Posted on 05/26/2015 10:09:33 PM PDT by tcrlaf
Swiss authorities began an extraordinary early-morning operation here Wednesday to arrest several top soccer officials and extradite them to the United States on federal corruption charges.
As leaders of FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, gathered for their annual meeting, more than a dozen plain-clothed Swiss law enforcement officials arrived unannounced at the Baur au Lac hotel, an elegant five-star property with views of the Alps and Lake Zurich.
The officers went to the registration desk to get keys, then headed upstairs toward the hotel rooms. One FIFA official was led by the authorities from his room to a side-door exit of the hotel. He was allowed to bring his luggage.
The charges allege widespread corruption in FIFA over the past two decades, involving bids for World Cups as well as marketing and broadcast deals, according to three law enforcement officials with direct knowledge of the case. The charges include wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering, and officials said they targeted members of FIFA’s powerful executive committee, which wields enormous power and does its business largely in secret.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
You mean the JUST US Dept.
Can one of our many legal experts explain how the U.S. has jurisdiction over FIFA?
Aaron Davidson is the CEO of the North American Soccer League (not the biggest, but home to the New York Cosmos, and currently making a bid to grow). He is also the CEO of Traffic Sports, a sports marketing company that concentrates on soccer, has ESPN and BEIN sports as clients, runs multiple soccer tournaments (including COPA America), and also owns the Carolina RailHawks , and the Fort Lauderdale Strikers - both being NASL teams.
Seeing as there were some television guys arrested along with the FIFA execs, any television contracts involving U.S. networks probably gives the Feds standing for any kind of racketeering going on.
Millions of Americans play it and follow it. You might not, but many do.
Yes, we know you do. 4hr padded gay rugby.
I wonder how this will effect the US national team, and our domestic leagues in the next few years. Since the Justice Department went after the top of our own continent’s executives, are we looking at retaliation, such as a suspension from all international competition, be it our national team and our domestic leagues. It would seem to me not implausible that the US could be thrown out of FIFA over this. Before some anti-soccer knuckledraggers get all happy over this, FOX is probably the main target of the Justice Department. You see when FIFA changed the 2022 Qatar World Cup to a Winter tournament, FOX was given the 2026 rights without competing bids.
The general comments so far indicate that it’s about the Latin American games (2014) and the US games (going back to 1994). I would suspect that they’ve yet to figure the money connection to Qatar or Russia....maybe hoping that one of these guys will flip and give evidence over on the others (my humble bet).
All of this brings up the problem, if true, how to handle the games in Russia or Qater if both prove a fraud. Both countries have spent billions, so I doubt if you can just cancel the games or send them to another country. The best deal is to imprison the guys who got money for twenty years and make an example out of them.
Just what popped into my head. Thank you.
Lois Lerner & John Koskinen are free, too...
And the Jesters Department...
Is this Obama getting back at them for him losing the Chitown bid?
“The investigation was requested by the U.S. Dept. of Justice.”
Another amazing success of US diplomacy. We are the country who cares less about soccer than anywhere on earth. All the other countries are batfeces crazy about it.
So we make sure the top governing body is run right, that they are extradited here, and intend to put them on trial.
And of all the crime on earth, this is a priority.
Who in hell is running this country? Its like a lunatic asylum.
Yet we still have Lois Lerner and Hillary Clinton running loose for far worse crimes.
Just goes to show how pathetic our "Justice Dept." is.
Loretta Lynch press conference is about to begin. Live updates here:
More info here:
https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start/documentation/media-releases.msg-id-57391.html
http://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/news/y=2015/m=5/news=press-conference-live-at-11-00-cet-2609064.html
Clinton FIFA ties? Just saw this on Twitter.
In addition to arrests and seizure of documents in Switzerland, FBI raided the Miami offices of CONCACAF:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article22409883.html
Live stream of DOJ / FBI press conference here:
Press conference to begin in 2 minutes.
I guess he wants some legacy, "Barack Obama -- US the president who turned soccer into an honest sport!"
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