FIFA Should Have Stayed At a Holiday Inn Express Last Night

FIFA Corruption: Top Officials Arrested in Pre-Dawn Raid at Zurich Hotel

ZURICH — Swiss authorities began a new series of pre-dawn arrests Thursday in the broad investigation, led by United States officials, into corruption in international soccer. Sixteen people were expected to be charged by day’s end, law enforcement officials said, nearly doubling the size of an already huge case that has upended FIFA, soccer’s multibillion-dollar governing body.

Some of the arrests took place at the same luxury hotel where other FIFA officials were arrested in May. Swiss police entered the hotel, the Baur au Lac, through a side door at 6 a.m. local time. ...

See the whole article here, courtesy of the NYT.

Kicking Back Comments: Listen, the Baur au Lac looks like a great place, but the Sheraton Zürich Neues Schloss Hotel is right down the street and frankly, less full of police looking to drag you off in the pre-dawn hours.

I do still laugh at the Holiday Inn Express commercials though ... here is one of my favorites.

Trust me folks, we will get to the despicable behavior of Columbus fans in yesterdays MLS Cup match ... I am just seeing what the MLS front office says before I comment fully.

Scott Sterling or Sterling Archer?

I have recently come across "Scott Sterling" as he is a particularly useful character to describe a point of emphasis for US Soccer in 2016, Potential Serious Injury (PSI). While the video is intended to do so in a light hearted way (and is morbidly humorous), the message is deadly serious.

... and we have Archer, who I also very much enjoy, whose message is anything but serious.

Just a little fun to start the holiday season off right.

I can't believe my earballs

Image Courtesy of FX

For any who do not understand the reference, this is a regular line from a character named Cheryl Tunt from the FX series Archer. Cheryl has a brother Cecil who are the only two surviving members of the Tunt family. She is voiced by Judy Greer and frankly is a bit of a ditz.

I understood what she meant though when I heard Vladimir Putin state Sepp Blatter deserves Nobel Prize for his FIFA work. I'm serious, just take a look here.

Twitter reacted to the nonsense as I expected they would, with a series of clever and demeaning messages for the incident. My personal favorite was a photoshop of Putin and Sepp, joined on stage by the Sith Lord, Sauron, and Lord Voldemort. You can see this and the other images here.

One bright spot in the actual draw was the relative ease the US should qualify ... that is if they get their current act together and play like many believe they can. Let's face it, the Gold Cup was a huge disappointment for them and some soul searching may be in order to get back to business.

That said, I for one have faith the US will qualify for 2018. Once we get there however, I am concerned what we may find. As I have said before however, one teams early exit is another teams good fortune. Should the US exit early, it makes it far easier for a US refereeing crew to progress on. After the stellar performance Mark Geiger put in last year I look forward to another fabulous showing from a US refereeing team.

Legal Week Finale: Swiss v. Brodkin - So totally worth it!

Simon Brodkin reveals cash he threw at FIFA President Sepp Blatter was $600 of his own money... and police gave all of it back

• Comedian Simon Brodkin showered Sepp Blatter in cash in prank
• Brodkin evaded security to gain access to FIFA press conference in Zurich
• He threw $600 bundle of dollars over Blatter before security removed him
• Brodkin was charged by Swiss authorities with trespassing
• He revealed the cash was his own and he is taking the charges 'seriously' 

Comedian Simon Brodkin has revealed the money he showered over FIFA President Sepp Blatter was $600 of his own money - and that he received all of it back from the police.

Brodkin, best known for his comedy alter egos Lee Nelson and Jason Bent, evaded security to storm a press conference at FIFA headquarters in Zurich on Monday and throw the dollar bills at Blatter.

He was arrested and charged with trespassing by the Swiss authorities on Tuesday before being released to return to the UK. ...

See the whole story here, courtesy of Mail Online.

Kicking Back Comments: OMG, this was fabulous. If there is a legal defense fund, I'll be down for some!! Great prank that I can only hope FIFA does not intent to press charges on. They have much bigger fish to fry.

Will they get a Caution from "The Don?"

MLS players react to picks of Lampard, Gerrard for All-Star Game

The first 13 names on the 2015 MLS All-Star team caused no small amount of consternation among players and fans. Neither of the league's top two leading goal scorers (Columbus' Kei Kamara and Toronto's Sebastian Giovinco) made the Fan XI, which is determined via online voting. Columbus' Ethan Finlay, a rising star who currently leads the league in assists, also failed to garner enough votes.

But no two names aroused as much criticism from fellow players as the two "Commissioner's picks" for the event: NYCFC's Frank Lampard and the L.A. Galaxy's Steven Gerrard. Both high-profile midfielders have only just started training with their clubs, and neither had played a single second of MLS action at the time Commissioner Don Garber summoned them to appear in the All-Star game.

Players league-wide took to Twitter to vent their frustrations. ...

See the whole story here, courtesy of SI.com.

Kicking Back Comments: This is brilliant stuff from these players!! Kudos to all of them for their clever responses to (a good business and) a poor player management decision. 

I get what Mr. Garber is doing and from a league perspective (of which he is responsible) it makes sense. From the perspective of equity for players who actually deserve to be playing in that All Star match, he of course is dead wrong. Then again, life is not fair either.

All that aside, it is great to see players have the courage to shoot a few barbs @thesoccerdon as he earned them. I do wonder however, if there will be any fines or other "cautionary tales" coming back at these folks.

Stay Tuned.

Boston Testing New Child Protection for Soccer

See the whole silly article and video (!)  here, courtesy of the Boston.com.

Kicking Back Comments: I'm not sure why they picked soccer to do this with frankly ... running full tilt into an opponent does not seem like much fun. Clearly these guys have not taken physics and what effect greatly varied masses have on impact force ...

Funny none the less.

FIFA's New Card Game!!

FIFA scandal collector cards: Get the whole set!

(CNN) So many arrests and so many men wanted and then there's the resignation of the top boss -- FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

If you're struggling to keep up with who has done what in the FIFA scandal, you're not alone, but CNN is here to help.

In a nod to those games you loved playing with your friends at school, we've designed a set of FIFA scandal collector cards, containing the key data of just who has been charged, banned suspended, resigned or pled guilty.

Feel free to print them out and swap them with your friends. ...

See the whole story here, courtesy of CNN.

Kicking Back Comments: 

OMG this is great!! Soon we may see a deck of playing cards with their likenesses on them. Yes, Sepp would be the ace of spades.

I'm betting he is sleeping with one eye open right now just waiting for the FBI or Swiss police to come crashing through the door.

Tick tock Sepp ... tick tock.

The (FIFA) joke heard 'round the world

Question:

FIFA president Sepp Blatter, the director of communications, and the secretary general Jérôme Valcke are all sitting in a car. Who is driving?

Answer:

The police.

This was the joke uttered by the (former) Director if Communications for FIFA, who lost his job over the comment. I have to say though ... pretty funny.

FIFA: Hell to host 2026 World Cup

Breaking news: Fifa say Hell will host 2026 World Cup

Fifa dismiss concerns over soaring temperatures and lack of football culture in Hell as bid leader Lucifer pays tribute to 'role model' Sepp Blatter

Hell will host the 2026 football World Cup after a Fifa report found “no reason” to overturn the controversial underworld destination’s successful bid.

A 666-page report seen by The Telegraph concluded that Fifa had acted ethically in awarding its showpiece tournament, and suggested Lucifer be compensated with “a really nice wristwatch, one with diamonds and everything” for having been put through an “unnecessary and upsetting” grilling. ...

See the whole "damned" story here, courtesy of The Telegraph.

Kicking Back Comments: ROTF LMAO!!

The Brilliance of John Oliver (explicit language warning)

Are you Ready for Some World Cup?

FIFA Prepares to re-vote on 2018 and 2022 World Cups!!

It would seem that the independent ethics probe lead by Michael Garcia has done far more than survived the plot to overthrow him, it has now fully convinced the FIFA EX-CO that a revote on 2018 and 2022 World Cups is needed to save a shred of ethical fabric and show the world FIFA can again be a pillar of good will for football.

Mr. Garcia now has strong EX-CO support lead by Mr. Blatter and Mr. Boyce, who recently stated that he "would have considered quitting" had Mr. Garcia's probe been cut short.

Granted there are very strong words from both Russia and Qatar, with both nations angry at FIFA for allowing  revote and not giving back any of the monies both nations "advanced" to FIFA for being considered a host nation.

While Mr. Putin was busy with other matters apparently, sports ministers Alexander Sidyakin and Michael Markelov, have demanded that the US is thrown out of the 2018 World Cup. While largely unreported it is apparently for Mr. Garcia's ethics probe and nothing to do with the gun running Russia was caught doing under Mr. Garcia's watch. Sounds like sour grapes to me.

Qatar was equally nonplussed with FIFA's sudden reversal on a vote and immediately ceased work on all those air conditioned stadia which needed to be ready for 2022 in a clear sign of defiance. This however did give the Qatar organizing committee and FIFA an opportunity to discuss workers rights which as we know is a vital concern to both FIFA and Qatar.

One clear winner would seem to be Japan who is willing to undertake the 2022 role should FIFA strip the Qatar nation of its duties.

Even England is not without controversy in this go around as recently Howard Webb expressed regret at some of his decisions in the 2010 final.

In hearing this, FIFA immediately expelled Webb from further consideration at the 2014 World Cup and replaced him with Springfield USA native Homer Simpson, as announced on 30-MAR-14 on Fox.

Happy April 1st.

THIS is the type of strike we need!!!!!

Let's (re)Start with a Bang!

Since this is my first post after coming back from Italy on business, I somehow find it appropriate to roll out this clip. It depicts a goal and subsequent celebration from an Italian league match.

Excessive?

Mimeograph with a sense of humor

Angry Birds ... AR Version

It's not this angry bird ...

It is however an angry bird attacking an Assistant Referee during a match:



Check out the whole thing here, courtesy of dutchreferee.com.

Finally a good case for instant replay ...

Of course it is in Snooker =)



This does highlight however a great interaction between a player and a referee, and while a mistake was made, shows that everyone can have a sense of humor about it.

Touche

You have to love a referee with a sense of humor.

Here is a classic!!

'Communism United,' their colors will be pink and rainbow ...

Future News: MLS to put antagonistic expansion team in ‘city that hates soccer the most’

Following speculation that MLS is interested in expanding into the southeast United States, the league has announced plans to put a new club in "the city that hates soccer the most." Though the exact location of this new team has yet to be determined, the declaration is sure to court controversy. But the league sees it as an aggressive way to push its development and expansions in new territories.

"The league has grown leaps and bounds in a relatively short period," said MLS commissioner Don Garber. "We have a team in just about every major soccer friendly city in the country, so now it's time to go after some areas where the game isn't as popular. And to make something of a statement, we've decided to locate the U.S. city that hates soccer the most — probably somewhere in Alabama — and put a team there to let everyone know that our league is here and this sport isn't going anywhere." ...

See the whole story here, courtesy of Yahoo! Sports.

Kicking Back Comments: Should have saved this one for April Fools Commish ... it was some funny stuff.

April Fools!

So I have to admit I am a fan of April fools, anda bit of a clown at times ... and in the past I have shared in the fun with some gag stories on Kicking Back.

One of my favorites was last year with UEFA Experimenting with Referee Speed Drills.

I actually received some serious "... you have to be *&#ing kidding me ..." emails on that one. To me it cut both ways. One way was the fact some folks fell for the gag, which was great. The other of course is that they believed that organizations such as FIFA or UEFA would actually do something like that.

Given the history of some of these organizations, I can see their point.

This year I am turning over a new leaf, and wanted to simply share a story about April Fools' Day: 18 Greatest Sports Pranks of All Time from Bleacher Report.

A worthy read on this April Fools.