because they are just as morally deficient.

why anyone supports a sport that we are no good at, encourages bad sportsmanship and has now been shown to utterly corrupt is beyond me.

apart from that, love the "beautiful" game!

All this is correct, but which sports are immune to what you have mentioned?

debeli

mamba80 wrote:

cant see how anyone can defend football, from hyper competitive dads, shouting at their kids, abusing officals, at this imaginary u11s game in December, multi millionaire players and managers with little talent paying little tax and dodgy deals signed with a stuffed envelope...all this goes back decades and FA has done sweet FA about it, because they are just as morally deficient.

why anyone supports a sport that we are no good at, encourages bad sportsmanship and has now been shown to utterly corrupt is beyond me.

apart from that, love the "beautiful" game!

Yes, there are obsessive, aggressive, moronic parents ... but that isn't the whole story. I've seen it and heard it several times as the father of a boy who played in a local mini-foot league from age seven and still plays in a 5-a-side leisure league at eighteen. In one game I was running the line and kept my flag down when the opposition attack slipped my boy's offside trap. It was under-12 or thereabouts. Our own coach (seriously) was about two feet from me, yelling for nearly a minute, with veins popping everywhere because I hadn't flagged the forward offside. First, he wasn't offside... secondly, he didn't score anyway. It was surreal, but we all got over it. I find that sort of reaction grotesque, but it doesn't detract from the game as a whole - it just makes the vein-popper look slightly absurd.

But... those things are fairly rare and have nothing to do with the beauty of the game when played as it ought to be. My other two kids (girl and boy) do not play football and have almost no interest in the game.

My youngest rows... and there is bad sportsmanship and worse in that sport (see the CV of Jurgen Groebler)... My middle kid (the footballer) also does the odd TT on his bike. At the top of cycling (as we have all read) there is a slight whiff of cheating, but football, rowing, cycling, cross-country running... they are all excellent sports if done the right way.

At the top of football there is filth and corruption, but it is still a beautiful game.

bompington

cc78 wrote:

I grew up in Glasgow, whenever I go back there now I notice immediately the number of kids running around in Barca/Man U/Chelsea tops is far greater than it used to be; conversely there are a far fewer Rangers and Celtic tops.

Still far too many old firm tops in Dundee... there are probably more Rangers & Celtic fans in Dundee than there are Dundee or United fans, which tells you everything you need to know about how badly distorted the Scottish game is.

pblakeney

bompington wrote:

cc78 wrote:

I grew up in Glasgow, whenever I go back there now I notice immediately the number of kids running around in Barca/Man U/Chelsea tops is far greater than it used to be; conversely there are a far fewer Rangers and Celtic tops.

Still far too many old firm tops in Dundee... there are probably more Rangers & Celtic fans in Dundee than there are Dundee or United fans, which tells you everything you need to know about how badly distorted the Scottish game is.

Which is the exact direction the EPL is going in.

cc78

bompington wrote:

cc78 wrote:

I grew up in Glasgow, whenever I go back there now I notice immediately the number of kids running around in Barca/Man U/Chelsea tops is far greater than it used to be; conversely there are a far fewer Rangers and Celtic tops.

Still far too many old firm tops in Dundee... there are probably more Rangers & Celtic fans in Dundee than there are Dundee or United fans, which tells you everything you need to know about how badly distorted the Scottish game is.

I reckon Aberdeen is the only Scottish city where "old firm" fans are not more common than the local team(s). Possibly Edinburgh also, although it would be pretty close.

But every country has big clubs, I'm not disputing that. In an ideal world everyone would support their local side and football may well be better off for it. In practice that's never going to happen, but if for example someone in Dundee supports Celtic, at least they are still retaining an interest in the Scottish game: they may well attend games when their team comes to town; they will put money into their club via tickets/merchandise/whatever and then some of that money is then filtered to other clubs via transfer fees; their support encourages TV and sponsors to put more money into the game, which all clubs benefit from. But if that person decides to support Barcelona instead, there is no benefit to Scottish football whatsoever (unless Barca start signing all these wonderkids that Dundee Utd seem to be producing...). They are lost to Scottish football, and I don't think that is healthy. If the same thing is happening all across Europe, then it's definitely not a good thing.

bompington

cc78 wrote:

I reckon Aberdeen is the only Scottish city where "old firm" fans are not more common than the local team(s). Possibly Edinburgh also, although it would be pretty close.

But Edinburgh doesn't have any big teams any more... :twisted: