The International Football Federations Thread

[IAceI]

Bloody hell, one little drop in the ocean from the English press over a failed World Cup bid and suddenly every higher up in FIFA is pulling a freshly inserted knife out of their back.

I still maintain I hope it all ends disastrously for Jack Warner. I really can't see us forming a breakaway organization, in fact I can see a few heads rolling and then a reformed FIFA ending up as corrupt as the current one is, but still - it's nice to see English journalism leading to something seemingly constructive rather than what celebrity wore what and where they went for food. Actually makes me feel that not all journalists are useless, although it's still very much a negative story on the whole - it's at least important (to people who like sport at least).

Hopefully it leads to a reformed FIFA, and not nearly as corrupt as the current one but I'm not sure I can see it.

[Lineker]

Sepp Blatter has insisted that Fifa is not in crisis, despite the "great damage" done to its image caused by ongoing corruption allegations.

"Football is not in a crisis, only some difficulties," said the Fifa president.

Blatter brushed off suggestions, from the British government among others, that Wednesday's presidential election - for which he is the only candidate - should be suspended.

"If governments try to intervene then something is wrong," he said.

"I think Fifa is strong enough that we can deal with our problems inside Fifa."

Blatter, talking at an extraordinary news conference in Zurich, welcomed the findings of an independent inquiry which cleared four members of Fifa's executive committee over allegations made by former Football Association (FA) chairman Lord Triesman.

"The executive committee of Fifa was very pleased to receive the report of the FA regarding the allegations made by Lord Triesman at the House of Commons," he said.

"We were happy that we can confirm there are no elements in this report which would even prompt any proceedings."

Sports minister Hugh Robertson had expressed the British government's displeasure at Fifa's situation last week, saying: "It's impossible to have a sensible election when both of the candidates have been accused of corruption.

"The sensible thing would be to suspend the election until these allegations have been properly investigated."

But Blatter argued neither governments nor anyone outside the Fifa membership could have any bearing on the election process, and vowed to carry on unless Wednesday's congress decided otherwise.

"If somebody wants to change something in the election or in the congress of Wednesday, these are the members of Fifa," he said.

"This cannot be done by the executive committee, it cannot be done by any authorities outside of Fifa - it's only the congress itself that can do it.

"Congress will decide if I am a valid or non-valid candidate."

Blatter is expected to stand unopposed in an election buried by a torrent of dissent within and beyond football's world governing body.

The only rival candidate to emerge - Mohamed Bin Hammam, president of the Asian Football Confederation - pulled out having been suspended by Fifa's own ethics committee over allegations that financial incentives were offered to Caribbean Football Union members.

Fifa vice-president Jack Warner, himself also suspended on similar grounds, subsequently revealed an e-mail in which another high-ranking Fifa official, secretary general Jerome Valcke, suggested Bin Hammam had "bought" the 2022 World Cup finals for Qatar.

Valcke has since attempted to clarify and soften those remarks and Qatar 2022 itself issued a statement claiming that Valcke's words had been "taken out of context" and its bid had been "dragged through the mud for absolutely no reason".

Blatter, however, took pains to avoid dealing with the detail of the various allegations as he faced reporters, saying only: "You should ask [bin Hammam] why he pulled out. I was prepared to go into an election process with another candidate and then the congress would have decided. Now the situation has changed."

These arguments may now begin to damage the organisation's commercial interests as, earlier on Monday, two of Fifa's largest sponsors - Coca-Cola and Adidas - expressed concern at the widely publicised in-fighting.

"The current allegations being raised are distressing and bad for the sport," said a Coca-Cola spokesperson. "We have every expectation that Fifa will resolve this situation in an expedient and thorough manner."

An Adidas spokesman said: "The negative tenor of the public debate around Fifa at the moment is neither good for football nor for Fifa and its partners."

Though insistent that the election process and the Qatar World Cup 2022 bid had not been undermined by recent revelations, Blatter admitted Fifa's reputation stands at a low ebb.

"I have tried for years to make Fifa's reputation the highest possible," he said. "I regret what has happened in the last few days and weeks, [causing] great damage to the image of Fifa and a lot of disappointment for football fans.

"When I entered Fifa 36 years ago, we had no problems. We had no problems until 1998, this was the so-called 'very modest' Fifa. Now we are a 'comfortable' Fifa. I think we are too comfortable and some people like that.

"We are in a game and all the little devils can enter the game. We have to fight against these devils. We have started to fight.

"We are in a very bad situation but, starting on Wednesday, the football family has the opportunity and they have to take it: if they want to restore the credibility of Fifa, and if they want to restore it with me."

As Blatter took to the podium in Zurich, Warner - one of the four members named by Triesman - issued his own statement welcoming the FA-commissioned inquiry which exonerated him.

"Today, I regained some hope in the power of truth and transparency," Warner's statement read.

"The report of the independent investigator on the allegations of Lord Triesman has proven once again that whenever the truth is told, people will always be able to have their names exonerated."

Meanwhile, a Conservative MP who sits on the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee has called for Wednesday's Fifa election to be suspended and put forward his own agenda for the reform of the organisation.

Damian Collins, the MP for Folkestone and Hythe, has worked with the ChangeFifa organisation to set out a five-point plan, inviting "parliamentarians and elected representatives from all the nations of the world to register their support".

Collins calls for the immediate suspension of the election and an independent inquiry followed by voting reform, increased transparency regarding decisions taken and Fifa finances, and limits to the number of terms Fifa members may serve as president or on the organisation's executive committee.

China's Zhang Jilong has assumed temporary charge of the AFC in the wake of Bin Hammam's suspension, while Lisle Austin of Barbados is to stand in for Warner as the president of Concacaf.

[Lineker]

The breaking line this morning is that in his speech, Blatter said that he will change the World Cup voting system so that the committee choose a shortlist of candidates and the 208 members of Congress will get to decide who wins by a vote.

[therockbox]

[METALMAN]

See at uni, when there are votes for the SRC or whatever, there is always a vote for "reopen nominations" when only one candidate is standing. Reopen nominations is often quite successful. I tend to vote for them out of twistedness. FIFA should do that.

[Matt]

See at uni, when there are votes for the SRC or whatever, there is always a vote for "reopen nominations" when only one candidate is standing. Reopen nominations is often quite successful. I tend to vote for them out of twistedness. FIFA should do that.

Isn't that basically what happened and something like 179 of the nations voted no to it?

However, as someone who really couldn't give a fuck about the national team for the most part, I'd support a breakaway Would save me from those people who only ever watch football at the World Cup suddenly becoming experts and telling everyone that Joe Cole should be playing.

[Lineker]

Guys, Blatter won

[IAceI]

Well the abstain vote was slandered all week long in private, accused of corruption and all sorts. Never stood a chance.

In seriousness, it's totally pointless. Look at the nothing response the FA got asking to delay the elections. Every country has an equal say over what goes on, and most of them are happy to keep greasing the palms of people. Why should a far-flung island in the pacfic care who hosts the World Cup? They never will but they can get a new training facility (or, ya know, Argentina can ask for the Falklands back...) out of agreeing to say "yes" to a bid.

These countries aren't going to compromise that for "fairness". Turkeys don't vote for Christmas, and all that jazz.

[Lineker]

Meanwhile, it has emerged that at least one of the countries who voted in favour of the FA's proposal to postpone the election did so by mistake.

Vietnam voted 'yes' to postpone the election believing they were actually voting to proceed with the election and Blatter as the only candidate.

This is the best.

[METALMAN]

I am not too bothered about all this corruption. Choosing Qatar as hosts is the only thing FIFA has done throughout Sepp Blatter's reign that has at all rankled with me. I'm fine with four more years of Seppy.

[Lineker]

Australia's sports minister says governments should think twice before bidding to stage a World Cup until Fifa has been subject to external scrutiny.

Senator Mark Arbib also criticised Fifa's bid processes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Australia was humiliated when it received just one Fifa vote to host the 2022 tournament which was won by Qatar.

"Fifa need to clean up their game and until they do no government should have confidence in them," said Arbib.

"Seeing what I have seen in terms of the bidding process, and now we hear about collusion between bidding nations, it's pretty clear it wasn't a fair playing field," Arbib added when speaking to Australian radio station ABC.

"Knowing what we know, without reform of the Fifa organisation [and] reform of the bidding process, no government would want to put funds into any bidding process."

Arbib also added that until Fifa make internal changes, Australia will not be bidding for another World Cup.

"There is no more money going towards bidding processes for World Cups," he said. "The FFA are not chasing any more Fifa bids."

Sepp Blatter, 75, was re-elected as president of football's world governing body for a fourth four-year term on Wednesday after his only rival, Asian football chief Mohamed Bin Hammam, withdrew from the contest amid claims he tried to bribe voters.

The Swiss won a landslide victory at Fifa's 61st Congress by securing 186 votes out of 203 despite a call for the election to be postponed by England's Football Association after months of corruption allegations.

Australian football's governing body, the Football Federation Australia (FFA), voted in favour of Blatter's re-election and indicated it supported internal reform.

But Arbib said an external investigation was needed, similar to that undertaken by the International Olympic Committee following the bribes for votes scandal that overshadowed the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

"I think they [Fifa] need to bring in someone from outside the organisation," said Arbib. "And they need to take action to reform their organisation.

"Certainly the president Sepp Blatter said he would do that yesterday and the football federations around the world need to hold him to account.

"My view is there needs to be significant reform at Fifa, at every level."

Earlier this week, key sponsors including Adidas, Coca-Cola, Emirates and Visa, expressed their concern at the damage allegations of corruption were causing Fifa.

However, Adidas announced on Friday that it will continue its partnership with the organisation but would urge Fifa to clean up its act.

"[Adidas] enjoys a long term partnership with Fifa as a sponsor and supplier around their events at all levels of the game and we have agreed to continue this partnership," it said in a statement.

"We hope that Fifa will do its best to reach clarity on the allegations soon. The negative tenor of the public debate around Fifa at the moment is neither good for football nor for Fifa including its partners."

[stokeriño]

According to the BBC...

Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger says he is open to a possible role with Fifa

Ahaha whaaaat?

[Pesci]

I am not too bothered about all this corruption. Choosing Qatar as hosts is the only thing FIFA has done throughout Sepp Blatter's reign that has at all rankled with me. I'm fine with four more years of Seppy.

I want Blatter out because he seems like a prick and the whole body needs to change so why not start from the top down, but I don't think he's been at all as biased against England as people/the media have made out. It's pretty fucking tiresome really.

And yeah, stok, Blatter said he wanted Kissinger to be part of a panel to "clean up" FIFA or something, and Kissinger is supposedly a huge footie fan. Very strange indeed though.

Edited June 5, 2011 by Pesci

[stokeriño]

To be honest I didn't really think Kissinger was even still alive.

[Matt]

I am not too bothered about all this corruption. Choosing Qatar as hosts is the only thing FIFA has done throughout Sepp Blatter's reign that has at all rankled with me. I'm fine with four more years of Seppy.

I want Blatter out because he seems like a prick and the whole body needs to change so why not start from the top down, but I don't think he's been at all as biased against England as people/the media have made out. It's pretty fucking tiresome really.

And yeah, stok, Blatter said he wanted Kissinger to be part of a panel to "clean up" FIFA or something, and Kissinger is supposedly a huge footie fan. Very strange indeed though.

I don't think he's anti-England either, I also don't think he's the most corrupt person in FIFA, however there is a lot of corruption in FIFA and he is in charge of it, so ultimately, he should take the blame. Also, I don't think under his presidency he's done anything particularly good - arguably taking the World Cup to South Africa, but that's about it.

[Lineker]

More on Kissinger:

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has told BBC Radio 5 live he is interested in joining Fifa president Sepp Blatter's committee of 'wise men'.

Blatter has invited him to join his new committee to improve accountability.

"He's not been specific, except to say he wants to create a group of wise men to deal with issues which may arise," Kissinger, 88, told Sportsweek.

"If it can help I'd be willing to participate but we need to know other participants and terms of reference."

The German-born Kissinger was a key figure in the Richard Nixon administration and won the Nobel Peace prize in 1973.

He is a life-long football fan, having been a major player in America's successful bid to host the 1994 World Cup.

He was also involved in reform of the International Olympic Committee following the scandal over Salt Lake City's winning bid to stage the Winter Games in 2002.

Last week Blatter was elected president of world football's governing body for the fourth time, after an unopposed election.

Fifa has come in for heavy criticism over allegations of corruption, particularly in relation to the vote on the venue of the 2022 World Cup.

As a result Blatter announced a raft of reform plans, including allowing Fifa delegates rather than the executive committee to vote on the hosting of future World Cups, and the establishment of a solutions committee including leading figures from inside and outside the game, such as Kissinger.

On the same programme, Football Association chief executive Alex Horne said he was "not losing sleep" over the likelihood of any backlash from Blatter or Fifa following the FA's failed attempt to block his unopposed election, and he hoped the FA could continue to play a role in world football.

"We intend to work constructively now to support Blatter with his wise men committee so we'll take it sensibly going forward," he said.

"Fifa are a very successful organisation, the work they do is incredibly powerful and we empathise with a lot of that work.

"We are still respected as a football nation, so we'd hope to be able to carry on working with Fifa helping world football.

"We've written to him [blatter] and we'd be happy to meet him face-to-face."

Just lol, really.

[METALMAN]

Henry Kissinger's most recent book about China came out a month or two ago. I'd highly recommend.

[Lineker]

Re-elected Fifa president Sepp Blatter will not initiate an investigation into Qatar's successful bid to host the 2022 World Cup.

But the Swiss added he would not block Fifa's ethics or solutions committees should either body want an inquiry.

Qatar's victory is under scrutiny after an email from a Fifa official emerged claiming the event had been "bought".

"I don't know why we should go in [on Qatar] - then we shall go to all [World Cup hosts]," Blatter told CNN.

The controversy around the Qatar bid team's victory was fuelled when suspended Fifa vice-president Jack Warner made public an email from general secretary Jerome Valcke.

Valcke subsequently claimed he had used the word "bought" casually in reference to the financial clout of Qatar's bid and was not suggesting any impropriety.

The Sunday Times newspaper had previously claimed that Fifa executive committee members Issa Hayatou and Jacques Anouma were paid $1.5m [£916,000] to vote for the Gulf state.

Blatter, who secured his fourth term as Fifa president unopposed after being cleared by the body's ethics committee of any knowledge of any alleged bribery, is unconvinced by the evidence against Qatar.

"I don't know why we should open something because somebody has said something towards Qatar," he added.

"If this committee of solutions or the ethics committee have the impression that they should do something then let them take the decisions."

Opera great Placido Domingo, along with former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Dutch football legend Johan Cruyff, feature on the new solutions committee that is part of Blatter's response to allegations of corruption.

"These gentlemen are more or less advisers," explained Blatter.

"What they should be also is the kind of council of wisdom - which my executive committee would not like because they think they are the council of wisdom."

[stokeriño]

Blatter's choice to defend the 2022 World Cup bid by saying that it was done the same way as all the other World Cup bids strikes me as a touch flawed.

[Lineker]

Suspended Fifa vice-president Jack Warner is refusing to meet with the organisations investigators tasked with probing bribery allegations.

Warner and fellow Fifa member Mohamed Bin Hammam are alleged to have paid bribes totalling $1m (£600,000) to Caribbean associations.

Warner said: "I have not received any summons asking me to speak with them [the investigators] nor do I plan to."

Both Warner and Bin Hammam have denied any wrongdoing.

A total of 25 Caribbean Football Union (CFU) associations are alleged to have been paid or offered bribes of $40,000 (£25,000) each - and up to 18 of these have refused Fifa's call to go to Miami to provide evidence.

Fifa agreed to move the venue for the interviews with those CFU members who refused to travel to Miami, but Warner will not be among those due to be quizzed.

However, a CFU source said that its associations were prepared to co-operate with any "independent and unbiased" investigation.

The CFU suggested Barbados and Trinidad as options for a different venue to Miami but it is believed Fifa will choose an island elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Warner and Bin Hammam are currently suspended pending the investigation into allegations they offered cash in exchange for votes for the latter in the Fifa presidential elections at a meeting on 10-11 May.

Bin Hammam later withdraw his candidacy ahead of the contest but has maintained his innocence.

"If there is even the slightest justice in the world, these allegations will vanish in the wind," said Bin Hamman when the allegations were made against him.

The president of the Barbados Football Association, Ronald Jones, has insisted that neither he nor his officials were offered any bribes by Bin Hamman or Warner.

"None of our delegates were offered any inducements or gifts to support any of the candidates during the meeting on 10 May," said Jones in a statement.

"The Barbados Football Association was made aware that the trip and accommodation were sponsored by Mohamed Bin Hamman under the auspices of the CFU.

"The BFA did not and does not see this as akin to bribery or any inducements as in the past trips by Caribbean delegates to meetings have been sponsored by the organisation and agency that wanted to put on the programme."