rolling lol FIFA thread

http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/news/images/2006_1196.jpg

Prince William has written to Fifa demanding it lifts the ban on England shirts being embroidered with poppies.

Fifa decrees that shirts should not carry political, religious or commercial messages.

But the Duke of Cambridge is "dismayed" by Fifa's stance in this case for Saturday's match against Spain.

Clarence House said: "The Duke's strong view is the poppy is a universal symbol of remembrance, which has no political, religious or commercial connotations."

this criticism of the english establishment in relation to fifa is itself of course rather parochial but anyway, the blatter clique while unsavoury and corrupt has been villified by the political class for not those things but because it hasn't been venal in the right way (switzerland is london's great rival in friendliness to flight capital, oligarchy, predatory transnationals etc)

the garcia report holds the f.a. responsible for 'irregularities' but being too prudish to do it properly like russia and qatar, england has been burned for years ever since its own dear stanley rous departed fifa (friend to apartheid and involved in the dubious referee selection that benefitted england in 1966)

like a lot of other things in england it's mostly empire hubris and tantrums about loss of influence, so there is this purblind weighting where 'corruption' is upbraided while the meaningful harms consequent from it are of only secondary importance because this country is even more deeply implicated

fifa hopefully will end in its current incarnation, though if that happens the purge of third world elements may just lead to capture by the usual western interests and similar exploitations, merely with less personal corruption

CONCACAF just cleaned out Webb and Li.

Not countries, no, have a hard time seeing that. Sponsors, though.

― Frederik B, Thursday, May 28, 2015 7:25 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

presumably some of the big sponsors are implicated in this.

e.g. http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/9867075/nike-co-operating-with-authorities-after-fifa-arrests

boy did nike ever make some shady sponsorship decisions in the 00's

We will have a second round of voting! Blatter gains 133 to Prince Ali's 73: not enough for two-third majority

Of the 209 votes, three were spoiled and so only 206 counted

this fucking guy

Five per cent of Fifa delegates vote that Germany did not win the 2014 World Cup in election test

bants

nakh absolutely otm upthread, just listened to the usual pat dismissals of colonialism and any non-Anglo agenda from Bernstein and some hack on Five Live, summing up the tone of most journalism i've heard this week

fifa hopefully will end in its current incarnation, though if that happens the purge of third world elements may just lead to capture by the usual western interests and similar exploitations, merely with less personal corruption

that's the English dream right there

Warner bases U.S. critique on Onion story

this criticism of the english establishment in relation to fifa is itself of course rather parochial but anyway, the blatter clique while unsavoury and corrupt has been villified by the political class for not those things but because it hasn't been venal in the right way (switzerland is london's great rival in friendliness to flight capital, oligarchy, predatory transnationals etc)

Yes, has been amusing to see the people who oversaw the sale of prime EPL assets to royal despots, murderous politicians, a money launderer, a heroin trafficker, a fugitive arms dealer and the man who bankrolled the bid for the World Cup we are now talking about boycotting getting on their high horse this week about the corrupting influence of money.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/06/01/world/americas/ex-fifa-official-jack-warner-cites-onion-article-in-defense.html

lmao

haha yeah http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/may/31/ex-fifa-vice-president-jack-warner-swallows-onion-spoof

the other funny thing is that the FA seem to believe they are one of the main antagonist to Blatter. like they've understood something other football associations, especially continental associations, cannot possibly understand.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGJwAu1UIAA7GKM.jpg

lol looks like one of those suspects boards from the Wire or Sopranos

slightly misleading in that sense because that's only the arrested/indicted people below him. there's lots more below who haven't been implicated.

i mean the argument that a lot of his underlings were involved is not a slam dunk anyway, even if "a lot" is like 90%. but it's more like 10%.

i love sepp.

congested defence with the 6-3-1 formation there

Blatter stepping down

^ obscure King Tubby versions

seppuku

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

hooray remember the day when Sepp Blatter resigned and there was no more corruption and the World Cup became a free festival

damn

now we can start asking for the resignation of the new guy

I will not stand. I am now free from the constraints of an election. I will be in a position to focus on profound reforms.

Probably on his way to the escape pod right now

sounds like putin when medvedev was pm

was just gonna post ^^^

Now which was longer, Blatter's 5th term as President of FIFA or Chuka Umunna's candidacy for the leadership of the Labour Party?

it's the right decision. it was never going to be a comfortable journey for fifa with such a weak blatter

qatar?

Sepp didn't vote for Qatar

or so he says

i believe him

If the new President is anyone other than Bobby Charlton flecked with the blood of St George then I'm calling a fix.

Might settle for the reanimated corpse of Bobby Moore as well.

George Zornick ‏@gzornick 21 minutes ago

Sepp Blatter should take a job at JPMorgan Chase, where DoJ won't bother him.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/6/5/1401928561609/World-Cup-Willie-001.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGgt4z7UkAAJsLB.png

Fuck it, this is great news actually. The fact he's resigning means something big is about to hit the fan. Sure, it'll take a while for his fetid stench to leave the room but this can only be a positive.

The violence of the stupidity on display here is just...
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/05/fifa-arrest-silver-lining.html

This sort of open acceptance of vice and corruption, however, is antithetical to the way Americans think about sports.

Compared to the way the rest of the world thinks about sports, of course

LOL USA

We are now the world’s sports cop.

SPORTS COPS this fall on CBS

This sort of open acceptance of vice and corruption, however, is antithetical to the way Americans think about sports.

For a start, we think about sport not sports.