After his defiant press conference following his re-election as head of FIFA at the weekend, Sepp Blatter stood down today after a short and much more humbling statement when he was honest enough to say he might have the support of his FIFA cronies but he doesn't have the support of the world's football leagues, it's players or it's supporters. It was astonishing to hear him change his tune so completely, especially after all these years of arrogance and defiant bluster.
The FBI hounds are closing in on those arrested so far for bribes supporting the award of the World Cup to South Africa and with the smell around Quatar's award intensifying, Blatter looks very much like he is jumping before he is pushed. There looks like a lot more to come.
The FBI hounds are closing in on those arrested so far for bribes supporting the award of the World Cup to South Africa and with the smell around Quatar's award intensifying, Blatter looks very much like he is jumping before he is pushed. There looks like a lot more to come.
What's worrying is why it's taken so long for this particular footballing den of corruption to be exposed. What else in football wouldn't bear close examination?
ReplyDeleteConfidential Rick - It's a good question. Not really accountable to anyone outside their organisation, business-as-usual, so it really would take a strong and concerted effort to get evidence. If there were wider bribes of the scale already exposed, it would have been such a huge scam that they could have kept a lot of people onside. The construction industry operates on backhanders and global construction on global backhanders. Given that national government's were footing the bill and were desperate to bring the World Cup to their countries, you have a recipe for huge and prolonged corruption.....
ReplyDeleteThose arrested so far have obviously been leaned on by the FBI and they are singing like the proverbial canary.
ReplyDeletePH