Tag Archives: blatter

The Criminal Investigation of FIFA’s Sepp Blatter Is Finally Here

by BereniceNepean Posted on September 25, 2015

Mother Jones

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On Friday, Swiss officials opened a criminal investigation into embattled FIFA president Sepp Blatter “on suspicion of criminal mismanagement” and “misappropriation.”

In September 2005, Switzerland’s Office of Attorney General said in a press release, Blatter signed a television contract with the Caribbean Football Union deemed “unfavorable to FIFA” during former FIFA executive Jack Warner’s tenure as league president.

Blatter was also accused of making a “disloyal payment” of 2 million Swiss francs to UEFA president Michel Platini “at the expense of FIFA” for work conducted between January 1999 and June 2002.

The criminal probe comes five months after 14 top soccer officials and corporate executives, including Warner, were indicted for widespread corruption spanning the past two decades. Blatter resigned in June before walking back his resignation weeks later.

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The Criminal Investigation of FIFA’s Sepp Blatter Is Finally Here

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Norway’s Women’s Soccer Team Just Obliterated Sexist Stereotypes in Sports

by AdrieneTrevascu Posted on June 23, 2015

Mother Jones

The Norwegian women’s soccer team may have lost in spectacular fashion to England on Monday. But the team’s contribution to this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup will go on, in the form of this hilarious attack on sexism in sport, above.

In a four-minute mockumentary aired on Norwegian television in the lead-up to the team’s match against England, the players make fun of sexist stereotypes in women’s soccer. “We’re shit, we suck. Plain and simple,” admits captain Trine Ronning. In emails to FIFA, the players offer suggestions for making the women’s game less boring. For instance, they could play on smaller fields or use a smaller, lighter ball. Or FIFA could allow goalkeepers to swat incoming goals away with collapsible light reflectors.

Oh, and what was (potentially) outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s comical response to the suggestions, according to the segment? “HAHAHA these suggestions made my day. LOL.”

h/t The Guardian

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Norway’s Women’s Soccer Team Just Obliterated Sexist Stereotypes in Sports

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Oh Snap. The Feds Are Reportedly After Sepp Blatter.

by WoodrowMcCart Posted on June 2, 2015

Mother Jones

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The New York Times reports that authorities are confirming to them that Sepp Blatter is indeed the subject of a federal corruption investigation:

Mr. Blatter had for days tried to distance himself from the controversy, but several United States officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that in their efforts to build a case against Mr. Blatter they were hoping to win the cooperation of some of the FIFA officials now under indictment and work their way up the organization.

No one could have predicted.

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Oh Snap. The Feds Are Reportedly After Sepp Blatter.

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Watch Sepp Blatter Lash Out Against FIFA’s Critics in 2013

by Jill Tsai Posted on May 29, 2015

Mother Jones

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In October 2013, at the Oxford Union, FIFA president Sepp Blatter took aim at critics who viewed soccer’s international governing body as “a faceless machine printing money at the expense of the beautiful game.” (He also mocked Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo for how much he spends on his hair.) Blatter told the crowd:

There are those who will tell you that football is just a heartless, money-spinning game or just a pointless kick about on the grass. There are those who will tell you that FIFA is just a conspiracy, a scam, accountable to nobody and too powerful for anyone to resist. There are those who will tell you of the supposed sordid secrets that lie deep in our Bond villain headquarters in the hills above Zurich, where we apparently plot to exploit the unfortunate and the weak. They would have you believe that I sit in my office with a sinister grin, gently stroking the chin of an expensive, white Persian cat as my terrible sidekicks scour the earth to force countries to host the World Cup and to hand over all of their money. You might laugh. It is strange how fantasy so easily becomes confused with fact. And it feels almost absurd to have to say this. But that is not who we are. Not FIFA. Not me.

(You can watch the whole speech below—It’s very long! He talks very slowly!—but the key bits are in the video up top.)

These words resonate now, as Blatter sets his sights on a fifth term at the head of the organization amid pressure and criticism following a series of corruption-related charges on senior FIFA officials that have roiled the sport.

But remember that “Bond villain headquarters in the hills above Zurich” Blatter was talking about? Well, Swiss photographer Luca Zanier snapped a photo of FIFA executive committee’s boardroom in Zurich, and it looks villain-esque. John Oliver even likened it to the war room in Dr. Strangelove.

Here is Blatter’s full speech, courtesy of the Oxford Union:

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Watch Sepp Blatter Lash Out Against FIFA’s Critics in 2013

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Qatar Is Treating Its World Cup Workers Like Slaves: Nepal Earthquake Edition

by ChauCathcart Posted on May 26, 2015

Mother Jones

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We’re still seven years away from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, but it seems like the event has been buried under bad news for a decade: everything from allegations of bribery and corruption to terrible human rights violations. And it doesn’t look like it’s getting better anytime soon.

The latest in a string of embarrassments? Qatar’s reported refusal to grant bereavement leave to the roughly 400,000 migrant workers from Nepal building stadiums for the World Cup following the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 8,000 countrymen. As a result, many Nepalese workers instead must mourn from construction sites in Qatar.

On Saturday, the Guardian reported that the Nepalese government called on FIFA and its sponsors to compel Qatar to grant a short-term leave for Nepalese migrant workers and improve conditions for the 1.5 million workers from throughout South Asia. But the Persian Gulf state rebuffed that request, Nepalese labor minister Tek Bahadur Gurung told the Guardian: “Those on World Cup construction sites are not being allowed to leave because of the pressure to complete projects on time.”

Qatari officials challenged that claim, noting that the nation had granted temporary leave to more than 500 Nepalese workers. That’s roughly 0.1 percent of the Nepalese migrant workers on the stadium construction project.

The latest Guardian report adds to the mounting criticism from human rights organizations, corporate sponsors, and foreign officials on Qatar’s World Cup preparations. A 2013 Guardian investigation estimated that at least 4,000 migrant workers, who face dire working and living conditions and meager pay, will die before kickoff in 2022. Squalid conditions already have led to more than 1,200 worker deaths since Qatar won its 2010 bid to host the World Cup, including at least 157 Nepalese workers in 2014. (Nepalese workers have died at a rate of one every two days.)

Despite calls to move the event to another host country, FIFA President Sepp Blatter has guaranteed that the 2022 World Cup will take place as scheduled. In fact, Qatari labor minister Abudullah bin Saleh al-Khulaifi said in May the nation would need more workers to complete the $220 billion stadium and infrastructure construction projects by 2022.

Meanwhile, the 2018 World Cup in Russia isn’t exactly shaping up to be a model event, either: On Monday, Russian officials announced plans to transport prisoners from camps to work at factories in an effort to drive down the World Cup’s cost.

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Qatar Is Treating Its World Cup Workers Like Slaves: Nepal Earthquake Edition

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