Thetownend.com

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/13544347.stm

Surely Fifa is clean that nice Mr Blatter said so...oh hold on a minute isn't that Mr Bin Hamman running against that very nice Mr Blatter...conspiracy ? surely not at Fifa

This is a new investigation.....last time it was for corruption!

How does an allegedly corrupt organisation hold an inquest into corruption? How does that make sense.

conveniently though bin hamman is being investigated now he is standing against blatter, rather convenient to try and discredit him just before the voting takes place

We all know they are all corrupt but I just find the timing convenient

The Met Police did it for years,worked for them.

with supreme mastery of irony

or

fucking badly

This...

I distinctly remember when policing the miners strike the Met had really bad PR and hundreds of complaints were lodged against them for some quite serious allegations including theft.  Their PR group decided a campaign was need to show how nice they were so they got all their PSG vans stickered up with the logo "The Met are Magic..."  Within days most of the vans had the sub heading "...Yeah, they make things disappear"

I see Bin Hammam is making allegations against Blatter.

As Harry Hill says.....'FIGHT!!'

Can't believe Warner won't go down without a fight either - Blatter well implicated - I think this could be popcorn time.

Maybe they could get the IOC to run the investigation for them

This thread needs more Chuck Blazer.

[url width=180 height=180]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3QClxhGDWog/TPkSYtzb5NI/AAAAAAAABVo/a2U1ibsUQd4/s1600/blazer.jpg[/url]

It's good to see Hagrid getting some work outside Hogwarts.

I beleive now that Blatter is being investigated - the Swiss authority's don't have the bottle to lauch an investigation of their own by the seems of it

To be fair, the Swiss authorities did go after a number of FIFA people after the ISL collapse about 10 years ago, with them looking into the backhanders they received.

Just read more on Andrew Jennings' website, including why Blatter has never sued the press :

http://www.transparencyinsport.org/10_reasons_Sepp_can_never_sue/10-reasons-page1.html

I hate that Jack Warner - he's a xenophobic babe.

Anyone remember when he went on about everybody in Europe hates England/the English in 2007? He also said of the 2018 bid, that he'd make sure England wouldn't get it....all in 2007.

I wonder why we (England bid team) ever bothered to court this racist for his vote. I wrote to the FA at the time and asked them how his comments sat with FIFA's "Kick Racism out of Football" campaign...
I hope he goes down like the babe he is....

See link here -http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/england/2318622/FA-stunned-by-Jack-Warner-World-Cup-attack.html

I see Bin Hammam has pulled out, which is what Blatter wanted all along, but anyway here's the latest Panorama programme :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011kq71

Haha

Bin Hamman and Warner suspended.

No action to be taken against Blatter. What a surprise....

Jack Warner never returning to FIFA would be progress though.

Is there anybody left that takes these cunts seriously?

Is there anyone that is willing to stand against Blatter that he does not manage to discredit in the end - so he now has a free rain to get elected again for another 4 years, I'm sure conveniently Bin Hamman & Warner will get found inocent in the end

Apparently Warner is trying to take just about everyone down with him...this could be entertaining.

Lets hope he succeeds

He's really not pulling any punches


Warner seems to be one of the worst of the lot but if he can expose some of the others (Blatter particularly) and it forces FIFA to actually cop to some of their outrageous dealings and sort themselves out, it may have some benefits in the long run.

He's also released an email from Jerome Valque (Secretary General of Fifa) suggesting that Qatar bought the 2022 World Cup.

I can't believe that for a second.

I don't believe it either. Surely Qatar was picked for its strong footballing heritage?

The FIFA implosion is imminent... The FA were right to take a step out from the re-election process.

Valcke has obviously got something on Blatter, as he was sacked by FIFA for 'lying' in a court case, but was appointed as General Secretay less than 6 months later. Read the 'Mystery at the Heart of FIFA) :

http://www.transparencyinsport.org/mystery_at_heart_of_fifa.pdf

I'm sure they've all got something on each other and it just needs one of them to turn and it will all come down like a house of cards. Looks like they may have managed to piss Warner off enough for him to press the button, sure sounds like he's getting ready to take them all down.

But as I've said before, anyone that thinks we (or rather our FA) are squeaky clean is sadly mistaken. We play the same dumb ass game of politics as everyone else. If we had any balls and really wanted to save the game we would have struck a long time ago, but we're more interested in getting the World Cup than doing the right thing.

Personally, I blame the unpatriotic BBC for having a look in the Cupboard when it was clearly marked "Warning: Skeletons". And the Sunday Times. All their fault, the scummy media bastards.

The BBC aren't any better, their reports in to FIFA corruption are no better than tabloid style reporting. They do nothing most of the time and then when FIFA are in the news they jump on the bandwagon and put out a programme or two. Where is the in depth and continual investigation that is needed to take FIFA down properly?

Hopefully that arrogant french fucker Platinni can get draggd into it as well!

Fully agree. He's been arse kissing Blatter in the current campaign so he can be President in 4 years time.

Platini is already involved and playing the game. He accused Blatter of giving £1m to a member association without the authority or budget to do so. Now he's saying he was just having a joke with Blatter when he said it. Twat.

FIFA is finally falling apart.... Alas, it won't last.

The thing that amazes me about things like this is no matter how screwed the organization or its leaders look from the outside they never seem to get their comeuppance.

We all know FIFA are a bunch of geriatric farts riding the gravy train. We know the likelyhood of unethical behaviour at best and down right corruption at worst is a certainty. But nothing will change.

Over the years there have been books about dodgy dealing at FIFA (How They Stole The Game by David Yallop and Foul!:The Sceret World Of FIFA :Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals by Andrew Jennings), but the same people are still in power, with Governments bending over backwards to help them get the World Cup in this country.

FIFA needs to be reformed. UEFA should threaten to pull all their members out unless there is a major clean up. UEFA have got the power as without the country's like England, Germany, France and Italy paying big money for the TV rights FIFA wouldn't be able to exist. But I cannot see Platini doing anything as I think he is part of the problem.

If 2022 has been 'bought', who says that the 2018 wasn't either especially with Abramovic in the Russian bid team.

And there are serious doubts that Brazil will be ready in 3 years time.

The whole situation stinks.

Blatter speaking now...talking BS as normal.

There's a lot of jibberish.

Let's hope they do

"We are not in a Bizarre here, we are in Fifa house."

Make your minds up.

Fuck me he is a twat

Hahahah great ending.

After all that, Blatter insists that the 2022 vote will not be looked in to and that the election (now with himself as sole candidate) goes ahead.  Something has to give in the next few days.

Blatter is deluded. He said he was speaking for all the football fans.

Well Sepp, most football fans want you gone mate.

New Facebook group have been set up :

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sack-Sepp-Blatter-and-rebuild-FIFA-petition/101634696597103?ref=ts&sk=wall

england should take a stance and say fuck you to fifa.see if other nations follow suit.
they are a disgrace,and blatter is a fucking moron

At the very least, I think we need to consider our participation in the 2022 tournament.

I think EVERY nation will have to consider their participation in 2022 if it's still held in Qatar.

if we qualify

I think most football supporters in England would agree, but the FA are way too out of touch to notice and wouldn't give a flying fuck even if they did. I always wonder where the senior FA hierarchy come from as I don't recognise many of their names in a football sense. Maybe if it was run by ex-players things would be better, as long as they're not just as bent as Platini is.

Of course they should. But pretty much every country's FA is run by corrupt self-interested greedy bastards* who have no interest in rocking the boat/gravy train so it won't happen.



*probably

I fancied a game of fifa tonight but my ps3 says its corrupt.

The cunt is deluded. He thinks that FIFA is football.

Fuck FIFA, football would be better off without the bunch of sponging old cunts.

Every time that slimeball utters the phrase 'the football family' it makes me want to vomit violently.

Politics!

Once again the fans get fucked over!

In an unexpected turn of the events the FA have suddenly grown a pair of testicles;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13599008.stm

They're requesting the election be postponed and an independent (using the normal rather than the FIFA interpretation of the word) party to perform a review of FIFA's governance, procedures and so on. Will be interesting to see how the other football associations respond.

The blog on the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/may/31/fifa-in-crisis-live-blog) site is suggesting that media outside of the UK and Australia isn't half as interested in the FIFA story, and that the FA's latest move will simply see it further isolated.  (Considering we host the biggest league in the world in terms of revenue and media interest, the FA has surprisingly little influence anyway.)

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.  I would imagine that Blatter will now seek to isolate the FA further in order to shore up his own position.

PS  Where is Davis when you need him?  He was great at political intrigue stuff like this.  I miss him.

It's attracted a great deal of attention in Thailand, and I suspect the rest of S. E. Asia.

How though. If he takes away our voting powers (which he probably can't do anyway) it looks like a stitch up.

We will never get the World Cup anyway, so what is left to threaten with?

I'd like to see the big nations in Europe tell FIFA to do one & threaten to arrange their own world cup.

Most of the money that FIFA make comes from sponsorship & from TV rights (which comes mostly from the main European networks).

The problem is Blatter & Platini will probably be able to keep Germany & France on their side which leaves England isolated.

We need to quit FIFA NOW!!!

Posh Red is right.  If England were to quit unilaterally, FIFA would not care in the slightest.  We have very little influence in the organisation and we would need to be sure other FAs would follow for the move to have any effect.  At the moment, Scotland is the only other country to be calling for a postponement of the vote.

If China, India or Brazil were to threaten to leave...then I am sure FIFA would take notice.  Lots of ££ in those emerging markets.

We need to quit FIFA NOW!!!

We could easily get the Asian nations to join us as they love English football and seemingly the Scottish FA as well... You could perhaps get some of the other smaller footballing nations like Canada etc joining the new governing body and it could actually be good for them as those teams and those countries would have a chance really of winning a big tournament.

All the break away nations can get Visa and Emirates and any other pissed off sponsor to back a new tournament and governing body with nations that have split from FIFA, for example could have the “2022 World Football Championship held in England” or something along those lines every 4 years at a reduced cost and get good media coverage over the breakaway!

Not sure what other FA’s have really kicked up a fuss though who could actually start the rebellion against Blatter and his cronies.

Thing is though this won't happen and Blatter etc will slag us off for being "bad losers" again and get the rest of the footablling world against us.

Don't underestimate the popularity of England and the PL overseas. I speak from experience, many, many countries can't get enough of it.

Nobody watches La Liga, the bundersliga or Serie A. It's ALL about the PL.

If England were to leave FIFA, FIFA would come under A LOT of pressure from a great many countries.

Hypothetically speaking, would the FA pulling out of FIFA affect the PL being broadcast overseas though?

Warner is now encouraging people to vote for Blatter? wtf is that all about considering his interview the other day?

No

But it would mean English teams would not be in European competition, as well as the international team's absence.

He's been made an offer he can't refuse.

Someone has to make a stand. The English fa should lead,i'm sure others would follow

If we could get Platini and the rest of Europe on board presumably there would be enough sway there to do something. I guess the stumbling block would be Platini not wanting to jeopardise his own future ambitions with regards to FIFA.

Interesting.... where as English players would not play in any FIFA tournament, Could FIFA take the stance and not allow players playing in the Premier League/Football League which is governed by the FA to play in it's comeptition as pay back???

That could actually be a good thing for the games it would get rid of the foreign players etc as they would want to play for their country meaning that the lower leagues benefit becuase Sky revenues etc would go down due to lack of superstar players thus meaning teams have to curb spending etc, and the PL would have to buy more players from lower league teams meaning the money is distributed down the leagues???

Down side ofcourse for teams higher up is attendances suffer without marquee names, local pubs etc suffer due to smaller crowds in PL matches etc... can't win either way really...

Yeah I can't see it ever actually happening, as with everything in football these days (unfortunately) it will all boil down to money.

From FIFA's point of view its the big international sponsors, and from the individual FA's and leagues the TV revenue; but only if they start to get really antsy and willing to take action would anything of substance change I fear.

Wouldn't happen.

The PFA would go into meltdown

Yes, they'd be  BRIC ing it.

:clap:

and whats the betting we still wouldn't win a breakaway World Cup. We'd beat the Jocks but probably lose to Uzbekhistan in the quarters

Latest from the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/may/31/fifa-in-crisis-live-blog) blog - an excerpt from Jack Warner's letter to the Caribbean Football Union.  You couldn't make this up.  Proof, if ever it was needed, that FIFA has disappeared so far up it's own arse that asphyxiation is a very real risk.

My favourite bit is the past where he humbly 'besieges' his CFU colleagues.  (Siege mentality, Jack?)

'I, Jack Warner, a servant and believer in the principles of this beautiful game do humbly besiege you, my brothers and sisters from the Caribbean Football Union to desist from initiating any protest action at tomorrow's FIFA Congress.

I know many of you are hurting and it is only human nature that you would want to demonstrate your anger but despite all we must not fuel a fire set by others to incinerate all that we strive for.

At our last meeting we agreed as a union to support the incumbent Joseph Sepp Blatter in his quest to regain the presidency. I wish to assure you nothing has changed - our mandate was set then and despite it all we must fulfil it.

The battles I have fought over the last week are my burdens to bear; my shoulders are broad and skin is insulated to the verbal attacks I am subjected to daily. This is now my battle. I am humbled by all the support I continue to receive. Let us not be detracted for your duty is to football.'

I reckon they are going to build a wall around FIFA HQ to create the illusion that FIFA is no more

Nice summing up of the many (alleged) wrongdoings of Blatter et al over the last 13-odd years here for those interested:

http://www.sportingintelligence.com/2011/05/31/charge-sheet-fifa%E2%80%99s-murky-dealings-in-the-sepp-blatter-era-310501/ (http://www.sportingintelligence.com/2011/05/31/charge-sheet-fifa%E2%80%99s-murky-dealings-in-the-sepp-blatter-era-310501/)

Comic scenes this morning as the FA's proposal is inevitably defeated after heartfelt praise of Blatter by the FAs of Benin, Cyprus, Congo and Haiti.

This is a bit like how I imagine the Russian Parliament worked under Stalin.

Why are the FA wasting their time doing things this way? Do they really expect to achieve anything?

They really need a change of tact.

I see the German FA have come out this morning and asked for an investigation into the awarding of the 2022 world cup.

Won't change anything with regard to today's election but hopefully more members will at least question some of the decision making at the top of FIFA going forward.

FIFA has closed ranks.  Nothing will change - ever.

This is so depressing.  So much more likely to make me want to dissociate myself from football than the political leanings of our new manager.

They're making countries up now!

There's a serious point here.  The English FA is regarded around the world as a trouble maker.  Very little support for the calls for transparency.  Just listen to the language being used by other representatives (particularly the Argentine chap)...it's quite extraordinary.  The English FA has a big image problem.

FIFA are a disgrace, many will see what the FA have done as sour grapes over us not getting the world cup. But what scares most of these countries FA's and officials is that if FIFA were investigated properly Im sure you would find that many of these would be found equally guilty in aiding FIFA in its corruption.

If World Cup votes can be bought for a couple of million, then the silence of many of these officials can most likely be bought just as cheaply.

Has anyone else noticed the uncanny resemblance between Chuck Blazer and Michael J Fox's Dad in 'Teenwolf'?

Michael J Fox's Dad:

[url width=460 height=276]http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Sport/Pix/pictures/2010/11/16/1289921412137/Chuck-Blazer-has-question-006.jpg[/url]

Chuck Blazer:

[url width=500 height=375]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/141/319243550_65bf4cd888.jpg[/url]

Hang your heads in shame the FAW (Wales) and the Northern Ireland FA,for failing to the back
the call for a postponement of todays election.

When FIFA and UEFA broach the subject of why are there four separate teams, rather than a UK
team,who will the FAW and Northern Irish FA come running to? Oh yes i wonder!

According to the Argentina and Spanish FA's, the English press are "lying dogs" and would only
support the English FA if we give back the Malvinas (Falklands).

What a shock someone in FIFA is after something in return for supporting us

Would you have voted for Sepp Blatter? (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/poll/2011/jun/01/would-you-vote-for-sepp-blatter)

In his victory speech, Sepp Blatter told the Fifa Congress in Zurich: "I thank you for your trust and
 
confidence from the bottom of my heart and together we will have four more years - provided the

Lord gives me the life, the energy and the strength to continue on our path.

"I'm happy today we were once again able to bring solidarity and unity into Fifa.

"We shall move forward, we will put FIFA's ship back on the right course in clear, transparent waters. We need some time, we cannot do it overnight, but we will do it.

"I am deeply moved, I am honoured and I thank you. This is a new challenge and I accept it."

He was the stand out candidate, and out of all the candidates, he deserved to win.

Nobody else even came close to getting as many votes as he did

Exactly. You can bet that most of the FA's have taken payments over the last 40 years since Havelange was elected in 1974, as it was how he was elected. Havelange, who was in charge of Brazil's Olympic Committee, stole money from that to 'fund' his election. Once he was in power, he changed the marketing of FIFA, and in the process the money that came in multiplied, meaning he could use that money to give 'gifts' to other FA's. Blatter was trained by Havelange to continue these ways.

I wouldn't like to say how many FA's have taken these 'gifts' over the years.

Everyone singling out FIFA for criticism is missing the fact that pretty much all of football is corrupt including the FA.

I'm sure some, probably most, will disagree with me but I'd say the only non-corrupt tier in world football are the top clubs / leagues in the major commercial markets (England, Spain, Germany, Italy and so on). Sure they want to protect themselves, they want more income, they want bigger and better tournaments to play in, they don't want to release players for international duty and so on. But they don't attempt to hide it and they are answerable to shareholders and / or the law.

Equally they are the only ones that can topple FIFA and all it would take is the top 50 clubs in Europe to agree in unison to stop releasing players for international duty. The whole stack of cards that is FIFA would come tumbling down shortly after.

Maybe Rummenigge set the ball rolling this afternoon.

Rummenigge Issues Warning to FIFA (http://www.espnstar.com/football/news/detail/item628081/Rummenigge-issues-warning-to-FIFA/)

'European clubs will no longer accept that they do not participate in the decision-making when it comes to club related matters.

We will closely follow FIFA's development in this respect in the future and take appropriate measures, if there is no improvement.'

That Argie (Julio Grondona) is a class act:


He is a Senior Vice President in FIFA. Just goes to show what a bunch of self governing gravy train riding bunch of cúnts they are.

Oh god, I hope Dorset doesn't read the first quote. I'll have ruined watching the World Cup for him.

I would say the FA is more incompetent than corrupt.

By the way,Supporters Direct has released two papers recently about football governance and how they would like to see more Community ownership. They are able to read from here :

http://supporters-direct.coop/news/item.asp?n=12731&cat=sd_eng

He also like being around despots :

http://www.transparencyinsport.org/FIFA_boss_Grondona_and_his_Serial_Murderer/fifa_boss_grondona_and_his_serial_murderer.html

The FA knew there were, at minimum, questionable methods being used by other countries during the campaign for the hosting of the next two World Cups. They did nothing because they were more interested in hosting the World Cup and they knew that saying anything would have reduced their chances to zero. They should have taken a stand at the time and started heavily campaigning to clean up the game, their failure to do so makes them as corrupt as the rest for me.

Their latest move is incompetence though unless they have the balls to continue the fight. It appears that they pretty much the full support of everyone involved in the game in this country (politicians, media, supporters at least) and they have nothing to lose. They will bottle it though.

No

They were there to try to win the WC campaign, not to take the moral high ground.

Of all the fans and commerce that wanted the WC hosted in England, the FA had an obligation to do their best. For a while it genuinely appeared as though we might have done it, but we all know what happened.

The FA represented all the people who wanted the WC hosted in the country and had absolutely no right to do anything but try to get the WC hosted in England. No right whatsoever. If they deliberately threw away all chance of hosting it just so they could play police, the footballing and commercial population of England would have into meltdown and rightly so.

And what are they to do now? Just keep quiet?

Warner's resigned then...

"As a consequence of Mr Warner's resignation, all ethics committee procedures against him have been closed and the presumption of innocence is maintained," said a Fifa statement.

This has got to be the greatest form of justice of all time! I'm gonna rob everything I can from work then resign.

Just read this quote on the BBC website, fucking ridiculous!

That is a classic. I believe Warner still hasn't paid his 'fine' from delling 2006 WC tickets illegally. Don't worry Placido Domingo will sort FIFA out.

FIFA...You just couldn't make it up.