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A scandal of major proportions for the soccer world.
U.S. indicts world soccer officials in alleged $150 million FIFA bribery scandal
The Justice Department unsealed a 47 count indictment early Wednesday charging 14 world soccer figures, including officials of FIFA, with racketeering, bribery, money laundering and fraud. Four of those accused, including two sports marketing companies, have already pleaded guilty and are likely to be cooperating.Among the “alleged schemes,” said the Justice Department, were kickbacks to FIFA officials by executives and companies involved in soccer marketing and “bribes and kickbacks in connection” with “the selection of the host country for the 2010 World Cup and the 2011 FIFA presidential election,” the Justice Department said.
Last edited by Common Sense (5/27/2015 9:04 am)
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I agree. This is a major scandal. It's not going to be felt or focused on here in the USA, but globally, soccer (futbol) is a really big deal. Some would argue that the head of FIFA is the most powerful position in sports.
The red flag should have been, and apparently is, the decision to hold the World Cup in Qatar. My God, the temps that time of year can reach 120 degrees. Secondly, it's a country of a couple million people, if that. Something really, really fishy was going on.
Last edited by Just Fred (5/27/2015 12:03 pm)
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You are right Fred. The decision to have 2018 in Russia raised some eyebrows, but the Qatar decision basically said to the world "this country was the one who offered the biggest bribes". There was really no other way to explain that decision.
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A famously corrupt organization.
Clean up the swamp!
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To top it off, Qatar is using immigrant slaves to build the needed facilities to handle this world event.
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Where there is big money, there is corruption !
Soccer internationally is a HUGE sport and attracts millions of fans and their resulting dollars.