I'm loving the recent developments. I have a feeling Sepp will do whatever he can to force a vote on Friday just to keep his power. The longer it drags, I'm sure the worse it gets for him. The good news is all the documents, computers, etc that they took from FIFA offices. Hopefully this brings about more charges and eventually taking down Sepp. It honestly wouldn't be that hard to bring down FIFA if you could get a united front from the bigger powers. If you can get the US, most of UEFA, and a few from South America, FIFA would be done. Who do you think sponsors would want to show, the worst countries in the world, or a 'Champions League' of countries? Seems like a no-brainer to me. I still think if you want to root out a lot of the corruption, you need to get rid of every country having an equal vote. The whole reason it's so corrupt is due to small countries in the Carribean, Oceana, etc. It's not that difficult to bribe someone with 100k when that money is massive in those small countries. At the end of the day, I don't care much if it's still FIFA, or turns into some other governing body, as long as changes are made to remove the corruption.
I'm hoping we'll finally get to hear what was really in the report from the ethics investigation following the Qatar award. You know, the one that was swept under the rug and FIFA said, "Nothing to see here. Everything is fine and there was no foul play."
According to Platini, UEFA will seriously consider boycotting FIFA tournaments if Blatter is re-elected. It's probably an idle threat, but this could get really interesting tomorrow. http://www.foxsports.com/soccer/sto...oycott-world-cup-if-blatter-re-elected-052815
I really want FIFA to think they are bigger than the US and to kick US out of their tournaments. If that domino goes (highly unlikely) this whole thing goes. Please, FIFA, continue your reign of stupidity into your death
HA, if FIFA banned the US from any tournaments it would be HILARIOUS. Can you imagine FIFA nuking this market to try and prove a point? The US isn't lighting the world on fire when it comes to play on the field, but by god if you burned this country trying to prove any point you'd be digging your own grave. Not to mention you'd basically piss all over most of your major sponsors and the buckets of cash they dump into your bank every year. There's a reason the 1994 World Cup still holds all the attendance records and why the US is now a massive chunk of the ratings for big international tournaments. I'd love to believe that FIFA is stupid enough to bite the hand that feeds, but they can't be THAT stupid.... can they? Do something like that and FIFA would come to screeching halt immediately.
Listened to you yesterday. Very well articulated and confident. I hope they ask you to come back like they said they would! I can imagine KTIK analyzing traffic to their site yesterday and wondering about the sudden spike in Salt Lake visitors...
Here's a page with a link on it to the interview. I think Ismitje gets started around 14:00. Based on your avatar, you sound just like I thought you would, @Ismitje.
"studying soccer around the world" Is that what we call bigsoccer now? I kid (mostly) Good interview, Bill
Honestly, the way FIFA acts, it wouldn't surprise me if they did something that stupid. They act like they're just above everything, and they're going to just keep doing whatever they want. I could fully see them trying something stupid enough to piss off enough big players that they just walk away and form their own organization, or at least boycott enough that it hits them hard enough in the wallet that they have to reconsider things.
No, BS is the psychosocial analysis study of self-proclaimed "soccer geniuses" in order to characterize a subset of fans of the world's most popular sport. We're all being watched..... /tinfoil hat
I wonder how much of an impact banning the US would have on US sponsors. The Washington Post article today indicated that Nike signed their first sponsorship deal with Brazil in 1996 and has since increased in soccer revenue from $40 million in 1994 to $2.2 billion in 2014. The money they make off of foreign teams probably outweighs the USMNT sponsorship. Coke, McDonald's, Visa, they all probably won't quit the money they make off FIFA just because the US teams were banned.
Part of me hopes they ban the US, just to see what happens afterwards. While the US alone might not be able to do much, it might be the final straw for UEFA who then decides to walk as a result. I know they're making threats now, but it might take that final push to get them to pull out. If the US got banned and UEFA boycotts, then I could easily see sponsors either dropping out, or seriously dropping how much they pay for things. How much support will the smaller nations give to Sepp when they find out they aren't going to get all their freebies anymore?
I think banning the US would have the same effect as when Nixon fired the Watergate special prosecutor, Archibald Cox (what a great comic book name). It would almost be like saying "I'm guilty". The US DOJ and IRS would shift into overdrive and start really spending money and resources to bring down FIFA. If you were a mid-level DOJ lawyer/IRS bureaucrat, just think how this would look on your resume when you ran for elected office later. "Vote for me. I'm really tough on crime. I didn't waste my time with small-time criminals like drug cartels. I brought down FIFA, the biggest, most corrupt organization in the world". I also agree with the sponsor angle, but I think it would be the US sponsors dumping FIFA so fast that FIFA wouldn't know what hit time to avoid the awkward congressional hearings about why they are giving money to an obviously corrupt organization (with of course, the IRS standing in the background, just waiting to start the audit).
Sunil Gulati tweeted that he will be voting against Blatter tomorrow. He also said Canada and others will do the same, and he thinks the vote will be a lot closer than most people think.
Is this satire? I honestly can't tell because it does seem like something McCain would legitimately say.
It looks like Blatter won't have the votes to get elected on the first ballot, but likely so for the second. How Caribbean nations feel about Warner being abandoned or the Asians over bin Hammam is the potential opening for unseating him. I don't expect it, though.
I kind of assumed, but sadly I haven't kept up on the satire sites. Still, some of his actual comments about things crack me up since he'll straight bash things going on now, that he was OK with in the past. I love the general hypocrisy of both Republicans and Democrats. It's ok when they're in charge, but when they're not, it's suddenly bad. I assumed Sepp would get reelected. He knows how to play the game and basically bribed the small nations into voting for him. The big thing I hope comes of this, is that everyone eventually tries to out each other to save themselves, eventually outing Sepp in the process. That or the bigger nations start to see the ship going down and abandon before it fully sinks. Sepp likely knows he has to keep the election today, or risk losing it because any delay likely exposes more corruption.
Momentum is a tricky thing. Sepp's won votes by having power to spread the sleazy cash around. If that's done because of the investigation, he might see his friends leave in droves as they try to sidle up to the new guy. Regardless of what happens this time around, Luis Figo will win this in a land slide in the next election.