Chuck Blazer reports Warner and Bin Hamman for ethics violations

Uh, no its not. As I predicted a week ago, the sponsors are going to pull the plug unless this is cleaned up soon. This is what keeps Blatter up at night:

http://www.transparencyinsport.org/...ry_kissinger_will_boot_out_Blatter_page1.html

Jennings has been all over FIFA for a long time. Says here the sponsors have had enough.

 

They'll never pull out. Both FIFA and the IOC have been eternally corrupt and all sponsors have known about it all along.

As to money - total sponsorships can not exceed the total revenues and the total revenues include tickets and TV sales. And, from memory, that rarely exceeds $1B in any given year.

The infrastructure investments, on the other hand, are huge. Qatar may end up spending $50B on everything from roads to rail links, to stadiums to hotels.

Tempest in a teapot.

Jennings is the master of making outrageous claims. That's his main source of income. He is worse than a Fleet Street rag.

 

Ask the IOC if its sponsors were going to pull out. Ask the IOC what that would have done to the Olympic games. Without sponsors and TV money the whole thing comes tumbling down.

I used to think Jennings was a bit of a crackpot. Now, I am not so sure. He is pretty much a must read at this point. I thought he was imagining some of the smoke he was seeing. Turns out, it was not just smoke but a whole lot of fire.

Believe what you want.

 

RT @diggermattscott: Even as it complained in the depths of the #Fifa corruption scandal Visa held talks to extend US$200m sponsorship http://gu.com/p/2ptam/tw (Lead)

 

But they have not extended it yet. Wait till Louis Freeh, Kissinger and the rest do their work. Then extend it.

 

But now its too far out in the open, and the negative media attention is at unheard of levels. This will force their hands.

 

Yeah, Jennings also says Kissinger's going to throw Blatter out on his ass and the "long expected" American power grab is on.

The sponsors will do whatever it takes to protect their investment and they aren't going to increase their competitors chances of landing sponsorship deals with FIFA by throwing out the Blatter with the bath water. The diaper pail has to be overflowing before most of them would walk away from the stench.

I give Jennings credit for having the balls to cover stories that others won't for fear of losing their FIFA press passes, but sometimes I wish he'd put the pipe down before he starts writing.

If he seriously thinks that Blatter's hand-picked advisory team is going to oust Blatter, he's lost the pot...I mean plot. Blatter has got to be more concerned about Warner singing than Placido Domingo. If anyone knows where the bodies are buried, it's Warner. I would have expected an investigative reporter to recognize that and softly suggest the less outrageous claim that Blatter's ability to maintain his job will be based on how much he's willing to pay Warner to keep his mouth shut. Now that would be a paper trail worth investigating!

The "long-expected" American power grab remark just smacks of the blatent Eurosnobbery we've all come to know and love here on BS.

 

Do they have wagons in the Caribbean? What does one circle? Fishing skiffs?


http://news.sky.com/skynews/Article/201009116006895

 

uh oh

"Fifa annouced that a full inquiry into the accusations would be led by another American, Louis Freeh, leading to one CFU member country describing it as a "conspiracy" and Mr Freeh as "a former director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigations" who "served under the Bill Clinton Administration"."

I wonder what the over under is now on who will survive longer - Warner or Wiener ....

I guess I will call this the Warner/Wiener paradox.

 

I was waiting for the first accusation of American conspiracy to appear, and now it has. It actually took a little longer for that to happen, but with Kissinger on the panel of advisors and Louis Freeh conducting the investigation, and Chuck Blazer making the accusations, it was only a matter of time before it was brought up. Actually, I think Kissinger being involved on the advisory council is more damaging than Louis Freeh.

This whole "American Conspiracy" because Louis Freeh was head of the FBI under Clinton is a bit tenuous. Talk about deflecting the real issue. Basically, the CFU is saying because the US was screwed out of 2022, there is a conspiracy against Warner and the CFU? Doesn't seem like the two are connected...

 

I never expected for a second that Jack Warner was going to ride off quietly in the sunset. He is playing to his constituency just like Blatter, by appointing Freeh is playing to his.

Unless there are more skeletons in the closet that Jack Warner knows about and has the smarts to use, I think he's done in FIFA and Concacaf. Jack's trying to hang on at home.

 

http://www.wsc.co.uk/content/view/7309/38/

 

From the Soca Warriors (T&T soccer) board:

 

What I don't understand (and what I disagree with on Jennings' take) is there's no real reason to hire Kissinger and Freeh compared to any other former world diplomat and high-level investigator the world over. Jennings is letting his personal point of view cloud the broad issue. I don't buy that the major corporate sponsors of FIFA told Blatter "you will hire an American!", as to think that is a complete disregard for how global marketing programs work for multinational companies and who FIFA's contacts with those companies likely are (i.e. Europeans more often than not since FIFA is a European construct and based there).

There is a widespread anti-Americanism in the world just as there is an anti-English sentiment that was displayed during the FIFA Congress. The reasons for why are best left for the Politics & Current Events forum, but perhaps Blatter is playing shrewd politician here by appointing Americans to head the reform effort, the Americans are honest enough since we don't have large tentacles into the game of soccer historically where the game was ran to our perceived benefit (unlike the English), and when the rulings and reform ideas come out, Blatter can play the "blame the Americans" card to bring the people the reform effort targeted more under his control by placing himself as "their guy defending the rights of the wrongfully accused".

 

I agree. This was an op-ed piece with tidbits of news, not a straightforward journalistic piece. Jennings is a man with an axe to grind (understandably so... I think his intentions have generally been in the right place), and a lot of this was one rather jubilant man's hopeful opinion. I'd expected Jennings to be rather jubilant in the wake of all that's been going on. But I'm skeptical that his crystal ball is all that clear.

As to the 2nd paragraph... I can't say I'm sure, but that's as plausible an explanation as any. The other plausible explanation would be the placation of a lot of multinational brands, some of them American-based, who want to know that weird things aren't going to happen to goodly chunks of their ad budgets (like the WC going to Doha) because a few random men in Zurich want $1M or $2M envelopes. And Blatter doesn't want the gravy train to become less gravy-ish... But this wasn't completely forced on Blatter, either. And to be honest, I don't think the sponsors want complete transparency, either. They just don't want the circus that's been going on that's almost completely been out of their control.

 

Sure there is reason....and, if this is true, it means Sepp is either REALLY REALLY SMART or has some good advisors who are REALLY REALLY SMART.

The reason is that no matter what this committee finds (bribery, no bribery, a little bribery) and no matter who the findings piss off, Blatter can wash his hands of the outcome. Its no longer on him...its on a committee designed to make the sponsors feel good.

 

I agree completely. He does a little bit too much speculating into people's thoughts and motives and not enough backing up what he says for my taste, but he does seem intent on getting to the bottom of the whole thing.

He's pretty sure about the whole "American conspiracy" thing; so much so that I have a hard time giving him the benefit of journalistic objectivity.

 

No, I'm not talking about the committee's existence, I'm talking about one of the chief members being Kissinger, and the head investigator being the former head of the FBI. FIFA may "represent the world", but it's very much a eurocentric organization, why didn't they hire Helmut Kohl and the former head of Interpol for example instead of Kissinger and Freeh?

 

Yeah... It's all speculation right now, but this explanation passes the sniff test. It "smells" believable.

 

What a circus ...

 

It's sad but predictable that Jack's peeps are portraying this whole nonsense as nothing but straight-up American hegemony... Oh well. (It's all the same tripe that Jack has been spewing since this blew up, and I do idly wonder if he didn't write the letter himself, or advise the unnamed writer as to the go-to party line...)

 

cuz maybe it's part of a tacit (or not so tacit) agreement between sepp and blazer to "stack the deck" a bit in favor of a ruling more towards blazers liking..... i mean, c'mon, we're talking fifa...

 

Mods, there are 2 threads about the FIFA freak show going on. Can you merge these 2 threads and then change the title to something like "Official FIFA Saga Thread" or something.


Grant Wahl you need to write a book! Shiz is CAZY!

 

Bite me, Louie.

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?slug=afp-fblasiaafccorruption

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?slug=ap-fifa-qatar-whistleblower