2014 - 2015 Football Thread - Page 732

On May 28 2015 03:28 Eliezar wrote:


Its an American cultural lie that Americans don't care about Futbol.

The most popular sports team in the United States as far as merchandise sales was the Mexican National Team by a lot when the numbers for (I think) 2012 were published...I just tried finding it online but I can't seem to locate it.

There is an old boy network that likes to act like America is all about baseball and hates soccer, but if I remember at least 3 of the top 20 merch "teams" teams were futbol teams (I think it was Man U, Mexico and then either Barca or Real)...also there were several college football teams in the list as well.

Its also just more in the open now. Its possible to follow the game while living in the US now...I can watch the EPL or MLS or MFL and the Champions League now...in the 80s I could read about them in Soccer America, in the 90s I could read about them in the news paper and see some stuff on Univision, but now its available to be consumed.

On May 28 2015 03:46 Eliezar wrote:
Its kind of crazy how good the average attendance is for MLS (obviously a second rate league) compared to the other futbol leagues (6th) and total professional sports leagues in the world (12th). Assuming Business Insider is accurate:
Pro Sports Average Attendance

On May 28 2015 04:04 Eliezar wrote:


I live in Houston and if you go to any mall or public event you seem to always see Club America, Chivas, Man U, Dynamo, and Barca jerseys. Houston is a typical of the US, but it is definitely a soccer town.

The Mexican national team has even played a World Cup Qualifier here last cycle against Guyana. Think about that for a minute. Can you imagine Holland playing a World Cup Qualifier in Frankfurt?

On May 28 2015 04:02 zulu_nation8 wrote:
They must've pissed off a lot of American companies/politicians for the DOJ to even care.

"UEFA is deeply shocked and saddened by them. These events show, once again, that corruption is deeply rooted in FIFA's culture.
"There is a need for the whole of FIFA to be "rebooted" and for a real reform to be carried out

"The upcoming FIFA Congress risks to turn into a farce and therefore the European associations will have to consider carefully if they should even attend this Congress and caution a system, which, if it is not stopped, will ultimately kill football.

"The UEFA member associations are meeting tomorrow ahead of the FIFA Congress. At that point, the European associations will decide on what further steps need to be taken to protect the game of football.

The world's most popular sport was plunged into turmoil on Wednesday as seven powerful soccer figures were arrested on U.S. corruption charges and faced extradition from Switzerland, whose authorities also announced a criminal investigation into the awarding of the next two World Cups.

The arrests of the senior FIFA officials in a morning raid at a five-star Zurich hotel mark an unprecedented blow against soccer's powerful governing body, which for years has been dogged by allegations of corruption but always escaped major criminal cases.

U.S. prosecutors said they aimed to make more arrests but would not be drawn on whether FIFA President Sepp Blatter, for long the most powerful man in the sport, was a target of the probe. Blatter, 79, is standing for re-election to a fifth term at the FIFA Congress in Zurich on Friday, and FIFA said the vote would go ahead as planned.

U.S. authorities said a total of nine soccer officials and five sports media and promotions executives were charged with corruption involving more than $150 million in bribes over a period of 24 years. They said their investigation exposed complex money laundering schemes, millions of dollars in untaxed incomes and tens of millions in offshore accounts held by FIFA officials.

Swiss police arrested the seven FIFA officials and detained them pending extradition proceedings to the United States, which could take years if they contest the process.

"As charged in the indictment, the defendants fostered a culture of corruption and greed that created an uneven playing field for the biggest sport in the world," said FBI Director James Comey. "Undisclosed and illegal payments, kickbacks, and bribes became a way of doing business at FIFA."

Separate from the U.S. investigation, Swiss prosecutors said they had opened their own criminal proceedings against unidentified people on suspicion of mismanagement and money laundering related to the awarding of rights to host the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 event in Qatar.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch told reporters at a news conference in New York her office did not want to impede the 2018 and 2022 World Cups but looked forward to working with Swiss authorities investigating the award of the tournaments.

"FIFA has a lot of soul searching to do," she said.

One of those indicted, former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner of Trinidad, solicited $10 million in bribes from the South African government to host the 2010 World Cup, the Justice Department said.

Warner directed a number of co-conspirators to arrange the payment, which was eventually sent from a FIFA account in Switzerland to a Bank of America account in New York that Warner controlled, the indictment said.

Warner, former FIFA vice president and executive committee member of CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central America, Caribbean Association Football), said in a statement that he was innocent of any charges.

The United States took jurisdiction of the case in part because the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI secured the cooperation of U.S. citizen Chuck Blazer, a former top FIFA official, who U.S. officials said had not paid taxes for years.

nother person charged is Jeffrey Webb, head of CONCACAF, based in Miami.

Early Wednesday, FBI agents carrying bags and boxes to execute a search warrant went into the group's office in Miami Beach. A CONCACAF spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Kelly Currie, the acting U.S. attorney in Brooklyn said Wednesday's charges brought in the New York City borough represent "the beginning of our effort, not the end."

GUILTY PLEAS

In addition to Blazer, 70, others who pleaded guilty were José Hawilla, 71, owner of the Traffic Group, a sports marketing firm founded in Brazil, and two of his companies; Daryan Warner, 46, and Daryll Warner, 40, sons of Jack Warner.

"It is clear that the case is based in large part on some cooperating insiders who have already plead guilty," said Miami lawyer David Weinstein, former prosecutor.
he FIFA officials appeared to have walked into a trap set by U.S. and Swiss authorities. The arrests were made at dawn at a plush Zurich hotel, the Baur au Lac, where FIFA officials are staying before the vote. Suites at the hotel cost up to $4,000 a night.

FIFA called the arrests a "difficult moment" but said Blatter would seek another term as FIFA head as planned and the upcoming World Cups would go ahead as intended.

The arrests could have implications for sponsorship.

German sportswear company Adidas, long associated with FIFA, said the soccer body should do more to establish transparent compliance standards. Anheuser-Busch InBev ABI.BR, whose Budweiser brand is a sponsor of the 2018 World Cup, said Wednesday that it is closely monitoring developments at FIFA.

Data and documents were seized from computers at FIFA's Zurich headquarters, the Swiss prosecutors said.

Officials said that following the arrests, accounts at several banks in Switzerland had been blocked.

The U.S. Department of Justice named those arrested in Zurich as: Webb, Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Eugenio Figueredo, Rafael Esquivel and José Maria Marin.

The DoJ said the defendants included U.S. and South American sports marketing executives said to have paid and agreed to pay "well over $150 million in bribes and kickbacks to obtain lucrative media and marketing rights to international soccer tournaments".

Lynch said in a statement that the charges span "at least two generations of soccer officials who, as alleged, have abused their positions of trust to acquire millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks."

BILLIONS OF DOLLARS

The international governing body of football collects billions of dollars in revenue, mostly from sponsorship and television rights for World Cups. It has been dogged by reports of corruption which it says it investigates itself.

"The chickens are finally coming home to roost and this sounds like a hugely significant development for FIFA," said Damian Collins, a British member of parliament who founded the reform group New FIFA Now.

"It proves that Sepp Blatter's promises over the last few years to look into corruption at FIFA have not materialized and because he has totally failed to do this, it has been left to an outside law enforcement agency to do the job and take action."

FIFA's decision to award the World Cup to Qatar, a tiny desert country with no domestic tradition of soccer, was heavily criticized by soccer officials in Western countries. FIFA was forced to acknowledge that it is too hot to play soccer there in the summer when the tournament is traditionally held, forcing schedules around the globe to be rewritten to move the event.

Qatar's stock market fell sharply as news of the Swiss investigation emerged. A Russian official said his country would still host the 2018 World Cup.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the arrests were "another case of the illegal extraterritorial application of U.S. laws."

Three years ago FIFA hired a former U.S. prosecutor to examine allegations of bribery over the awarding of the World Cups to Qatar and Russia. However, last year it refused to publish his report, releasing only a summary in which it said there were no major irregularities. The investigator quit, saying his report had been mischaracterized.

It can be hard to find the perfect way to describe Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, the head of FIFA. The Daily Mail has called him a “smug, self-righteous Zurich gnome.” The Guardian has called him “the most successful non-homicidal dictator of the past century.” In April, at the annual meeting of FIFA’s North and Central American representatives, Osiris Guzman, president of Dominican Republic soccer, goes in another direction, comparing Blatter to Jesus Christ, Nelson Mandela, and Winston Churchill. “Why is he different from these other men?” demands Guzman, whom FIFA banned from soccer for 30 days in a 2011 vote-­buying scandal. For good measure, he adds Moses, Martin Luther King Jr., and Abraham Lincoln.

And so it goes here at the Atlantis Paradise Island resort in the Bahamas. Blatter is running for his fifth term as president of soccer’s international governing body, also known as the Féd­ération Internationale de Football Association, and the delegates are eager to outdo one another in a competition to shower their chief with glory. One after another, waving their nations’ flags for the right to speak, they laud Blatter, 79, using terms like ­“transformational” and “futuristic” and “the father of football.” Jeffrey Webb, head of Cayman Islands soccer and president of the regional group, stops the speeches. “I think the members are obviously sending a clear message. ... Am I correct?” he says from the stage, drawing applause as FIFA’s president, sitting to his right, smiles.

Blatter, whose short legs give him a quick, sparrow-like gait, takes the podium. “We should not speak about figures and money,” he says, and then does just that, noting that since 1999 FIFA has awarded more than $330 million to the 35 member countries in the region. FIFA elections run on a size-blind system, and each country, no matter how big or small, gets one vote on May 29. Accordingly, Blatter makes the essence of his platform clear and turns right to the next round of grants. “The forecast for the next four years,” he says, “is about $150 to $180 million.”

The United States took jurisdiction of the case in part because the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI secured the cooperation of U.S. citizen Chuck Blazer, a former top FIFA official, who U.S. officials said had not paid taxes for years