With reporting from Lesley Walker
In a hastily called press conference tonight, FIFA President Sepp Blatter announced he will resign as head of the world’s football governing body.
The 79-year-old, who just won his fifth term on Friday (with Qatar’s backing), has come under fire recently due to a organization-wide corruption scandal.
Speaking at the press conference, Blatter said:
“The elections are closed but the challenges that FIFA are facing have not come to an end. FIFA needs profound restructuring.
While I have a mandate from the membership of FIFA, I do not feel that I have a mandate from the entire world of football – the fans, the players, the clubs, the people who live, breathe and love football as much as we all do at FIFA.”
An extraordinary Congress will be called to elect his successor.
According to the organization’s bylaws, the vote cannot take place for at least another four months, during which Blatter will continue to serve as president.
Domenico Scala, chairman of the FIFA audit and compliance committee, spoke after Blatter, and said that elections would likely be held sometime between December of this year and March 2016.
Recent events
Dissatisfied with what has been seen as a lack of transparency in FIFA, many in the world football community have been calling for Blatter’s resignation for years.
Support for his exit grew last week after several FIFA officials were arrested by order of the US on charges of racketeering, fraud and other crimes that date back to the mid-1990s.
Also last week, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland, where FIFA is headquartered, launched a criminal investigation in connection to the World Cup tournaments being awarded to Russia and Qatar.
Despite the scandal, FIFA pushed ahead with presidential elections two days later, during which Blatter was re-elected.
However, the final straw appeared to come after the New York Times today reported that Blatter’s top deputy, Jerome Valcke, was linked to a $10 million transfer of funds cited in the US indictment.
FIFA said this afternoon that Valcke was not involved.
Following Blatter’s resignation today, the Swiss Office of the Attorney General issued a statement saying that the outgoing president is not under investigation.
What it means for Qatar
Neither Blatter or Scala mentioned any specific controversy that is currently swirling around FIFA. However, other football executives immediately turned their attention to Qatar’s 2022 World Cup bid:
“Something has come out of the events of last week that has caused Mr Blatter to resign,” said English Football Association chairman Greg Dyke, according to The Guardian. “He’s gone. At long last we can sort out Fifa. We can go back to looking at those two World Cups. If I were Qatar right now I wouldn’t be feeling very comfortable.”
With the president’s resignation, Qatar’s World Cup organizers have lost one of their most powerful and ardent defenders.
It was under Blatter’s tenure that Qatar won the right to host the tournament, a choice that remains controversial among many critics to this day.
Blatter has previously lashed out at Qatar’s critics, suggesting last June that “there’s a great deal of discrimination and racism” behind the “storm against FIFA relating to the Qatar World Cup.”
Whether his successor adopts a similar tone or presses Qatar to crack down on the abuses of migrant workers will depend on the candidates vying to replace him.
None of the three challengers who campaigned in last month’s election publicly criticized Qatar, although all made general statements about the need to eliminate corruption.
What’s next
Along with elected a new president, FIFA will undertake structural reforms that are expected to include changes to the composition of its executive committee as well as how its members are selected, Scala stated.
“Current events only reinforce my determination to drive this reform,” he said.
Scala also suggested that executive committee candidates would be subject to “FIFA-driven integrity checks,” rather than leaving such vetting procedures up to individual football confederations.
Finally, Scala said FIFA would seek to publish the compensation figures of the president and executive committee members as well as introduce term limits.
All these measures would be debated at the same extraordinary session in which FIFA is expected to elect a new president. Speculation is already rife about who would lead the organization, with former contender Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan and UEFA President Michel Platini’s names coming up.
A Jordanian football association official told newswire AFP that “Prince Ali is ready” for the upcoming election.
Platini, who has previously calling for Blatter to step down, said of tonight’s announcement:
Statement of UEFA President Michel Platini: "It was a difficult decision, a brave decision, and the right decision”.
— Dan Roan (@danroan) June 2, 2015
Thoughts?
Blatter, Blatter, bo-blatter,
Banana-fana fo-flattee
Fee-fi-mo-mlatter
Blatter!
Bye bye, Blatter – Schmlatter
Splatter!
Wow!
(First comment) 🙂
Possibly your best yest. Since you have nothing to say, apart from responding to comments.
Are you the guy that spent time in jail here for being accused of absconding?
And you’re responding to mine! But I do appreciate your resentment, it’s delicious 😉
Deleting for irrelevance.
but not irreverence.
This news brought to you by Visa, Coca Cola, Nike and McDonalds…
And UEFA apparently.
Needs to be arrested and punished… he must not escape justice.
how biblical – give the guy a break – he’s an old man.
Still 4 months to go? That’s more than enough for him to destroy as many emails and documents as he wants.
Or cut a deal like the corrupt American FIFA official
If he does I would be very worried if I was on the committee for the Russian & Qatar World cup
Bravo Sherlock .. Well done
Elementary my dear Watson
“None of the three challengers who campaigned in last month’s election publicly criticized Qatar, although all made general statements about the need to eliminate corruption.”
Too late, apparently the arrested officials are now singin’
Arrested officials were only arrested cause the USA official rated them out to save his behind
/i think you mean “ratted”
Who was only arrested because of a completely unrelated investigation by the organized crime unit focused on the Russian mafia. The indictment makes fascinating reading.
The official you refer to, Chuck Blazer, probably has had his future sentence reduced, but he hasn’t got off without punishment. He was labelled “Co-conspirator #1” in the FBI indictment. He was arrested and will be prosecuted.
The reason he came clean wasn’t only that he wanted to lessen his punishment – he’s terminally ill with cancer and so will likely not live too much longer. He had nothing more to gain from all his corruption.
Not dying in prison would be quite an incentive.
u are up to your neck A Qtr. bit late to accuse others pal. Qatar’s stained money has a trail, and i for one cannot wait for justice.
Yeah pal click click
That’s the way the legal system works, though. When you can see the full force of the law is about to come down on you, you make sure you cut a deal first.
Yup I agree id be the first to rat everyone out to make sure my behind is out of jail… This corrupt American was reported to have an apt in NYC at the trump tower… Where he kept his cats!! Now that’s bling corruption … Let’s see what they come up with the corrupt Swiss Blatter …
they called him “Mr 10%” – I wonder what Blatter’s nickname was in the club.
The walking dead.
Yep, he can not only sanitise the paperwork but he can also get his cronies throughout FIFA and the world federations to get their ducks in a row for when the FBI and the Swiss authorities come knocking.
old world thinking – Feds will be mostly using emails and US records that will be out on the internet rather than in a paper filing cabinet in Zurich
and testimony of the first 12 disciples busted – it’s like the last supper with 12 x Judas
Why not step down now and let the Vice President run the show for the next four months? He is bluffing to defuse the situation.
Clearly he was influenced by the Al’Sharq newspapers editors example 🙂
I was gonna say that! Lol
no getting away from the FBI, Qatar is next. Watch out.
Qatar, the country will be arrested by the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States? This doesn’t make sense….
Qatar is a country.
Corruption will (eventually) be exposed and punished.
But I’d ask the question whose more corrupt .. The American Swiss and African officials ? Or South Africa Russia and Qatar for making payments to them to earn the votes
Strange question. The second group are obviously bidders but the first? In answer to your question I suspect least corrupt would technically be the Swiss/Americans and most corrupt would be “African officials” or the Russians and everyone else would sit in between. What does Transparency International have to say about them all?
The first group are voters and yet you’re able to seperate “the African Officials” as the most corrupt. Is this a fact or just an assumption? I’m guessing it’s the later and i don’t really blame you, you’re “designed” to assume everything bad comes out of Africa.
No – just basing it on a quick look at the Transparency International listings where African countries show up as five of the ten worst. Central Asia does remarkably well for it’s size too but they weren’t an option. In the end the term “African officials” is a bit too vague to formulate any reasonable view.
Well, should you quote the Transparency International ranking, you should also have to acknowledge that Qatar is as corrupt as France and less corrupt than most European countries.
Most? I don’t think Qatar is particularly corrupt. Eastern Europe would beat them hands down but then somewhere like Denmark or better should be the standard to aspire to.
Yes, less than most. Moreover, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal are not exactly Eastern European countries yet they are more corrupt than Qatar according to Transparency. One can speculate that those countries’ tremendous success in football could be because they are corrupt, while the least corrupt countries such as Finland, New Zealand, Singapore, etc. never win anything because they are clean.
Southern Europe is pretty systemically corrupt – hence their economies hamper the rest of the EU. NZ were the only unbeaten team in the 2010 WC, got to the final of the Cricket WC and do a reasonable job in rugby. Finland are pretty ace at biathlon, ice hockey and ski jumping. Singapore do money, money and more money and they have a very nice airport.
Then it is unfair to single out the African officials. What you seem to be saying is that the Nordic countries are clean, the rest are corrupt.
I suggest you look at the T.I. methodology or any of the others. Basically we’re all corrupt just to a greater or lesser degree and there’s not that much difference between top and bottom. There is however something to aspire to. I didn’t single out African officials if you re-read my original comment.
My apologies, apparently there is another AEC here, who wrote: “… and most corrupt would be “African officials” …” 🙂
Or the Russians. Can you read?
OK, whatever
Deleting the rest of this thread for devolving.
got me!
As far as i know, no single African is among the arrested FIFA officials. Now, that explain a lot about who the corrupt officials are…we all know the holy country’s and continent where the arrested official are from.
And they were all men so you could equally argue women are never corrupt.
Everyone know there is corruption in Africa just as there is all over the world but in this case, as of today, no single African official as being arrested. So, your argument about “Africa officials” represented in FIFA being the most corrupt is totally incorrect.
Your comment is childish and completely based on general world view on Africa unfortunately.
I hadn’t realized we were talking specifically about FIFA. That wasn’t clear in the original comment. If we can’t write off whole continents then I don’t want to play.
But Africans are among the ones who have admitted to bribery.
South Africa denies Fifa was paid World Cup bribe. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-32912917
Now, can you please tell us who or which country in Africa admitted to bribe. Name and link please
Yesterday they admitted to paying 10,000,000 and then got caught lying about who knew what. The link you want is here:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/south-africa-fa-admit-paid-5799765
Zurich (AFP) – FIFA on Tuesday admitted that it had processed a $10 million payment from South Africa to a disgraced football official but denied the world body’s secretary general Jerome Valcke was involved….
Despite the denial, Britain’s Press Association news agency reported a letter from South Africa’s Football Association chief to Valcke which indicated he knew about the payment.
taken from this link:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/fifa-acknowledges-10-million-transfer-081818745–sow.html
You can see the letter to Valcke with payment instructions here:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jun/02/fifa-scandal-jerome-valcke-described-as-sender-of-10m-to-jack-warner
You are correct that the South African soccer officials are claiming that it was not a bribe (but then they said Valcke wasn’t involved, despite the letter so their credibility is weak), but they do admit to paying it. However,the South African judicial authorities have not taken them at their word and have opened a criminal investigation. From the ‘You Can’t Make This Stuff Up’ book, as the South Africans were issuing their lie…I mean denial yesterday, the letter was being release.
Best I can see it is nice diverse representation of humanity, we got us some Europeans, some Africans, some North Americans, some South Americans. Hopefully we’ll soon seem some Asians added to the mix. Greed and corruption in soccer doesn’t limit itself to any one ethnic group it seems to me.
The law doesn’t gage levels of corruption, just that it exists. Both parties, those that make and those that take bribes are equal. It will come out who was paid and for what. You have financial forensic investigators going through the meticulous Swiss bank account records. If Qataris are named in indictments in the USA do we think that Qatar, who could lose hosting rights out of this, is just going to do nothing? I would wager that anything to salvage the event would be on the table, to include charges
I think that we all know that he means it is only a matter of time before we start seeing Qatari names in indictments.
FBI has no jurisdiction in Qatar & I seriously can’t see Qatar worried about a non-issue.
Corruption is a ‘non-issue’???
No, FBI “coming for” Qatar is. Again, no jurisdiction.
No Kidding
You seriously think if the Americans really want someone they’re going to let a few borders get in their way?
Extraordinary rendition
Qatar as country has nothing to fear, Qatari individuals are as subject to arrest warrants as anyone else. Whether Qatar plays or not is another issue, but I can very easily imagine the day when a number of folks named in international warrants can’t travel outside of the GCC for fear of arrest – ort of like Kissenger in that way.
Not me, they can’t do sh!! me. You heard that buddy? Can’t do anything to Saleem! Come get it bit**!!!
I gather from your reply that you have a past that leads you to fear arrest. You been pirating Game of Bones again?
Mostly all HBO shows, been doing it for years now, forcing me to sleep with one eye open…but it’s worth it. 😉
i think alot of guys didn’t know what you mean by game of bones
I’m sure that Saleem does – being the sophisticated consumer of visual media that he is.
Deleting rest of this thread for irrelevance.
There is no way he would have stepped down unless he knew there was worse news (for him) down the line. Just trying to save himself from further embarrassment
The FBI are coming for you septic…..
Agreed the house of cards really is starting to fall! What a great day for football!
Shame all the so called footballing countries left it to the Americans to sort out the stinking cesspool of corruption known as FIFA
He either had a talk into the mirror or a late night phone call explaining his situation and what the world actually thought.The world at large, not FIFA voting members,that is.
That may be true, but neither the FBIO or the Swiss authorities have given any indication that they were close to talking to him. More likely at the moment is that the sponsors had a quiet word in his ear
Word on the BBC is that he is being investigated.
Nothing has been officially announced, but the New York Times says he is under investigation.
Agreed
I’ll resign, but I’m taking this with me…..
The wicked witch is gone 🙂 The best news I’ve heard all day.
I am sure FBI knows all the details. I am also sure that all relevant bank accounts have been monitored with the help of SWIFT. In addition sell short Qatari stocks. To be continued….
Too late … If you’re in the stock market at this time your doomed … Thu noon would be a good time to buy in
Doha News. Get ready a record breaking number on the amount of comments you shall receive on this article alone. Let the celebrations begin! I had a few beers and was about to call it a night… but now I have to continue in honor of BLATTER. I hope you get what you deserve and I hope the whole world watches while the popcorn stays warm.
I hope change really does start happening and FIFA doesn’t get another Blatter.
This is the best thing for FIFA and may also be the best thing for Qatar. Assuming the WC2022 goes ahead as planned, it would not bode well for Qatar to be associated with Blatter. If they use this opportunity to sort out some of the serious issues of hosting 2022, it would benefit Qatar in the long run and could be a feather in their agal & ghutrah 🙂
Well said. This could give Qatar graceful out of something their wise leadership never should have gotten the country into. The country’s resources are better put into building sustainable infrastructure to support and build real and diverse economy and NOT into a one time sports event show-off show.
Many would question the wisdom of getting involved in the first place, but I agree that this would be a convenient time to cut losses and focus energies elsewhere.
But the big question is are Qatar up for it? Big ask to get rid of the Kafala system – not to mention actually getting the infrastructure built. On the record of the airport the 2022 WC will be held here in 2028.
I’m laying money that that is a big assumption. I foresee a re-bid and everyone rushing to disassociate themselves from Qata 2022r. I think that Russia will be kept (noses held the whole time) as there just isn’t time for a new location. I believe that the sponsors want nothing to do with 2022 as it is currently as their names are getting too tarnished.
Hopefully things now will get better at the FIFA. As for Qatar, I see no risk to be honest. I don’t think the next president will have the legal means to strip Qatar or Russia of the World Cup. We should expect may be more pressure on HR issues but definitely not radical actions.
Well if it is proven that the voting process for either of the World Cup’s were subject to corruption, then there would definitely be a legal case for a re-vote.
By the time the investigation is closed, the WC would have been already played in Russia, and it would be too late to change it from Qatar to another country. That obviously in case irregularitities re discovered.
Too late? Most European countries and the US could hold it tomorrow. They already HAVE the infrastructure. Save Qatar $21 billion.
They are bankrupt. None of them can find half that amount in the next 3 or 4 years.
His point was they ALREADY have everything needed to host the WC tomorrow! No money required!
Again, this is not true. The amount of human and financial resources they need to mobilize needs proper planning and a lot of time. The UK has all the infrastructure and yet it had to spend billions for 8 years to host the 2012 Olympics. Eventually, it couldn’t sort out all the security issues until the last moment.
Well things don’t bode well for the world cup here if we follow that logic!
You’re talking the UK there. They’re not exactly Germans.
Though they do definitely have the odd football stadium in place already. Goodness knows what they’re for.
Yes they have debts and slow growth but technically they’re not bankrupt – except maybe Greece. You need to keep in mind though that some of these economies are huge and a WC would be small beans for them (especially if it ended up in US). Qatar meanwhile has an economy about the size as that of Louisiana – hence it is a big deal here.
Alabama actually. 🙂 (An association that both sides appreciate, I’m sure, almost as much as Kuwait and Kentucky!)
http://www.businessinsider.com/map-renames-each-us-state-with-country-generating-same-gdp-2015-5
Imagine a football world cup in Kentucky – Now that would really be something to see.
And Australia.
My vote would be Australia. Never had it. Could easily do it. Have done Olympics twice. Cricket WC a few times. Rugby WC. Nice red wine. Good food. Good beaches. Perfect time zone for East Asia TV audience. And they had 80,000 people at the Chelsea FC v Sydney FC game the other day. It’d be brilliant.
Though it would be quite nice not to have to fly anywhere to see a few live games.
Beyond the obvious reason not to have it here there is also the track record of not doing it well the relatively small event they’ve had.
Yes – there was quite a brutal review in Sports Illustrated of the appalling ticketing and crowd control in the Asian Cup. Even if you’re going to hand it over to one of those German event management companies you have to be prepared to actually follow instructions rather than trying to give them all the time. A recipe for disaster.
Yes. My vote is either the US or Australia. Both were screwed in the bidding and would host an incredible WC. Now if those delegates could just send me a check for my vote…
Nope. The UK took ages to prepare for the London 2012, yet they had all the infrastructure ready as you are saying.
Olympics is different to football. All the football stadiums exist, wembley 90000, old trafford 77000, emirates 60000 and that is before you get to the other modern stadiums all over the country that hold 30000 plus
Yes Olympics is different because it is easier to manage. Everything is one spot, whereas for football it is scattered all over the country, thus having multiple venues, multiple security issues, multiple fans/spectators/crowd management tactics, etc.
Easier to manage? Soccer requires soccer stadiums, the olympics requires natatoriums, velodromes, etc etc. Pretty much every western european and the USA could host tomorrow like said before.
Are you joking?
What? Olympics are spread all over too, but in many different types of facilities.
So if the Olympics are easier to host, why did the IOC not even let the Qatar olympic bid progress past the very first stage hmmmmm?
Haha your responses are getting more ridiculous each time!
The Olympics has 26 different sports to organise. While the “core” Olympic sports where held in London. The games had venues in Weymouth to Glasgow basically for from the far south to the North! Yeah much easier lol
Olympics in one spot? You’re not too well up on modern sports, I see.
It is named after cities for a reason. It is the London Olympics not the UK Olympics.
Unless there is a decision to return to grass roots more humble games in the spirit in which the WC started. Could certainly happen.
The Russian World Cup is in 3yrs time, remember the Justice system in European countries doesn’t move at a glacial pace.
And now it seems the canaries are singing I can’t see the investigation taking 3yrs plus, to find whether the bid was corrupt or not.
Whether or not it would be practical to move it would obviously depend on the time left and a willing host country.
The 2022 World Cup is 8yrs away!
If the Swiss authorities do prove corruption in the awarding of the tournaments, it is almost guaranteed that FIFA’s sponsors would withdraw their money. Thus forcing a re-vote
Anyway this all depends on the Swiss investigation, so it’s all speculation at this point. But I don’t agree with your point that there’s not enough time, as that’s simply not true especially in the case of 2022
Knowing the Swiss it’ll probably be sorted by Tuesday.
Even if this is true and there are irregularities in WC2018 and WC2022, re-voting the Russian one does not make sense as it would be nearly impossible for any country to prepare a WC in 3 years or less. If Russia is kept and Qatar removed then this is unfair. Either you punish both or not.
Disagree I think. I don’t think that the large sponsors want their names associated with Qatar 2022 anymore as it is. I think that they are calling for major change at both FIFA and Qatar. Qatar is unable to do the necessary change in the time needed. I think that this will lead to a re-vote under threat of major sponsors pulling out. The sponsors win, FIFA looks like a reformed and progressive organization.
And Qatar Airways, QNB etc. don’t have that sort of money?
They do…but wouldn’t a world cup in Qatar sponsored only by Qatari companies just scream that something is wrong?
What’s in it for them? They already have the local/regional market and any international exposure would be negated by the negativity associated with being sponsors. 2022 is a poison well, no sane person would want to touch it.
Why let sanity get in the way?
Oh, I think that all vanity projects are getting a critical second look – a ‘sane’ look if you will, recently.
easy – delay it.
Most large footballing European countries could host a WC with months notice, not years along with the USA at a guess……….. Still I can’t see Qatar losing it as its already been proven that most countries in the bidding process offer some “Encouragement’ to the voting FIFA delegates.
At a pinch, many countries with a real footballing heritage could organanise a WC in a matter of months.
I was thinking almost the same thing!
But if they prove one bid was corrupt – wouldn’t they also have to prove that ALL the OTHER bids weren’t also corrupt – and that theoretically – only the best bribe one? I have serious doubts that this wasn’t a system where everyone knew what the “rules” of the game were.
No, they wouldn’t. You can’t prove that something ‘isn’t’ something, only that it ‘is’.
But what I mean is that if they investigate – there is a chance many of the other bids were corrupt as well – as Garcia’s report hinted at.
Indeed, and hopefully anyone who participated in such corruption will be charged and tried in court. I guess that I don’t understand the point though, just because ‘that is the way the game is played and everyone is doing it’ doesn’t work as justification for illegal behaviour. If it did saying that your speeding ticket is unfair because everyone speeds would be a reasonable defence.
This is true! But I do hope it demonstrates that some of the nations and their media that have been lobbying the most critiques (some racist – some valid) against Qatar might find themselves in the same position. That would be the best end to this story – if everyone is exposed.
It is a mistake though to characterize the media as tools of their governments.
Qatar just lost the 2022 World Cup. Accept it.
Cancel the construction, Let the workers live…
Extract the Gas and Oil.
Buy more of London.
Bank your wealth for your children’s children.
Sit in your Majlis, die old and happy.
Why is your cat riding your back
Love that. Is it a translation?
American and western people are the most racist creatures on this earth. They did not like the fact a non-western countries can succeed. They believe they are the only people on the earth can organize big tournaments. Why are you so jealous that Qatar or Russia are going to host world cup?. They are using smear campaign against Qatar since they won the honor to host the world cup starting from Obama. Why? “Qatar is so hot”!; what about Brazil!!!, what about Mexico!!!. Western people are the most hippocrates on this earth.
One word…slavery. How more racist can you be then be a slaver?
Slavery and racism are two different things. Throughout history many ethnic groups that practiced slavery had traded in slaves of their own race.
There is no shortage of hypocrites in Doha, and not all of them are expats.
Sorry but the US really doesn’t give a toss about the world cup – probably page 9 in most papers but only for a day. You start messing around with their banking system though and they get seriously annoyed.
You obviously know nothing of the sports culture in the USA then.
Admittedly “soccer” is getting more of a showing – e.g. recently added to the various 3 letter N acronyms on the ESPN home page – but really if you’re watching the telly there it is mostly overly dramatized weather reports, who is wearing what and the odd televised car chase. One goal each half really doesn’t cut it for US viewer ratings.
I couldn’t have said it better.
Why do you equate popularity of a sport with the “telly”? Should go by the numbers of people actually playing the sport and those numbers are huge in the US. I’ve played the sport for nearly 40 years but other than the WC I don’t get that big a thrill watching it most days. If you only went by “telly” numbers then that means Africa, where people mostly can’t afford “tellys”, is not a soccer playing continent.
According to http://www.statista.com/statistics/227428/number-of-soccer-players-usa/- Nearly 15 million.
Americans were the largest group of buyers for WC ’14 tickets.
And by the way the WC ’14 “telly” numbers were huge.
I think the idea of the USA not being a soccer playing nation are antiquated.
And have you really ever watched the “telly” in the US? Not sure what you’re referring to. Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, True Detective, etc etc.? Most of the worlds popular movies produced there outside of India? The myriad selection of sports like baseball, A. football, basketball, hockey and soccer? If you ARE a Brit your bias is showing.
Deleting for stereotyping.
Another busy morning…
If we all accept that FIFA is corrupt and there was bribery involved in the host county selection, shouldn’t we also question if there was corruption, bribery and game-fixing in the previous World Cup games??? Many games and strange referees’ decisions, as well as Blatter’s refusal to adopt modern techologies now could be explained. One penalty shot not given, one or two offsides “missed” and instead of winning 2:1 you lose the game, while someone gets the brown envelope or wins mega bucks from betting.
Kind of like the Handball championships. The fix was in there for sure. Ask the Germans. They got the royal screw.
Well serves them right for buying 2006 games. Real talk.
But we already know that there was in South Africa’s case. Will have to wait for the Brazilian investigation for that one.
For me the question is – if “hypothetically” FIFA was corrupt from the beginning – don’t we have to assume that to win, countries had to “play the game” or else they had no chance of ever hosting the cup? If that is the case – how do we blame anyone retroactively – since the process only allowed or even demanded this kind of corruption? (and I put hypothetically in quotes with a HUGE wink)
No! It couldn’t possibly be true!
very surprising news!! i did not expect this to happen!! i wonder what made him step down?!!
Fear, otherwise he would have done it a looooooooooong time ago.
After the number 2 guy was implicated Monday the laser dot of the smoking gun was shining right on his head. He knows the gig is up finally.
It would be good to see the point of view of Qataris on the possibility of cancelling the WC here. I am sure many of them will be happy especially if this means less traffic, less expats influx, less expenditure on uninteresting sport events and more Qatari-focussed projects.
If they cancel WC (which I never wanted in the first place), I will howl at the moon in the yard of every expat house, and if they come to warn me about the noise I will bite them and disappear into the night.
Okay, put the coffee down and back slowly away from the keyboard…
You wanna get bit before any event has been canceled dude? The keyboard is what’s keeping me sane these days.
Save your keyboarding skills, you’re going to need them. If you blow your load this early in the game you won’t be able to play later when things get really interesting.
You need to save your energy for what is to come. If you blow your load this early in the game you won’t be able to play later when it gets interesting.
Most of them will pack and disappear in the days following any possible cancellation announcement 🙂
A lot of denizens would like those things too.
Reports now coming out that Blatter is under investigation. I think WC2018 in Russia is safe, and up till today I was pretty sure that WC2022 would take place in Qatar, but now I suspect that the European leagues and their sponsors that will be badly affected by a winter WC may start to flex their muscles.
Depends how it all goes down. If the Swiss authorities rule both bids were corrupt the courts may force a rebid and even a delay on both but there’s definitely a few indications the European leagues were pretty sick of the FIFA farce.
Hah!! This news is so big I bet nobody noticed that Real Madrid assigned Rafa Benitez as their head coach!
Who’s Real Madrid? A city in Spain? Why would we be interested in events in a city thousands of miles away from us?
No. Madrid is a city in Spain. Real Madrid are a club native to the city of Madrid. When I said “nobody” I meant that in general, on the global scale, not just in Qatar.
Why do you have to be so boring sometimes Yacine?
You made me think like I missed something big in the news…
It is big news if you are football fan!
If corruption is found will Qatar lose the world cup?
If?
Perhaps but not necessarily.
“Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?”
dates back to the 1990’s but only arrested after Qatar wins world cup…. coincidence I’m sure. i just feel bad for poor russia they aren’t arab but poor guys just get investigated just because others dont want to look racist
says the racist
Deleting for attack.
It is crazy how much that impacts the financial market!… Few hours after Sepp Blatter announced his resignation, Qatar stock market dropped by 3%, this is 4.5 Billion Dollars. Imagine if they lose the 2022 right, I think this could cause around 25 Billion dollars in immediate losses. Scary figures!
Great discussion, all! Closing this thread now.