Quote:A major corruption scandal, involving high-ranking officials of The International Federation of Association Football, is growing into a politically charged issue to attack Russia and may distract attention from the NSA surveillance scandal in Germany.
This is what we are discussing in Red Line's section "BETWEEN THE LINE", analyzing most though-provoking publications of the week.
"Swiss authorities announced on Wednesday that it has launched a criminal investigation into the bidding contest for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups set to be held in Russia and Qatar", says an article entitled "Putin backs FIFA's Blatter amid corruption scandal" and published on Al Jazeera. "Almost simultaneously, the US Department of Justice indicted nine FIFA officials and five associated officials on corruption charges, with Swiss authorities arresting seven of the officials in Zurich where FIFA is due to hold its congress."
The article quoted Russia's President Vladimir Putin, who said that: "This is clearly an attempt to block the reelection of Blatter as president of FIFA and is an extremely serious breach of the principles of how international organizations work". The Russian President was also on record pointing out that: "This is yet another blatant attempt [by the US] to extend its jurisdiction to other states".
Yevgeny Satanovsky, President of the Institute of Middle East Studies (studio guest), Fred Weir, Moscow correspondent, Christian Science Monitor, Alexander Domrin, Professor of Law, High School of Economics and Marco Rumignani, member of Campaign for an Independent and Neutral Switzerland commented on the issue.
"There are three sorts of conspiracy: by the people who complain, by the people who write, by the people who take action. There is nothing to fear from the first group, the two others are more dangerous; but the police have to be part of all three,"
Imperial NYT: Each FIFA Member One Secret Vote Is "Strange Electoral Math"
The New York Times was tipped off about last weeks U.S. induced Swiss police raid on FIFA functionaries in Geneva. It seems to hold some grudge against the football association maybe because the U.S. lost its bid for the World Cup 2022 to Qatar.
It is obvious that the U.S. is trying to install its own puppet on top of FIFA. Their candidate is a member of the corrupt family of Jordanian king. It is not that the U.S. is against corruption. How would the situation be today if FIFA, like some huge banks, had given to the Clinton Foundation, Obama's presidential library or "lobbied" some Representatives and Senators? Corruption is just fine in the U.S. as long as it works in its interest. But FIFA rules make it difficult for the U.S. to get its will. The reason, says the New York Times, is "the strange electoral math of FIFA". So what is strange with that math?
The members of FIFA are the national football associations. Each gets one vote. The voting is secret. Imagine that. Every member has an equal vote and can vote as it likes without any real way to pressure it. That's strange? From the NYT piece:
Mr. Blatter is widely expected to win a fifth term on Friday in a vote only miles from the luxury hotel where Wednesday's arrests took place in part because of FIFA's electoral math. The FIFA president is elected by a one-vote-per-country poll of its 209 member federations, making the many smaller countries who support Mr. Blatter an effective counterweight to his unpopularity elsewhere, most notably in Europe.
One country one vote is indeed strange math. Imagine the UN would be run this way. How would the U.S. and other Security Council members get their will if every country had a real vote?
There is no proposal in the NYT piece on how to change that strange math. How would the U.S. like to have the votes arranged? Countries ranked by population numbers? China, India, Nigeria, Brazil would certainly love that arrangement. But their votes would likely not go the way the U.S. wants them to go. Countries' votes ranked by local football popularity or historic football success? Portugal or some other small country might then have the greatest weight. The U.S. vote would rank somewhere at the very end of the list.
No. There is no better way to run FIFA than the way it is run today. A World Cup is a billion dollar business. The money collected by FIFA through TV licenses, advertisement and merchandizing is flowing back to the national soccer federations. They are supposed to use it to support and promote the sport. Unfortunately some corruption is inevitably involved in such a huge and complex business. The world will have to live with that. The alternative is to relinquish control over football to some totally unaccountable, likely U.S. controlled conglomerate. That would be the end of the game.
I suggested that the U.S. assault on FIFA for corruption cases going back to the early 1990s comes now because FIFA will today vote on a Palestinian proposal to eject Israel for impeding Palestinian football. Taking the 2018 World Cup from Russia is a convenient but secondary target. Israel has conceded that it is guilty of hindering Palestinian football by offering concessions in bid 
to avert vote to oust it from FIFA. But those concessions are likely not enough:
The source said FIFA president Sepp Blatter welcomed Israel's proposal but stressed it would need [chairman of the Palestinian Football Association] Rajoub's consent before removing the vote on banning Israel from FIFA's slate.The source said Rajoub acceded, but added another demand that FIFA ask UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon to issue a decision within three months on whether the five Israeli teams based in West Bank settlements were within Israeli territory.
FIFA regulations stipulate that teams not located within Israeli territory require the Palestinians' consent to participate in Israeli leagues. Since the UN does not recognize the West Bank as part of Israel, the decision would de facto force Israel's soccer federation to expel these teams from the league or run the risk of breaking FIFA's rules.
The Palestinians should stick to this demand. Israel, like apartheid South Africa, should be kicked out of FIFA. There must be no tolerance for racism and occupation in the world's most beloved sport.
Posted by b on May 29, 2015 at 05:43 AM | Permalink
"We'll know our disinformation campaign is complete when everything the American public believes is false." --William J. Casey, D.C.I
"We will lead every revolution against us." --Theodore Herzl
John Whittingdale, the culture secretary, has hinted that the government could back England hosting an alternative World Cup in 2018 in the light of the ongoing scandal at Fifa. (See 3.43pm.) In response to a question about whether firms could be prosecuted in the UK under the Bribery Act in relation to Fifa corruption, he also told MPs the Serious Fraud Office was assessing information.
Andy Burnham also called for a boycott of the 2018 tournament in Russia.
Who do these goons think they are? The English football team isn't a political tool.
What if they call a boycott but the players say they want to play in Russia?
“The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.â€
― Leo Tolstoy,
Danny Jarman Wrote:The past few days have been a scary example of the pure power of the media.
This is a Gadaffi-esque witch hunt. You would be forgiven to think Blatter is the 2nd coming of Hitler by reading the news in the last few days...
As much as I dislike Blatter and am glad to see him go, I do think there is a deeper agenda at play in all this, and my thoughts go to whether the 2018 world cup in Russia is going to be pulled as part of the ongoing bogey-men play against Putin. This is all a US play, which worries me. There seemed to be a desire to shift the control of FIFA from out of Blatter's corrupt control and into the hands of others just as likely corrupt. In other words this whole thing is a shift in who gains.
For me the elephant in the room remains the far east betting syndicates. Buying a world cup ever four years is small fare compared to the billions dropped each weekend on European football games, and especially in the premier league. The latter still have the media working their corner to make them appear blushing virgins in a monastery, when all the evidence points to them being thoroughly corrupt. The retired referee Howard Webb is the sole person appointing refs to officiate at premier league games week in week out. There is no oversight. And according to Omerta, 18 top games were fixed - they traded on these 18 and won on every one of them. Interestingly enough the Omerta's trading is based on mimicking the corruption in the marketplace and he's on a winning streak because of this and yet, lo and hehold! " Sportradar, Federbet, Early Warning, Interpol, Europol and the FA's Sports Betting Integrity Unit (sic) somehow fail to spot..." these fixes.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
David Guyatt Wrote:For me the elephant in the room remains the far east betting syndicates. Buying a world cup ever four years is small fare compared to the billions dropped each weekend on European football games, and especially in the premier league. The latter still have the media working their corner to make them appear blushing virgins in a monastery, when all the evidence points to them being thoroughly corrupt. The retired referee Howard Webb is the sole person appointing refs to officiate at premier league games week in week out. There is no oversight. And according to Omerta, 18 top games were fixed - they traded on these 18 and won on every one of them. Interestingly enough the Omerta's trading is based on mimicking the corruption in the marketplace and he's on a winning streak because of this and yet, lo and hehold! " Sportradar, Federbet, Early Warning, Interpol, Europol and the FA's Sports Betting Integrity Unit (sic) somehow fail to spot..." these fixes.
Bingo!
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
Danny Jarman Wrote:The past few days have been a scary example of the pure power of the media.
This is a Gadaffi-esque witch hunt. You would be forgiven to think Blatter is the 2nd coming of Hitler by reading the news in the last few days...
For me the elephant in the room remains the far east betting syndicates. Buying a world cup ever four years is small fare compared to the billions dropped each weekend on European football games, and especially in the premier league. The latter still have the media working their corner to make them appear blushing virgins in a monastery, when all the evidence points to them being thoroughly corrupt. The retired referee Howard Webb is the sole person appointing refs to officiate at premier league games week in week out. There is no oversight. And according to Omerta, 18 top games were fixed - they traded on these 18 and won on every one of them. Interestingly enough the Omerta's trading is based on mimicking the corruption in the marketplace and he's on a winning streak because of this and yet, lo and hehold! " Sportradar, Federbet, Early Warning, Interpol, Europol and the FA's Sports Betting Integrity Unit (sic) somehow fail to spot..." these fixes.
Yup
Although I'm sure Europol and Early Warning do pick them up, there's just nothing they can do...they are utterly powerless. The betting evidence, although we all know it's damning, isn't enough to prosecute or take action.
The syndicates even got their own world cup when it came to Korea. Now that was a farce of epic proportions.
![[Image: fifa.jpg]](http://www.moonofalabama.org/images4/fifa.jpg)