FIFA Corruption Thread

[baitman]

The cynic in me says that there are a lot of smaller nations that Fifa like to appease as they provide a large powerbase for prospective candidates.

this is very true, and also some of these footballing minnows have some serious wealth.
should they decide to flash some in the general direction of fifa officials while on fact finding visits to check out the development of football academies, facilities and infrastructure to use for beak and hoes then all well and good.
maybe some of these countries may even get the chance to put in a bid to stage some of the preliminary rounds for the muppet teams if they sort out a suitable bung.

[Exiled_red]

I heard an interesting argument for the expanded World Cup. Because there are lots of teams from developing football nations (CONCACAF, CAF and AFC) then we will need to go through 20 or so years of lower quality in order for these to bring up to a better standard. Also at the moment only 17% of federations are represented at a world cup. Now it will grow to still only 23%

I do think we (the established football nations) are in danger of cutting out the smaller newer ones. Its happening in Cricket and its going to **** there from what I can see, thats becoming more and more insular with only 8 teams (well 3 actually) all vying for the money. So maybe its a good thing that more opportunity is made for other teams.

It does mean that an extra round of Knock Out football is going to happen, and that can only be a good thing.

I've no doubt that the driving factor in this decision is money. But if going after more money means more nations are bought into the party, then maybe its not so terrible.

The whole setup is based around keeping the established teams in there, the ranking/seeding system ensures this, if you are ranked 3rd or lower in your group you have very little chance of qualifying, and these rankings are based on previous qualifying and tournament records. If they continue using this type of system you might expand the elite group from ~32 to ~48 but you still won't do much for the ability of teams to move up in the rankings. It will be good that it allows more/different teams into the finals.

The tournament is by its nature supposted to be about the best teams, (personally I don't think that international football is the highest quality) but I don't think allowing almost a quarter of all federations who play the game making it to the finals is going to help that. For me a better way of dealing with things would be to make the seeding system fairer, if you are a small nation the ability of your side is in all likelihood going to be dependent on one or two good players who make you a decent team, if those players have only just come through it seems a unfair to judge your ranking on the the performance of a pervious generation of players 4 or more years ago.

In terms of reach of the world cup the 32 teams who qualified represented a quarter of the world's population, which seems a reasonable fraction, the only real ways to increase this significantly is to have countries such as China or India make it to the finals.

[Cormack74]

Having 48 teams is going to make the 2 year qualifying process even more pointless.

[baitman]

World Cup 2022: Claims of corruption in Qatar bid published in Germany

Claims of alleged corruption in Qatar's successful 2022 World Cup bid have been published in the German media.

The Bild newspaper says it has obtained the 'suppressed' 2014 report authored by former Fifa independent ethics investigator Michael Garcia.

Bild's report includes details of a $2m (£1.6m) sum allegedly paid to the 10-year-old daughter of a Fifa official.

Garcia quit in December 2014 in protest at the handling of his report into the bidding process.

The American lawyer cited a "lack of leadership" as he left football's world governing body, whose executives unanimously agreed to publish a "legally appropriate version" of his report.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40412928

[ChesterDave]

World Cup 2022: Claims of corruption in Qatar bid published in Germany

Claims of alleged corruption in Qatar's successful 2022 World Cup bid have been published in the German media.

The Bild newspaper says it has obtained the 'suppressed' 2014 report authored by former Fifa independent ethics investigator Michael Garcia.

Bild's report includes details of a $2m (£1.6m) sum allegedly paid to the 10-year-old daughter of a Fifa official.

Garcia quit in December 2014 in protest at the handling of his report into the bidding process.

The American lawyer cited a "lack of leadership" as he left football's world governing body, whose executives unanimously agreed to publish a "legally appropriate version" of his report.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40412928

Came here to post this. That girl worked hard for that $2m!

[dom9]

The full Garcia has just been published by FIFA.

[dom9]

https://www.fifa.com/governance/news/y=2017/m=6/news=fifa-statement-on-recent-media-coverage-regarding-the-garcia-report-2898791.html?intcmp=fifacom_hp_module_news_top

[Charly]

wow... this should be interesting

[Alex]

[ame]https://twitter.com/sportingintel/status/879970137700478977[/ame]

Interesting Twitter thread there. Basically the ones that cooperated have come out worse, because they offered up the most information. Total waste of time report IMO. Just tells us what we already know.

Embarrassed by the tactics used by the FA in England. But I guess when everyone's doing it, you sort of have to get down and dirty too. Its pathetic and pushes me more away from football every time I read **** like this.

[Charly]

You cant really blame the fa... its like how can you possibly operate in this system built on offering bribes... in a system where you are resticted from offering bribes.

I think we should all be able to sue Fifa for the time and money wasted on the worldcup bids.

Monetary penalties may be the only way to get Fifa to change.

They should definitelt appoint an external board to determine future World Cup hosts. The whole thing is a farce, and utterly unfair to those countries that do try to fight corruption.

Either that or we legalise bribery.

[BillobShaisley]

As it is in the particular department (Canton?) of Switzerland where FIFA has it's Headquarters.

[ChesterDave]

Monetary penalties may be the only way to get Fifa to change.

I'm fairly sure I have read that FIFA has charitable status in Switzerland and is pretty much fully protected to do whatever they want as a result

[baitman]

looks like platini hasnt had his monthly cheque from a numbered swiss account

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44170578

"A little trickery" was employed for the 1998 World Cup draw to ensure France and Brazil did not meet until the final, disgraced former Uefa president Michel Platini has claimed.

The French hosted and won their first World Cup 20 years ago, beating Brazil 3-0 in the final in Paris.

Former France captain Platini was on the tournament's organising committee.

"When we organised the schedule, we did a little trickery," he told radio station France Bleu Sport.

"France-Brazil in the final, it was the dream of everyone.

"If we finished first in the group and Brazil finished first, we could not meet before the final."

He laughed as he went on: "We did not spend six years organising the World Cup to not do some little shenanigans. Do you think other World Cup hosts did not?"

[shanks69]

England fixed the 66 world cup so that they would play all the games at wembley.

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[dom9]

England fixed the 66 world cup so that they would play all the games at wembley.

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And euro 96.

Non story.