To be fair to the IOC, it isn’t as openly corrupt as FIFA, which is almost comically brazen about it.
He also reveals that apple pie is, at best, the ninth-best kind of pie in the world, and that bald eagles should really look into Rogaine.
I did not know that!
I didn’t see this posted upthread, but the actual indictment is linked from the NY Times, including the actual list of criminal complaints, in case anybody else was wondering exactly what the illegal activities are, since I’m not sure what governing rules apply to FIFA. Looks like it’s mostly about the efforts they took to disguise the bribes, rather than taking the money in and of itself (charges start on page 14):
Yeah, the IOC has the common decency to do their corrupt shit behind closed doors.
Nike could well be the “US sportswear firm” mentioned.
FCPA violations if its lucky, but if RICO comes into play their execs are in for a whole world of trouble. FCPA alone is enough for federal prison and huge fines.
Well, it makes sense. The US is going to try to shut down FIFA so the NFL can spread the other kind of football to the world. They’ll love it once they try it.
It’s not US vs. Russia as such, it’s US+UK vs. Russia. Russia stole what everyone thought would be the UK’s world cup. And Russian-British antagonism has been very strong since Putin took over.
Well at least this fixes the idiocy of playing soccer in Qatar. Oops. Nevermind.
Yeah, Russia got the UK’s World Cup, Qatar got the US’ World Cup.
Ugh, one of the worst things about the upheaval over at Grantland is that they still haven’t written anything about this. And their previous FIFA stuff has been gold.
It’s becoming pretty apparent that Blatter and FIFA in general is going to come out of this largely intact and unscathed. Most of the world seems to be on the side of “keep FIFA corrupt”.
I think that depends on whether they manage to get anyone to flip on Blatter. If they do, I suspect he’ll be spending time in accommodations courtesy of Uncle Sam.
Perhaps, but while there is a large voting block based on smaller countries that basically get tons of money to embezzle under the current system and want it to stay, ultimately the European teams & American advertising money are a huge power block. They are definitely posturing a willingness to blow up the current system.
What does the US really stand to lose by blowing FIFA up? I mean, US Soccer is basically like German Hockey. There every year, occasionally do ok, but really don’t have a realistic shot of winning. Forever relegated to second tier status.
Plus there is a large portion of the US populace that is antagonistic towards soccer in general. It may be getting more popular, but it’s not there yet. I really don’t see a reason the US wouldn’t follow through on this.
Yeah, there’s probably a big percentage relishing the fact that we’re sticking it to the world, or cleaning up the mess they refuse to clean up.
What are they gonna do? Give our World Cup to Qatar?
I think you guy’s are way too optimistic. These FIFA fellows can afford the best lawyers and PR firms that exist anywhere on the planet. This is going to take years to prosecute, the public will lose interest in a few weeks and at some point someone in government is going wonder why we’re spending millions to prosecute a bunch of guys no-one’s ever heard of who were corrupting a sport no-one in the US watches or cares about, all for the purpose of tweaking Russia’s nose.
If I was a betting man, I’d put money on they put a few low-level flunkies in jail, levy a few fines and FIFA goes on just as before.
Yeah, but the U.S. can also appropriate all their U.S. property and keep it. :)
I suspect we’d see a faction splinter off from FIFA if the status quo continues- prob in 2022 when clubs refuse to release players for the WC
I deal with companies with larger balance sheets than FIFA who are facing or faced serious FCPA violations all the time. Check out Petrobras issues, that’s probably the big one live right now.