FIFA Officials arrested in dawn raid inZurich

James1953James1953 Posts: 4,840
Forum Member
✭✭✭
Breaking news:

ZURICH — Swiss authorities conducted 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. They went to the front desk to get keys and proceeded upstairs to the rooms.

The arrests were carried out peacefully, with at least two men being ushered out of the hotel without handcuffs. One FIFA official, Eduardo Li of Costa Rica, was led by the authorities from his room to a side-door exit of the hotel. He was allowed to bring his luggage, which was adorned with FIFA logos.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/sports/soccer/fifa-officials-face-corruption-charges-in-us.html?_r=0
«13456721

Comments

  • dtcdtcdtcdtcdtcdtc Posts: 16,990
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Guess there may be few empty seats at tonight's UEFA final ....

    Think this is connected onto their investigation into Jack Warner which means there may be a chance some of our officials get dragged in
  • blitzben85blitzben85 Posts: 3,020
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Corruption, FIFA, no ! I'm stunned :o
  • Sam_Clarke1Sam_Clarke1 Posts: 3,196
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Wonder if it will delay Friday's vote

    or maybe they have already voted...:p:)
  • Fergie86Fergie86 Posts: 7,956
    Forum Member
    Shock, horror, the only surprising aspect of this is that it has taken so long for FIFA officials to be arrested, i bet Sepp Blatter still gets re-elected on Friday.
  • celesticelesti Posts: 25,957
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Stupid police always harassing the little man, ain't use got no murders to solve instead or peedos to catch? My kids arnt safe like and share
  • cantoscantos Posts: 7,368
    Forum Member
    I wonder how many other delegates will do a runner before friday.
  • TATTOO62TATTOO62 Posts: 405
    Forum Member
    I'd imagine when they get Stateside they will be offered deals to sing like canaries and they will. Tip of the iceberg.
  • Richard1960Richard1960 Posts: 20,340
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Sounds like the arrests might have gone wrong the big cheese at the top is not one of those.;-)
  • mimik1ukmimik1uk Posts: 46,701
    Forum Member
    anyone know why its the FBI and US DoJ that seems to have jurisdiction over this ?
  • RichmondBlueRichmondBlue Posts: 21,279
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Good news. But will it signal the end of Blatter ?..I somehow doubt it.
  • cantoscantos Posts: 7,368
    Forum Member
    mimik1uk wrote: »
    anyone know why its the FBI and US DoJ that seems to have jurisdiction over this ?

    Deals were alledgley made in the US and US banks were used to launder money.
  • Gordie1Gordie1 Posts: 6,993
    Forum Member
    Their greed has pulled the world cup down to sewer level, we all knew what was going on of course, thats what made it all so infuriating.

    Who knows if the next world cup will even happen, the one in Qatar, if it takes place there , no country should participate.
  • tony321tony321 Posts: 10,594
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Looks like the investigation has been going on a while, hopefully the farce of the 2022 WC is one of the first things to be sorted
  • PaloAltoPaloAlto Posts: 98
    Forum Member
    Although when i first heard the news this morning i was ecstatic that these crooks were potentially about to be exposed this has now subsided into a feeling of melancholy

    How has this game, the best and most played in the world, come to this state?

    So we potentially have the fat cats at the top of the tree accepting bribes and allowing corruption but you can add this to the never ending list that proves football is morally bankrupt.
    We have two world cups allocated under shameful circumstances .One in a country currently at war and with a low level of tolerance to minority groups and another in a farce of a place which is using migrant workers exposed to the roughest conditions imaginable. Some of them nepalese migrants banned from returnin home to mourn their loved ones lost in the recent earthquake. And the deaths of workers working in unsafe conditions for hours on end to create this sham of a tournament.
    Sepp Blatter about to be reappointed AGAIN whist presiding over some of the most ridiculous events in the corporations history. This is the same man who said female players should wear shorter shorts.
    Add it to the greed in our domestic game, players turning down 100K contracts while their fans struggle to get the money together to support their team away from home. We have TV deals increasing in value yet so do ticket prices. Clubs chase the short term game and fail to invest in future, young, english talent which has decreased the national team's ability to compete

    Sad.
  • batdude_uk1batdude_uk1 Posts: 78,722
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Gordie1 wrote: »
    Their greed has pulled the world cup down to sewer level, we all knew what was going on of course, thats what made it all so infuriating.

    Who knows if the next world cup will even happen, the one in Qatar, if it takes place there , no country should participate.

    Do you want to be the person who tells Putin the World Cup in his country is not going to happen??:o:o
  • Yo Omars CominYo Omars Comin Posts: 1,567
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    FIFA is the damaged party.
  • Gordie1Gordie1 Posts: 6,993
    Forum Member
    Do you want to be the person who tells Putin the World Cup in his country is not going to happen??:o:o

    Give me his number:D
  • goonernataliegoonernatalie Posts: 4,173
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I agree that no country should take part
  • Grim FandangoGrim Fandango Posts: 4,038
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    The first thing they need to do after this is implement some kind of max term for presidents. It's bizarre that Blatter has been allowed to rule over the football kingdom like some absolute monarch for so long.
  • JT2060JT2060 Posts: 5,370
    Forum Member
    An incredible press conference. I don't think FIFA realise that this is the FBI they are facing, not the local old bill.
  • celesticelesti Posts: 25,957
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I find it amusing how untouchable FIFA seem to think they are. It reminds me a lot of that gangster film where they think they are all untouchable. Carlito's Way, it might be.
  • howard hhoward h Posts: 23,367
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Fergie86 wrote: »
    Shock, horror, the only surprising aspect of this is that it has taken so long for FIFA officials to be arrested, i bet Sepp Blatter still gets re-elected on Friday.

    Not sure about that. Must be so much evidence to gather, and superb timing by the Swiss!
  • LostFoolLostFool Posts: 90,646
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    celesti wrote: »
    I find it amusing how untouchable FIFA seem to think they are. It reminds me a lot of that gangster film where they think they are all untouchable. Carlito's Way, it might be.

    There are a lot of similarities between FIFA and the Mafia. It has to be the most corrupt governing body in sport (and there's a lot of competition for that title!). The whole organisation needs abolishing and replacing.
  • taurus_67taurus_67 Posts: 6,947
    Forum Member
    JT2060 wrote: »
    An incredible press conference. I don't think FIFA realise that this is the FBI they are facing, not the local old bill.

    That's just how FIFA's culture has developed under Blatter: don't pay attention to anybody's rules, not even our own...just take the money.
  • zebedeezebedee Posts: 792
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    LostFool wrote: »
    There are a lot of similarities between FIFA and the Mafia. It has to be the most corrupt governing body in sport (and there's a lot of competition for that title!). The whole organisation needs abolishing and replacing.

    The reason that Sepp is nowhere to be found is that he is attending a Christening today. ;-)
Sign In or Register to comment.