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News: FIFA Scandal: Alleged Rigging of Trinidad & Tobago Elections
Member Since: 10/2/2011
Posts: 4,285
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FIFA Scandal: Alleged Rigging of Trinidad & Tobago Elections
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The former Fifa vice president Jack Warner has made an extraordinary television appearance in which he says he fears for his life and claims he will prove a link between soccer’s governing body and the national elections in his native Trinidad and Tobago.
The claims come while Fifa struggles to cope with the ongoing fallout following corruption charges that were issued by US authorities against Warner and 13 other key football figures.
Warner is the subject of an Interpol red notice and was arrested and held in jail overnight in Trinidad last Wednesday, but was later released on bail.
He initially denied any wrongdoing, and said at the time he was “afforded no due process”.
Following his arrest, in a televised broadcast in Trinidad on Thursday, Warner claimed he had documentation that could prove a link between key Fifa officials and the 2010 Trinidad election.
“I will no longer keep secrets for them,” he said. [...]
“Not even death will stop the avalanche that is coming” he said. “The die is cast. There can be no turning back. Let the chips fall where they fall.” [...]
He also said in the televised address, which was a paid political advertisement, that “I reasonably actually fear for my life.”
The stunning revelations out of Marabella, Trinidad come just hours after a transcript was made public of former FIFA executive Chuck Blazer’s admission that he and other members of the all-powerful executive committee were bribed in return for voting for South Africa’s bid for the 2010 World Cup.
Chuck Blazer, a 70-year-old soccer chief, first made the admission in testimony to a New York judge in 2013, the details of which had not been publicly available until now, following a petition from three New York-based reporters.
It revealed how the judge in the case, Raymond Dearie, referred to Fifa as a “racketeering influenced corrupt organisation”, the same terminology used in cases of organised crime, and only allowed the hearing to proceed after the Brooklyn courtroom had been locked.
Entering his plea, Blazer then detailed the long list of events and marketing contracts on which he and others took kickbacks.
“Beginning in or about 1993 and continuing through the early 2000s, I and others agreed to accept bribes and kickbacks in conjunction with the broadcast and other rights to the 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2003 Gold Cups,” he told the judge.
The Department of Justice said last week that Blazer faces a maximum 20 years’ incarceration in a US prison for the conspiracies, 10 for the failure to declare his foreign bank accounts, and five years for the tax evasion charges.
It said Blazer had pleaded guilty to receiving $750,000 from Jack Warner, part of Blazer’s agreed $1m share of the $10m paid to Concacaf by Fifa, after Warner agreed to vote for South Africa to host the 2010 World Cup.
The latest claims from Warner come shortly after the resignation of the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, just days after he re-elected for a fifth term to lead the world body.
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5. Qatar 2022 World Cup Officials Avoiding U.S. to Dodge FBI
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The fate of the Qatar 2022 World Cup hangs in the balance after the resignation of its chief protector, FIFA president Sepp Blatter, amid the biggest bribery and corruption investigation in sporting history.
Insiders say the leaders of Qatar’s 2022 Supreme Committee (or local organising committee) have now been told not to set foot on U.S. soil for fear of being arrested by the FBI in its investigation into allegations that FIFA officials turned football into a “criminal enterprise” and presided over a “World Cup of fraud.”
Blatter resigned in a shock move at an emergency press conference at FIFA headquarters on Tuesday afternoon, days after Swiss authorities, acting at the behest of the FBI, arrested seven senior football officials on the eve of his re-election at world football’s annual congress in Zurich last week.
Qatar 2022 vehemently denied that its officials have been warned to avoid traveling to the United States. “Your information is incorrect and running a story based on it is irresponsible,” wrote spokesperson Nasser Al-Khater. “Neither the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy nor anyone associated with it or the Qatar bid have any reason to avoid travelling to the United States or anywhere else in the world. Any suggestion by BuzzFeed to the contrary is defamatory and will be brought to the attention of our legal counsel.”
But a source close to Qatar’s 2022 Supreme Committee told BuzzFeed News that its leaders were “scared about Blatter going because they don’t want the World Cup vote to be reopened.” He said: “The entire 2022 bid team have been advised not to travel to the USA. … They are concerned about being arrested and pulled in for questioning.”
A second source said that Qatari bid officials had been advised by lawyers not to travel to the U.S. “There is an internal informal advice from the US lawyers working for Q22 to the top officials of Q22 not to go to USA,” he wrote in an email.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the young royal who chaired the country’s successful World Cup bid, is said to be the only senior figure who is exempted from the ban because he is understood to travel under a diplomatic passport that grants him immunity from arrest.
Blatter’s bombshell resignation leaves Qatar exposed to mounting calls for the 2022 World Cup to be moved to a new venue in the wake of an avalanche of evidence that the country’s most senior football official, Mohamed bin Hammam, waged a multimillion-dollar vote-buying campaign to rig the ballot in his country’s favour. The official Qatar 2022 bid committee has always vehemently denied any wrongdoing and said he was not working on its behalf.
The decision to award the world’s biggest sporting tournament to the tiny desert nation of Qatar was greeted with dismay and derision around the world when it was announced by Blatter following a secret ballot of FIFA voters in 2010. The country had almost no soccer infrastructure, no serious professional league, and its searing summer temperatures of up to 122ºF were judged by FIFA’s own technical assessors to pose a “high risk” to the health of players. Allegations that the secret ballot had been rigged by bribery and backroom deals soon began to surface.
More than perhaps anyone, Blatter has protected Qatar. Time and again, he has rebuffed calls for the tiny Gulf state to be stripped of the right to host the tournament. Sources say he has shielded Qatar from allegations of corruption since striking a deal with the country’s royal family to protect the 2022 tournament if bin Hammam dropped his challenge for the presidency of FIFA in 2011.
“Blatter had told Qatar that he would expose their bid unless they made bin Hammam pull out,” a source close to the Qatari billionaire has told me. “He told me there was a deal and he was forced to withdraw.”
Bin Hammam pulled out on the eve of the election, and Blatter has since repeatedly refused to consider reopening the World Cup vote despite massive and growing evidence that the original ballot in 2010 was skewed by rampant vote-buying.
Days after the deal was allegedly struck in 2011, Blatter announced that Qatar was “not touched” by corruption allegations, and FIFA would do “nothing” about evidence passed to a parliamentary inquiry by the Sunday Times suggesting Qatar had paid massive bribes to FIFA voters to obtain the right to stage the 2022 competition.
Then last year, when my colleague Jonathan Calvert and I published evidence from a vast trove of leaked documents showing how bin Hammam had used a multimillion-dollar network of slush funds to bribe dozens of officials to support the country’s bid, Blatter took no action against Qatar and instead accused us of “discrimination and racism”. [...]
The full lengths to which Blatter was prepared to go to protect Qatar became clear when FIFA suppressed its own internal report on corruption in the 2018 and 2022 bidding race, submitted to its ethics chamber by the former U.S. attorney Michael Garcia last September.
Blatter refused to publish the report in full but claimed it had cleared Qatar and Russia of any wrongdoing. However, Garcia promptly resigned in a fury, saying that FIFA’s summary of his work contained “numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts.” [...]
Despite the firestorm of scandal engulfing world soccer in the wake of the arrests, Blatter refused to stand aside and was re-elected for a fifth term in office last Friday. But his stunning resignation on Tuesday came after his right hand man, the FIFA secretary general Jérôme Valcke, was linked to a $10 million payment from the organisers of the South African World Cup to accounts controlled by a key voter, the longtime FIFA grandee Jack Warner.
The FBI indictment cites the $10 million payment as an alleged bribe in exchange for Warner’s vote for the South African bid to host the 2010 World Cup. FIFA initially denied claims of Valcke’s involvement, which emerged on Tuesday morning. But within hours a leaked letter surfaced on Twitter apparently showing that the secretary general was told about the payment, which was transferred to Warner via FIFA’s own accounts.
The apparent implication of Valcke — Blatter’s most senior lieutenant — in the payment of an alleged bribe brings the scandal closer to the door of the president’s office than ever before.
Blatter’s departure — after 17 years at the helm of world soccer — leaves the fate of Qatar’s 2022 World Cup dream in greater jeopardy than it has ever faced.
Qatar’s biggest rivals — the U.S. and Australia — are poised to jump straight back into the mix, should a new president decide to take the bold step of ordering a rerun of the vote on the hosting of the world’s biggest sporting tournament.
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4. Sepp Blatter Resigns
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Sepp Blatter to resign as Fifa president amid corruption scandal
Sepp Blatter says he will resign as president of football's governing body Fifa amid a corruption scandal.
In announcing his exit, the 79-year-old Swiss has called an extraordinary Fifa congress "as soon as possible" to elect a new president. Blatter was re-elected last week, despite seven top Fifa officials being arrested two days before the vote as part of a US prosecution.
But he said: "My mandate does not appear to be supported by everybody."
He added: "The next ordinary Fifa congress will take place on 13 May, 2016 in Mexico City.
"This would create unnecessary delay and I will urge the executive committee to organize an extraordinary congress for the election of my successor at the earliest opportunity."
"This will need to be done in line with Fifa's statutes and we must allow enough time for the best candidates to present themselves and to campaign."
The extraordinary congress is expected to take place between December 2015 and March 2016.
Fifa was rocked last week by the arrests on charges of racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering as part of a US prosecution that also indicted 14 people. A separate criminal investigation by Swiss authorities into how the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were allocated is also under way.
"I am very much linked to Fifa and its interests. Those interests are dear to me and this is why I am taking this decision," said Blatter. "What counts most to me is the institute of Fifa and football around the world. I have thoroughly considered and thought about my presidency and the last 40 years in my life. These years were closely related to Fifa and the wonderful sport of football. I appreciate and love Fifa more than anything else. I only want to do the best for Fifa and my institution. I decided to stand again as the best option for football. The elections are closed but the challenges we face haven't come to an end."
The English Football Association has been vociferous in its criticism of Blatter.
"This is great news for football. It should have happened years ago," FA chairman Greg **** told the BBC. "The timetable doesn't matter. There has to be a root and branch investigation of Fifa. It has all got to be transparent in the future."
The latest allegations of corruption against Fifa involved reports claiming general secretary Jerome Valcke was responsible for an alleged $10m (£6m) payment of bribes over South Africa's bid to host the 2010 World Cup.
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3. Sepp Blatter Re-Elected
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• Blatter was endorsed by 133 of 209 voting members
• Blatter failed to get two-thirds majority necessary in first round
• Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein concedes before second round vote
Sepp Blatter has been officially re-elected as Fifa’s president for a fifth term by the world governing body’s 209 member associations.
Blatter, 79, saw off the challenge of Jordan’s Prince Ali bin al-Hussein at Fifa’s annual Congress in Zurich. In a secret ballot he was re-elected with 133 votes from the 209 voting members. The process was to go to a second round of voting, after Blatter failed to get the 139 votes needed in the first round to win; a two-thirds majority was necessary. Blatter received 133 votes, Prince Ali 73 and three ballots were spoiled. However, Prince Ali conceded before the second round of voting took place – when a simple majority would have been enough for either contender to win.
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2. Sepp Blatter Refuses to Resign
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Sepp Blatter has refused to resign as FIFA president following a request from UEFA chief Michel Platini.
The 79-year-old Swiss held an emergency meeting with key FIFA officials on Thursday after world football's governing body was subjected to yet more damaging corruption claims.
Platini then made a personal appeal for Blatter to quit. He said he addressed Blatter "like a friend" but that the Fifa boss had told him it was "too late" to resign: "Blatter will convince the majority to vote for him... but he has already lost, Fifa has already lost" The Frenchman added that the latest crisis had left him "absolutely sickened" and said "people have had enough".
Blatter is seeking a fifth term as president when he takes on Prince Ali bin al-Hussein in Friday's election. Several influential football figures had called for the vote delayed after seven Fifa officials were arrested in Zurich on Wednesday.
But Uefa, which governs European football, decided on Thursday not to boycott the election and will continue to back Prince Ali, although some member associations, like Russia, have said they will back Blatter.
FIFA was plunged into fresh crisis on Wednesday when United States authorities indicted 14 people and arrested seven senior football officials on bribery and racketeering charges.
In a separate development, Swiss officials opening criminal proceedings into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid processes. [...]
Prime Minister David Cameron [...] joined those calling for Blatter to step down. Britain's David Gill also says he will resign from Fifa's executive committee if Blatter is re-elected.
But support for the president came from Russian president Vladimir Putin, who has claimed the United States is meddling in Fifa's affairs in an attempt to take the 2018 World Cup away from his country. [...]
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1. Original Story
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Soccer Officials Arrested In Zurich; World Cup Votes Investigated
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Swiss prosecutors opened criminal proceedings into FIFA's awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, only hours after seven soccer officials were arrested Wednesday pending extradition to the U.S. in a separate probe of "rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted" corruption. [...]
FIFA also ruled out a revote of the World Cups won by Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.
The Swiss prosecutors' office said in a statement they seized "electronic data and documents" at FIFA's headquarters on Wednesday as part of their probe. And Swiss police said they will question 10 FIFA executive committee members who took part in the World Cup votes in December 2010. [...]
The Swiss announcement came only hours after 14 people were indicted in the U.S. for corruption. Seven of them were arrested and detained by Swiss police at the request of U.S. authorities after a raid at a luxury hotel in Zurich.
The U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement that two current FIFA vice presidents were among those arrested and indicted, Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands and Eugenio Figueredo of Uruguay. The others are Eduardo Li of Costa Rica, Julio Rocha of Nicaragua, Costas Takkas of Britain, Rafael Esquivel of Venezuela and Jose Maria Marin of Brazil.
All seven are connected with the regional confederations of North and South America and face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
"The indictment alleges corruption that is rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted both abroad and here in the United States," Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said in the statement. "It spans at least two generations of soccer officials who, as alleged, have abused their positions of trust to acquire millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks."
Nine of the 14 that were indicted by the Justice Department are soccer officials, while four are sports marketing executives and another works in broadcasting. Jack Warner, a former FIFA vice president from Trinidad and Tobago, was among those indicted. [...]
The U.S. case involves bribes "totaling more than $100 million" linked to commercial deals dating back to the 1990s for soccer tournaments in the United States and Latin America, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice said. The Justice Department said the corruption is linked to World Cup qualifying matches and the Copa America — South America's continental championship. [...]
In Florida, a small group of agents from the FBI and IRS executed search warrants at CONCACAF headquarters in Miami Beach.
The North American regional body, known as CONCACAF, reported itself to U.S. tax authorities in 2012. Then based in New York, the organization had not paid taxes over several years when its president was Warner and secretary general was Chuck Blazer of the United States. [...]
The Swiss Federal Office of Justice said in its statement that U.S. authorities suspect the arrested officials of having received or paid bribes totaling millions of dollars and that the crimes were agreed to and prepared in the U.S., and payments carried out via U.S. banks.
"The bribery suspects — representatives of sports media and sports promotion firms — are alleged to have been involved in schemes to make payments to the soccer functionaries (FIFA delegates) and other functionaries of FIFA sub-organizations - totaling more than USD 100 million," the FOJ statement said. [...]
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Member Since: 12/5/2009
Posts: 9,974
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Slay
Second most corrupt sport in the world, only after figure skating
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Member Since: 1/2/2014
Posts: 23,393
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Everyone knows FIFA is corrupt as ****!
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Member Since: 4/12/2011
Posts: 14,781
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Finally.
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Member Since: 4/24/2011
Posts: 4,998
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hjhjjhhshj yasssss shatter the illusions of all the "Banter lads", the "Cheeky Nandos" and the "Footy lads"
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Member Since: 3/22/2011
Posts: 26,525
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It's about time.
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Banned
Member Since: 3/19/2012
Posts: 7,835
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I don't get how they are extradited to the US when FIFA is way bigger in Europe and elsewhere. Why aren't they being tried in a European country?
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Member Since: 10/9/2011
Posts: 12,450
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OMG Eduardo Li
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Member Since: 2/28/2012
Posts: 11,072
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Gather them.
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Member Since: 1/5/2014
Posts: 1,813
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They better arrest the entire brazilian confederation. ****** institution that gives zero ****s to football.
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Member Since: 8/18/2013
Posts: 20,010
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Quote:
Originally posted by alkralkra
Slay
Second most corrupt sport in the world, only after figure skating
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Lol
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Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 26,488
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Quote:
Originally posted by alkralkra
Slay
Second most corrupt sport in the world, only after figure skating
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*Third.
After figure skating and rhythmic gymnastics
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Member Since: 10/2/2011
Posts: 4,285
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Quote:
Originally posted by Goosey
I don't get how they are extradited to the US when FIFA is way bigger in Europe and elsewhere. Why aren't they being tried in a European country?
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Read the article.
The U.S. has taken the lead over the biggest parts of the investigation and some of the larger crimes of bribery took place on U.S. soil which is why the governments of Switzerland, Brazil, etc. agreed to their being tried in the U.S. The governments agreed to their extradition there.
Further cases on European soil will be coming resulting from this in which case they'll likely be tried there. This is first.
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Member Since: 5/19/2011
Posts: 34,328
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Quote:
Rafael Esquivel of Venezuela
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omg
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 14,321
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Spring cleaning
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Member Since: 3/21/2012
Posts: 55,134
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Member Since: 4/6/2014
Posts: 10,308
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Quote:
Originally posted by Goosey
I don't get how they are extradited to the US when FIFA is way bigger in Europe and elsewhere. Why aren't they being tried in a European country?
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Jeffrey Webb is also arrested who the president of the Concacaf, football union for North-Amerika, Central-Amerika and Caraïbean.
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Member Since: 5/4/2012
Posts: 12,811
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This was gonna happen sooner or later.
Quote:
Originally posted by Goosey
I don't get how they are extradited to the US when FIFA is way bigger in Europe and elsewhere. Why aren't they being tried in a European country?
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Because the snitch Chuck Blazer, is American.
That and the only reason why they got involved is because they gave the World Cup to Qatar (of all places
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 8/8/2006
Posts: 42,086
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wowowow
This is gonna create a big #ass mess
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 8/8/2006
Posts: 42,086
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and poor Qatar World Cup. It's never gonna happen
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