FIFA officials arrested in Switzerland on corruption charges

[jimmy olsen]

The plot thickens

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jun/04/fifa-payment-fai-thierry-henry-handball-loan-build-stadium

The Football Association of Ireland has claimed it was paid €5m (£3.67m) by outgoing Fifa president Sepp Blatter to drop legal action over a controversial handball by Thierry Henry that prevented the country reaching the World Cup finals in 2010.

[Duque de Bragança]

Hardly surprising, people were speculating over it back then.
It gave us the "bus strike" though, paving the way for one of Platini's Bons mots.

[Warspite]

The plot thickens

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jun/04/fifa-payment-fai-thierry-henry-handball-loan-build-stadium

The Football Association of Ireland has claimed it was paid €5m (£3.67m) by outgoing Fifa president Sepp Blatter to drop legal action over a controversial handball by Thierry Henry that prevented the country reaching the World Cup finals in 2010.

Don't we call this an out of court settlement?

[Ed Anger]

THE PLOT THICKENED

[HVC]

THE PLOT THICKENED

what this story needs are fifa execs getting a contagious disease and tim would explode

[The Minsky Moment]

What if FIFA Started its Own Asteroid Mining Project During the Cold War: Fascinating Alt History Conference derailed by sudden Ebola Outbreak, Quarantine Enforced by Laser Mounted Naval Vessels Manned by Revived Cloned Neanderthals.

[Pedrito]

What if FIFA Started its Own Asteroid Mining Project During the Cold War: Fascinating Alt History Conference derailed by sudden Ebola Outbreak, Quarantine Enforced by Laser Mounted Naval Vessels Manned by Revived Cloned Neanderthals.

:timgasm:

L.

[Liep]

It was Blatter's foot-in-mouth disease that angered FAI the most apparently.

http://www.fai.ie/domestic/news/fai-statement-050615

[jimmy olsen]

Woah!

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jun/05/fifa-scandal-arms-germany-deal-saudi-valcke-warner-delaney-ireland-henry

A dark day for Fifa after claims of arms deals for World Cup votes

• Reports in Germany reveal Saudi deal in 2006
• John Delaney is asked to provide transparency over payment

The shockwaves from the corruption scandal that brought down Sepp Blatter continue to reverberate, with claims in Germany that the 2006 World Cup vote was influenced by a shipment of rocket-propelled grenades and allegations in Egypt that a Fifa executive solicited bribes during the 2010 bidding race.

As seven Fifa officials continued to fight extradition to the US over claims they were involved in a "World Cup of fraud", Blatter's right-hand man Jérôme Valcke remained at the centre of speculation over what he knew about a $10m payment to the disgraced former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner. And pressure on the Football Association of Ireland also grew amid the fallout from its admission that it agreed a secret €5m (£3.6m) payment after threatening legal action in the wake of Thierry Henry's handball that led to the goal that ended their chances of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.
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The FAI chief executive, John Delaney, said the payment was agreed after he confronted Blatter about Henry's role in Ireland's World Cup play-off defeat. Fifa has claimed the payment was a loan towards the construction of a stadium that was later written off.

The Irish taoiseach, Enda Kenny, called on Delaney to provide more detail about the situation, after Delaney admitted receiving the payment in a radio interview on Thursday. "This is quite extraordinary," said Kenny. "But I would say that any questions that need to be answered here in the interests of transparency and accountability ... John Delaney should answer and will answer all of those questions, I'm quite sure."

As it emerged that the Ireland players had no knowledge of the payment, amid calls for Delaney to explain why it was not revealed at the time, Kenny said he believed the FAI chief executive's position remained "tenable". The FAI last night released a detailed statement and bank documents to prove it had acted properly, also arguing it had suffered reputational damage after Blatter made light of an earlier meeting at a press conference.

Elsewhere, the downfall of Blatter has sparked an avalanche of claims about major decisions taken by Fifa in recent years. The German newspaper Die Zeit reported on Friday that the then chancellor Gerhard Shröder supplied arms to Saudi Arabia in return for support in Germany's World Cup bid, in which it defeated South Africa 12-11 in the final round in controversial circumstances. The claims alleged that the government lifted arms restrictions days before the vote in order to make the shipment and help swing Saudi Arabia's vote to Germany.

The claims mean that the votes for the 1998, 2006, 2010, 2018 and 2022 tournaments are now under scrutiny in some way. Brazilian authorities and the FBI are also looking into the contracts signed in the run-up to the 2014 World Cup.
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FBI sources have confirmed that it is investigating claims relating to all of those tournaments except 2006 and Egypt, one of the bidders for 2010, has now alleged that Warner – who has vigorously denied wrongdoing but was charged in the US indictment – asked for a $7m bribe.

"I did not imagine that Fifa was so corrupt," the former Egypt sports minister Aley Eddine Helal told ONTV in Cairo. "Jack Warner demanded $7m before the voting. Egypt's FA president El-Dahshori Harb met with the Fifa official in the United Arab Emirates and informed me that he wanted a $7m bribe."Helal said he and other officials on the 2010 bid committee have been silent for the 11 years since losing because they did not have any proof to back "the suspicions we have always had about the disgraceful way we lost".

Egypt failed to poll a single vote and the tournament was awarded to South Africa, which was desperate to clinch the right to host the World Cup after losing out so narrowly to Germany for 2006. New evidence has also emerged that appears to confirm that Danny Jordaan, the leader of the 2010 World Cup bid and organising committee, and the Fifa secretary general, Valcke, knew about a disputed $10m payment to Warner's Concacaf confederation.

In a statement this week, Fifa insisted that neither Blatter nor Valcke initiated the payment but a letter quickly emerged that showed the Fifa general secretary was aware of the detail in 2008. A new leaked letter from Jordaan, dated December 2007, appears to be the first time he outlines the scheme to Valcke. He suggests that the $10m, which the US alleges ended up in Warner's Bank of America account, be deducted by Fifa from the monies owed to the World Cup organising committee and sent to Concacaf. Fifa and the South African Football Federation have denied wrongdoing, claiming the payment was made in good faith to support the World Cup's Diaspora Programme in the Caribbean. Valcke insisted this week he was "beyond reproach".

Uefa's president, Michel Platini, arrived in Zurich on Friday to consider his options a week after frustration at seeing his chosen challenger to Blatter, Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein, defeated turned to relief at seeing Blatter deposed. All six global confederations are lying low, biding their time as they work out how to best calibrate their positions while Blatter attempts to cling on to power until promised elections between December and March. The FBI investigation is ongoing and further indictments are expected to follow, while US investigators and Swiss prosecutors are looking into the 2018-22 bidding race.

David Gill, the Football Association vice-chairman, has ruled out standing for the Fifa presidency.

[Zanza]

The part about Germany and Saudi Arabia has been public knowledge for fifteen years. There is no conclusive evidence though that it wasn't merely coincidental.
There are a few more suspect deals around Germany's world cup bid, but none of them was just wiring money to the FIFA executives. It was much more circumspect and probably all legal. Mainly multinationals promising investments in the countries etc.

[Norgy]

COINCIDENTAL PLOT THICKENS!!!111

[Ed Anger]

COINCIDENTAL PLOT THICKENS!!!111

WHOA!

[Syt]

From Postillon's weekly Sunday survey:

"Which song is Blatter listening to in this picture?"



Options:

"Jailhouse Rock" by Elvis Presley
"One Hand Washes the Other" by Clarence Clarity
"Breaking the Law" by Judas Priest
"Should I Stay or Should I Go" by The Clash
"The Godfather" soundtrack
"Money, Money, Money" by ABBA
"The Final Countdown" by Europe
"Can't Buy Me Love" by the Beatles
"Don't Speak" by No Doubt
"The Imperial March" from the  Star Wars Soundtrack by John Williams
"Sinkin' Soon" by Norah Jones
"It Wasn't Me" by Shaggy feat. Ricardo Ducent
"Crazy Baldheads" by Bob Marley
"Time to Say Goodbye" by Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli
"Behind Closed Doors" by Charlie Rich

[HVC]

Sympathy for the devil.

[Martinus]

Sympathy for the devil.