{"id":182838,"date":"2015-05-27T18:53:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-27T23:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/05\/27\/well-now-we-know-what-you-have-to-do-to-make-an-american-interested-in-soccer\/"},"modified":"2015-05-27T18:53:00","modified_gmt":"2015-05-27T23:53:00","slug":"well-now-we-know-what-you-have-to-do-to-make-an-american-interested-in-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/05\/27\/well-now-we-know-what-you-have-to-do-to-make-an-american-interested-in-soccer\/","title":{"rendered":"Well, Now We Know What You Have to Do to Make an American Interested in Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"border: 1px solid black; float: right; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 5px; text-align: center; width: 350px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/PweNg3l.jpg\" rel=\"lytebox\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" bordercolor=\"white\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/PweNg3l.jpg\" width=\"340\" \/><\/a><br \/><i>I love <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/cartoons\/daily-cartoon\/daily-cartoon-wednesday-may-27th-fifa\">New Yorker cartoons<\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"197\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DlJEt2KU33I?rel=0\" width=\"350\"><\/iframe><br \/>Note that John Oliver did this a year ago<\/i><\/div>\n<p>It appears that the juxtaposition bribery, money laundering, and tax evasion is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/05\/28\/sports\/soccer\/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges-blatter-isnt-among-them.htm\">is enough to pique the interest in soccer of <b><span style=\"font-size: 100%; font-variant: small-caps;\">some<\/span><\/b> people in America<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\"> With billions of dollars at stake, Morocco, Egypt and South Africa jockeyed in 2004 for the privilege of hosting soccer\u2019s most prestigious tournament, the World Cup. The outcome hinged on a decision by the executive committee of FIFA, soccer\u2019s governing body, and a single vote could tip the decision.<\/p>\n<p>And at least one vote, prosecutors said Wednesday, was for sale.<\/p>\n<p>Jack Warner, a committee member from Trinidad and Tobago, shopped his ballot to the highest bidder, federal prosecutors said. In early 2004, he flew to Morocco, where a member of that country\u2019s bid committee offered him $1 million. But South Africa had a sweeter deal, offering $10 million to a group that Mr. Warner controlled, prosecutors said. He voted for South Africa. South Africa got the 2010 World Cup. And Mr. Warner got his&nbsp; $10 million payout, much of which prosecutors said he diverted for his personal use.<\/p>\n<p>For decades, that was how business was done in international soccer, American officials said Wednesday as they announced a sweeping indictment against 14 soccer officials and marketing executives who they said had corrupted the sport through two decades of shadowy dealing and $150 million in bribes. Authorities described international soccer in terms normally reserved for Mafia families or drug cartels, and brought charges under racketeering laws usually applied to such criminal organizations.<\/p>\n<p>Hours after Swiss authorities arrived unannounced at a Zurich hotel and arrested top FIFA officials early Wednesday morning, the Justice Department and prosecutors for the Eastern District of New York forcefully declared that their investigation had only just begun and pledged to rid the international soccer organization of systemic corruption.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese individuals and organizations engaged in bribery to decide who would televise games, where the games would be held, and who would run the organization overseeing organized soccer worldwide,\u201d said Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, who supervised the investigation from its earliest stages, when she was the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York. \u201cThey did this over and over, year after year, tournament after tournament.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s been common knowledge that FIFA is so deeply corrupt that it makes the International Olympic Committee look like Bernie Sanders, so I am not at all surprised that allegations of corruption have finally been made public, though I am a bit surprised that it was the US that led the investigation.<\/p>\n<p>As it stands now, the FIFA president, Sepp Blatter is not among those arrested, but given that these indictments include the FIFA statutes, which cast a <b>very<\/b> broad net (the phrase &#8220;corrupt pattern&#8221; comes to mind), if only a few of these people roll, I imagine that he could be a defendant as well.<\/p>\n<p>It appears that these arrests are the proverbial <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/fifa-corruption-scandal-may-prove-fortuitous-for-israel\/\">good news for the Jews<\/a>, as it looks like this will side-track for a while efforts to expel Israel from FIFA:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">Israelis were expecting some big news to come out of the annual FIFA Congress this week. But they probably weren\u2019t expecting this. <\/p>\n<p>In a bombshell operation, a Swiss law enforcement team showed up at the Zurich hotel hosting the annual gathering of the international soccer organization \u2014 and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/6-fifa-officials-arrested-in-soccer-bribery-case\/\">arrested<\/a> nine senior officials. <\/p>\n<p>The arrests come after decades of corruption allegations aimed at FIFA. (If you\u2019re unfamiliar, comedian John Oliver\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DlJEt2KU33I\">got you covered<\/a>.) The arrested officials face charges of taking money in exchange for World Cup hosting bids, as well taking bribes in exchange for media and marketing rights for major international tournaments. <\/p>\n<p>The allegations are damning, but frankly, they couldn\u2019t have come at a better time for Israel. Until Wednesday, much of the coverage of the FIFA Congress surrounded whether delegates would vote to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/soccer-officials-step-up-bid-to-head-off-israel-expulsion-vote\/-world-soccer\">suspend Israel<\/a> from world soccer. <\/p>\n<p>The Palestinian Football Association is introducing the motion to suspend Israel, accusing it of unjustly restricting Palestinian soccer players\u2019 freedom of movement and claiming that Israel\u2019s West Bank settlement teams violate FIFA rules. Israeli officials have called the effort blatantly political and said that the Palestinians\u2019 complaints all concern Israel\u2019s security forces \u2014 not Israel\u2019s soccer teams.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Needless to say, some people are <b>already<\/b> <a href=\"http:\/\/thearabdailynews.com\/2015\/05\/27\/us-cracks-down-on-fifa-to-avenge-criticism-of-israel\/\">blaming&nbsp; the &#8220;international Zionist conspiracy<\/a>&#8221; for the arrests.<\/p>\n<p>Personally, I&#8217;m hoping that we eventually see similar arrests directed at the NFL, and its head Roger Goodell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I love New Yorker cartoons Note that John Oliver did this a year ago It appears that the juxtaposition bribery, money laundering, and tax evasion is is enough to pique the interest in soccer of some people in America: With billions of dollars at stake, Morocco, Egypt and South Africa jockeyed in 2004 for the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[970,964,1016,972,1057],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corruption","category-foreign-relations","category-international-commerce","category-justice","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182838"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182838\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}