[Thanos]

Both are bad and can never be redeemed. Fix one part and the corruption just shows up somewhere else. It's pretty much like playing whack-a-mole with the mafia.

[Zipperfish]

The corruption is a cancer in these organizations. I thought when Qatar got the world cup, the lid would blow off the whole sorry mess, but no. Same with the Olympics, the problem is that there is so much money involved.

Bill Clinton is behind this. He wasn't too happy when the US lost its bid to Qatar.

[Thanos]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

Bill Clinton is behind this......

Really? Personally I was gonna blame the Jews.

[ShepherdsDog]

[Zipperfish]

Thanos Thanos:

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

Bill Clinton is behind this......

Really? Personally I was gonna blame the Jews.

They control Hollywood and the world banks but can't play sports worth a crap. Just joking, don't have a fucking chimpout.

Seriously, though, you think the US cares about FIFA? Soccer comes between target vomiting and yogic flying on the popularity list of sports in the US. He probably asked the AG to look into it in her spare time. and these FIFA clowns probably even stopped trying to hide it years ago, so it probably didn't take much effort.

[ShepherdsDog]

[Thanos]

It'd be hilarious if the Israel team qualified for the Cup in Qatar. Muslims everywhere would go into full-blown bongo party mode if that happened. Kind of poetic if the Beautiful Sport was the trigger for the final march to Meggido.

[N_Fiddledog]

Did you hear this one?

Former FIFA executive-turned-informant kept a $6,000-a-month apartment for his cats

$1:

Blazer was a member of the FIFA Executive Committee from 1996 to 2013, when he was replaced by Sunil Gulati. That same year Blazer was accused of taking over $15 million in payments from FIFA over the course of his tenure and was suspended.

According to an incredible report from the New York Daily News from November, what he spent all that money on was truly ridiculous.

Blazer reportedly rented out an entire floor of the Trump Tower, keeping one apartment for his cats. He had a $6,000-a-month cat apartment.

[xerxes]

I did. He's so vain he gives Karl Lagerfeld a run for his money.

[Zipperfish]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Plus they sunk the Titanic

"...um, that was an iceberg, actually."

Iceberg, Goldberg, what's the difference.

[xerxes]

Thanos Thanos:

It'd be hilarious if the Israel team qualified for the Cup in Qatar. Muslims everywhere would go into full-blown bongo party mode if that happened. Kind of poetic if the Beautiful Sport was the trigger for the final march to Meggido.

I seriously hope that happens. Not just for that reason. But for the reason that Jews aren't allowed into Qatar which would be another petard for FIFA to be hoisted from.

[N_Fiddledog]

The Red Star makes an unusually useful point.

$1:

But this is not what truly matters here.

First, unless some of these capos flip on FIFA president Sepp Blatter — unless they have the capacity to truly flip — then this is a sideshow, a diversion, a terribly entertaining farce.

Sepp has been in this job for a long time, and the bet here is that he is a master of the architecture, such as it is. It’s like an anonymous law enforcement official told the New York Times, which broke the story: “We’re struck by just how long this went on for and how it touched nearly every part of what FIFA did. It just seemed to permeate every element of the federation and was just their way of doing business.

“It seems like this corruption was institutionalized.”
Chuck Blazer got flipped and recorded phone calls and was an informant for four years, and still Sepp Blatter wasn’t arrested on Wednesday.
He’s a pro, old Sepp.
It would be another delight, of course, to be proven wrong.
Unless that happens, we will probably just get to meet a new and exciting generation of international crooks, of bagmen and racketeers, of con men and cat-keepers. They will learn from this, and find new pockets and modes of discretion.
Unless you can unseat Sepp and dismantle what he has built, you have managed to ding some dons in a global framework whose gears work because of the grease, and which will find new greasemen.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/soccer/20 ... ndure.html

[Zipperfish]

Or this from the same article:

$1:

In Qatar, the workers building the stadiums for World Cup 2022 in the insane heat are North Korean prisoners, on loan; they are Indonesian or Sri Lankan or Bangladeshi or Nepalese migrants, the last of whom are not being allowed to go home for the funerals of their dead after the recent earthquake. They are slave labour, and they are dying by the thousands. The official estimate is that it will kill between 4,000 and 5,000 men. The real number could be higher.

I'm guessing so long Qatar World Cup.

[ShepherdsDog]

geez, they need their version of Moses.

[xerxes]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

Or this from the same article:

$1:

In Qatar, the workers building the stadiums for World Cup 2022 in the insane heat are North Korean prisoners, on loan; they are Indonesian or Sri Lankan or Bangladeshi or Nepalese migrants, the last of whom are not being allowed to go home for the funerals of their dead after the recent earthquake. They are slave labour, and they are dying by the thousands. The official estimate is that it will kill between 4,000 and 5,000 men. The real number could be higher.

I'm guessing so long Qatar World Cup.

FIFA knows and doesn't care. This is classic case of the gears of capitalism being oiled by the blood of the workers.

Another fun fact: the city that's supposed to host the final for the 202 World Cup doesn't exist yet. It's still some Qatari emirs wet dream.