Transparency my a$$$$$$$$$$$ ...

Anti-corruption watchdog cuts ties with FIFA

KIEV, Ukraine—Global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International has ended its working relationship with FIFA because past allegations of wrongdoing in world soccer won't be investigated.

Sylvia Schenk, TI's sports adviser, said Thursday she was "just astonished" that its conditions for joining a FIFA panel overseeing anti-corruption reforms were not accepted. ...

See the whole story here, from Boston.com.

Kicking Back Comments: Election over. Blatter wins. Send in the (FIFA) paid mouthpieces. 'Nothing to see here', they say. 'Move along', they demand.

Amazing. Simply amazing. 

#Blatterout

More of the Same in Brazil

Ronaldo denies call to head Brazil World Cup committee

SAO PAULO (AP) -- Retired Brazil striker Ronaldo said Sunday he hasn't received an invitation to replace Ricardo Teixeira as the head of the country's 2014 World Cup organizing committee.

Teixeira, president of the Brazilian football federation, has recently been making changes to how the sport is governed and a Brazilian newspaper said he would leave the presidency of the organizing committee to make way for Ronaldo. ...

See the full article here, courtesy of SI.com

Kicking Back Comments: This is a particularly interesting read (and I recommend doing so) as it continues to paint the picture of who the next FIFA president may be if Brazil 2014 goes well. It also speculates on the level of corruption that is going on within the countries themselves. Take a look at the list of issues and investigations here ... and you start to wonder where there is smoke ... there is a corrupt politician.

Continues to be a sad commentary as to what The Game is about at this level ... $$$

2011 Turkey of the Year Award: Sepp Blatter

So as many of you know, today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. I was originally going to write a fluff piece about how much I was thankful of so many things, which I am. But ...

Asia Pacific had its awards ceremony last night in Kuala Lumpur which is (was?) Mohamed bin Hammam's former stronghold before receiving a life ban from FIFA due his recent bribery charges. Mr. Blatter apparently could not contain himself taking several verbal shots at the disgraced leader in front of his former "subjects". You can get a taste of the comments from the AFP piece, FIFA president Blatter steals show in Asia. Here's one from the mouth of Blatter that made me laugh out loud:

"It's discipline, respect, fair play and if you put it into an organisation like the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) then you come to unity, solidarity, democracy, and finally it's a question of trust and confidence."

Now maybe its just me, but here is a guy who has been shown to have less than impeccable morals as the head of FIFA. Corruption, bribery, and recently, racism, are adjectives that are swirling around not only FIFA, but Blatter himself. You can bet your last Swiss Franc I have been researching Blatter's latest stellar example of why he should not be leading FIFA with his recent gaffe on Al Jazeera. How can this realistically continue?

Hopefully it will not for long if @FakeSepp has anything to do with it. Even he has turned from hysterical satirist to straight evangelist in some of his recent tweets.

So while I think Sepp is my 2011 Turkey of the Year, I can only hope by this time next year, we will be free of him. More importantly The Game will.

That I will be thankful for.

Worawi denies wrongdoing over funds

Worawi Makudi, president of the Football Association of Thailand, yesterday denied wrongdoing after allegations that US$860,000 of development funds were spent building football projects on land he owns.

It was reported this week that Fifa had stepped up its investigation into its executive committee member Worawi, demanding more legal documents to answer the allegations.

Fifa said it will launch a formal case if Worawi fails to show by Dec 1 that he donated the land in question to the FAT. ...

See the whole story here from The Bankok Post.

Kicking Back Comments: NOW we're cooking with gas! Let's root this stuff out FIFA and get rid of the wrong doers! About time!

"Fifa members 'pressured into Qatar vote'"

The decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar was called into question by new FIFA executive committee member Theo Zwanziger, with the German saying some of his fellow members had been pressurised by their governments to vote for the bid.

The comments from the 66-year-old president of the German Football Association (DFB) to the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper are significant as he was appointed last week by FIFA to head one of the new committees established to clean up the organisation.

Accusations of bribery and corruption over the last year have dogged world soccer's governing body. ...

See the whole article here, courtesy of stuff.co.nz.

Kicking Back Comments: No surprise to this reader ... but it is amazing how many people want to tell this story, and how relatively well they line up with each other. Something happened folks, no question in my mind. Just when will we get the whole story? Is Jack coming out with a book soon?

Stone Cold Busted

Former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner is caught on tape offering 'gifts’ of £25,000 to Caribbean delegates

Exclusive: Jack Warner has been caught on tape apparently urging fellow Caribbean officials to accept cash gifts from Mohamed Bin Hammam, the disgraced former presidential candidate. ...

See the whole story here, courtesy of the Guardian.

Kicking Back Comments: Shocking! (yawn)

NO BADGE FOR YOU!

Six officials given life bans for match-fixing

(Reuters) - Six match officials have been banned for life over match-fixing in two friendly internationals last February that produced a total of seven penalties, FIFA said Wednesday.

The officials, three from Bosnia and three from Hungary, were involved in the Latvia-Bolivia and Bulgaria-Estonia matches played in the Turkish resort of Antalya on Feb. 9.

Latvia won 2-1 and the other game ended 2-2, all the goals coming from penalties including one in the first match which was taken twice. ...

See the whole story here, courtesy of Reuters.

Kicking Back Comments: A well earned prize for those who dare to mettle with the fabric of THE game. I can only hope that FIFA looks inward and deals with its own institutional corruption as well as it has dealt with this match fixing.

Let the games begin!

Soccer Body Said to Start Corruption Cases Against Officials in Caribbean

FIFA will start corruption proceedings against more than 10 Caribbean officials after a probe into allegations they took money from a candidate in the world soccer body’s presidential election, according to two people familiar with the matter.

FIFA, the sport’s governing body, on July 26 gave the officials from the Caribbean Football Union 48 hours to come forward with information about a meeting where Mohamed Bin Hammam, a one-time challenger to FIFA’s president Sepp Blatter, allegedly offered envelopes stuffed with $40,000. Bin Hammam, the ex-head of soccer in Asia, is appealing the lifetime ban he was given from the sport July 23. ...

See the whole story here, courtesy of Bloomberg.

Kicking Back Comments: I personally think this is going to be ugly for the folks on trial. Despite what I am sure will be flimsy evidence and procedural issues, FIFA (Sepp) will be looking to "make an example" out of someone. These folks I believe will be his example, even if they do not deserve it.

"The World Cup is not a Circus" - Blatter

Blatter: "The World Cup is Not a Circus"; Asks for Time to Rebuild FIFA

(WFI) FIFA president Sepp Blatter is calling for Brazil to accelerate its legacy plans for the 2014 World Cup, claiming the World Cup is not a circus that leaves nothing when the event is over.

"The World Cup is not a circus which arrives, stays for two weeks and is gone. There has to be the legacy," Blatter said in an interview with Sunday's O Globo newspaper.

Blatter said the most pressing problems in Brazil's 2014 preparations were different issues linked to the development of airports - FIFA's biggest concern - hotels and stadia, particularly Corinthians new venue that is being constructed in the eastern part of São Paulo. ...

See the whole story here, courtesy of WFI.

Kicking Back Comments: For a guy who was steadfast there was "nothing to see here", and "we don't have an image problem", he sure seems to have come to grips/can't hide just how corrupt FIFA is, or at least how corrupt FIFA appears to be.

We will see in the next 3 years the ups and downs of how this plays out and if Sepp will set up his heir apparent (Teixeria) ... as a hero to bring the WC back to its full glory ... or a goat who let it fail. 

Bin Hammam - Barred for Life

Bin Hammam Is Latest FIFA Official to Go, but Cloud Remains

FIFA, the ruling body of world soccer since 1904, is shedding its senior executives in an attempt to appear to be moving faster than its corrupters.

The head of its Caribbean and North and Central American region, Jack Warner, removed himself by resigning from all soccer activity last month.

And now FIFA has barred for life Mohamed bin Hammam, who until Saturday was the elected leader of Asia’s soccer confederation, which serves more than a third of the world’s population. ...

See the whole article here, courtesy of The NYT.

Kicking Back Comments: You're getting warmer guys, but your not quite there yet.

Don't forget about Bin Hammam

Kicking Back Comments: In the afterglow of the WWC, don't forget we still have some serious stuff going on at FIFA. Notably Bin Hammam's ethic trial in this Friday. He is out stumping clearly as his claims now include that FIFA is out to get him.

World Cup - Bin Hammam: 'FIFA out to get me'

Suspended Asian football chief Mohamed Bin Hammam says a campaign has been waged against him within "certain quarters" at FIFA to "eliminate" him from the game amid investigations over a cash-for-votes bribery scandal.

The Qatari is scheduled to attend a FIFA Ethics Committee hearing on Friday which is investigating allegations that he tried to bribe members of the Caribbean Football Union in return for votes during his FIFA presidential election bid last month. ...

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

Bye Jack ...

Fifa's Jack Warner resigns and claims Chuck Blazer 'undermined' him

• Suspended Fifa vice-president quits all international positions
• Warner accuses Chuck Blazer of 'unimaginable' undermining

See the whole story here, courtesy of Guardian.

Kicking Back Comments:  Translation ==> I am about to get caught with my hand in the cookie jar, so instead of doing the right thing and apologizing for my appalling behavior, I am going to quit and not say anything, but blame it on the guy who had the evidence.

I can only hope that FIFA never allows him back within its ranks again. THAT is a good first step toward cleaning up its act.

What FIFA won't do, Korea will.

Lifetime Bans for Korean Players

(WFI) South Korea’s top football league is slapping 10 players with lifetime bans for their roles in match-fixing schemes.

“We made the decision, determined that this would be the first and the last match-fixing scandal in the league," K-League disciplinary head Kwak Young-Cheol was quoted Friday by AFP. ...

See the whole article here, courtesy of World Football Insider.

Kicking Back Comments: Kudos to Korea, and shame on FIFA. While certainly not easy to ban players for life for such behavior, Korea did as FIFA stood by. If I am the FIFA representative running the investigation on the three Gold Cup matches that are now under investigation for match fixing, you would bet, even if there is no fixing there, I would have an incredibly comprehensive report as to why and what happened.

Lots of people are asking "why?" during these "investigations", yet there seems to be very little coming back. Go figure.

Well ... at least they are not hiding the corruption findings

SEPP BLATTER LAUGHS OFF LAWYER’S DAMNING BRIBERY CLAIMS

SEPP Blatter’s attempts to brush Fifa corruption allegations under the carpet were slammed last night.

Shameless Sepp told the world he was “happy” a report into dodgy dealings at Fifa had found they were corruption free.

However, we can reveal that the actual report, published on Fifa’s own website, blasts the organisation for giving the green light to bungs and bribes.

The report was compiled by British lawyer James Dingemans QC in the wake of allegations made by ex-FA chief Lord Triesman. ...

See the whole story here, courtesy of the Daily Star and the full report here (pdf), from FIFA.

Kicking Back Comments: So brazen that FIFA posts the report in full and does not seem the least bit concerned. Some great stuff in here about Jack Warner. Start at paragraph 10 on page 4.

No Comment

Exit may be on the horizon as Warner aims to give FIFA inquiry a miss

LA PAZ, Jun 09: Football and FIFA will have seen the last of controversial Jack Warner if the suspended head of CONCACAF goes ahead with his refusal to meet bribery allegations investigators.

Trinidadian Warner and Qatar’s Asian confederation president Mohamed Bin Hammam was banned pending a full ethics committee hearing into whether they colluded to hand out $1m ‘buying’ 25 Caribbean votes in the recent FIFA presidential election.

The storm has overshadowed the early stages of the Central and North American Confederation’s showpiece Gold Cup which is under way in the United States. ...

See the full story here, courtesy of sportsfeatures.com.

Kicking Back Comments: Today would not be soon enough to expel Warner from FIFA. Give him the Process that is due, then thank him for his service, and show him the door.  

When the winner is a loser ...

Sepp Blatter may think he's won – but he's lost

What I know about the finer points of football could be summed up on the back of the proverbial postage stamp. But I do know a bit about politics, and football politics aren't so different.

Sepp Blatter thought he won at Fifa's jamboree in Zurich on Wednesday. But he didn't. He lost. Money made this scandal, and money will unpick it. ...

See the whole insightful post here, courtesy of Guardian.

Great Insight

Check out this quick and fantastic post by George Cumming, The FIFA Presidential Election – football politics in the raw.

While I muse about these topics from an armchair, and have not danced in these circles ... Mr. Cumming has.

From this post it is clear that not only FIFA, but CONCACAF too is a mess, and will be for some time.

Killing the victim

Fifa delegates attack England as attempt to postpone election fails

The Football Association's attempt to delay the uncontested election of the Fifa president failed at the organisation's congress on Wednesday amid an outpouring of anti-English sentiment from some quarters.

David Bernstein, the FA chairman, made a late attempt to alter the agenda less than 24 hours before the assembly. He was afforded the opportunity to introduce his initiative with a speech to the full congress in which he stated that there would be no "proper, credible mandate" ifSepp Blatter's coronation proceeds amid widespread corruption allegations. ...

See the whole story here, courtesy of Guardian.

Kicking Back Comments: Pathetic. Here was a chance to do some real good and wait until things got sorted before Sepp's coronation. The result, a resounding "no" from FIFA to actually try to start to fix what is going on.

Even one who is starting to try and do some good, Chuck Blazer said the FA's move to launch a full independent investigation was "... to little, too late." When the devil is it too late to try to right a wrong, or a series of wrongs?

With an attitude like that, nothing will ever get done. Oh wait ... that is what is happening here ... never mind ... FIFA is right on cue then.

While these comments about Blazer seem critical, they are not meant to be, as it is clear that he is one of the very few "playing the game" in an effort to pierce the bureaucratic nonsense that is FIFA, to come out with a just result.

Someone who can put immediate pressure on the Seppster to step down are the sponsors. It would appear they are none too thrilled about what is going on and are starting to voice it in various volumes.

If you really want to get his attention, have Coca-Cola drop its FIFA sponsorship ... then, and only then, would we see some immediate change.

Wheels are coming off the FIFA cart

Acting CONCACAF chief trying to fire Blazer, accuses whistleblower of ‘gross misconduct’

ZURICH — The acting president of CONCACAF says he has fired Chuck Blazer, whose bribery allegations touched off a corruption scandal that has shaken FIFA.

Lisle Austin says Blazer’s conduct was “inexcusable and a gross misconduct of duty and judgment,” and the American is no longer fit to be CONCACAF’s secretary general. But it wasn’t immediately clear whether Austin has the authority to remove Blazer, also a member of FIFA’s executive committee. ...

See the whole story here, courtesy of the Washington Post.

Kicking Back Comments: WOW. It has been an exciting 24h in FIFA-land. Sponsors are pissed, National Associations are pissed, people are being fired ...

My $10,000 question is ... does Sepp postpone the election? Better yet, does someone do it for him?

FIFA Imploding, Bin Hammam Out, and Blazer is on Fire!

See it all here, courtesy of the NYT.

Kicking Back Comments: I am waiting for the "mushroom cloud" over Zurich ... and will be happy to see it come with the hope of ushering in some sanity. Not what we get from Sepp.

From the article ... and this one says it all folks:

“I am the president of FIFA; you cannot question me,” Blatter said Monday.

There it is folks, right there for all to see.