The International Football Federations Thread

[Lineker]

Fifa president Sepp Blatter is preparing to perform an extraordinary U-turn by calling for the release of court documents which could reveal that senior officials at the world governing body took bribes.

Fifa has repeatedly blocked attempts by journalists to have the documents released.

The BBC has learned that Blatter is to push for the publication of the papers at a crucial two-day meeting of the committee in Zurich, which starts on Thursday.

The documents relate to a criminal investigation into the collapse of Fifa's former marketing partner International Sport and Leisure (ISL) and are believed to show that senior Fifa officials were paid kickbacks in return for granting ISL lucrative World Cup television and sponsorship rights during the 1990s.

Last year, lawyers acting for Fifa and the officials paid 5.5m Swiss francs (£3.9m) to settle the case and keep their identities secret.

But last November a BBC Panorama investigation claimed that the two officials were former Fifa president Joao Havelange and his son-in-law Ricardo Teixeira, a Fifa executive committee member and chairman of the World Cup organising committee for Brazil 2014.

The programme said Teixeira received £6m in bribes via a front company called Sanud which was registered in the tax haven of Liechtenstein.

The Brazilian Fraud Squad has now opened an investigation into the allegations. Reports say it wants to make a request to the Swiss courts to have the documents released as part of its inquiries.

In May this year Fifa appealed for the second time against a Swiss prosecutors' decision to make them available to the public. The case is due to be heard later this month by the high court in the Swiss canton of Zug.

But with Fifa under huge pressure to reform following months of damaging corruption allegations levelled at senior executives, Blatter has now agreed that the documents should be released and, if approved by the executive committee, will make a request to the court.

Sources told the BBC that the proposal would form a package of changes to be tabled at this week's executive committee meeting. Having promised "zero tolerance" following his landslide re-election as president on 1 June, Blatter has been convinced that he needs to demonstrate a deep commitment to clean up Fifa.

Calling for the release of the Fifa documents will be the most eye-catching of all the proposals. But it is a high-risk strategy.

Teixeira is the frontman of the 2014 World Cup and is due to play a high-profile role in the announcement of the venues and match schedule for 2014 and the 2013 Confederations Cup on Thursday evening. The announcement is due to be carried live on Brazilian television.

Teixeira is also said to covet ambitions to succeed Blatter as Fifa president when he stands down in 2015.

The release of the documents could also leave other Fifa executive committee members under pressure. Last year's Panorama claimed that a confidential ISL document listed 175 payments to individuals and companies worth a total of £64m.

Panorama said the list showed Nicolas Leoz, of Paraguay, received just under £500,000 from ISL. The investigation also claimed that Issa Hayatou, the head of African football, received just under £13,000.

Hayatou, Leoz and Teixeira have denied the claims.

As part of his promise to clean up Fifa, Blatter and general secretary Jerome Valcke have been working closely with anti-corruption campaigners Transparency International.

They produced a damning report on Fifa in August which called for Blatter to introduce greater transparency and to make sweeping reforms to the governing body.

Many of the reforms will need the support of a majority of the 23 members of the executive committee and that is far from certain. If Blatter meets strong opposition he may have to wait until next May's congress in Budapest to try and force the changes through.

BLATTER'S PROPOSED REFORMS

• A new-look executive committee including representatives from wider parts of the game such as leading clubs and leagues. Members would be proposed by the five confederations but would have to be voted on by the 208 member associations.
  
• A fit and proper persons test for all executive committee members which would require disclosure of any previous criminal investigations or convictions and any conflicts of interest.
  
• A reformed ethics committee to be made entirely independent of Fifa and composed of three new parts - a prosecutor, an investigations unit and a court to deliver final judgements.
  
• A solutions committee made up of senior figures from outside the game who will examine key issues facing the sport.
  
• A change to the way World Cup hosts are chosen, with the congress and not the executive committee taking the final decision.

[Lineker]

Anti-corruption campaigners Transparency International have called on Fifa to be more open about potential conflicts of interest following the governing body's decision to award a TV deal to a company led by a relative of president Sepp Blatter.

Fifa announced yesterday it had appointed Infront Sports and Media to handle the sale of World Cup TV rights in a number of Asian countries for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.

But they failed to disclose the president of Infront is Philippe Blatter, the Fifa president's nephew.

The announcement came a week after Fifa set out a two-year plan, working closely with Transparency International to reform the organisation following a series of damaging corruption scandals.

Sylvia Schenk, the author of Transparency International's damning report on Fifa, told the BBC that even if Sepp Blatter played no part in the decision to award the contract, it raised questions again about the governing body's lack of accountability.

She said: "When you have a situation where two relatives are in leading positions in two companies which agree a significant contract, it is of utmost importance for Fifa to be as transparent as possible regarding the decision-making process and Sepp Blatter's involvement in that decision.

"Given the situation Fifa is in right now, it would be better for Fifa to be more pro-active with their information where there could be a perception of a conflict of interest."

Following an enquiry from the BBC, Fifa's media office released a statement making it clear that Sepp Blatter played no part in the decision to award Infront the TV contract.

The statement read: "Following a tender, the decision to go with Infront was made by the finance committee and ratified by the executive committee on the basis that Infront presented the best offer.

"The Fifa president is not a member of the finance committee and was not present when the decision was made. The Fifa president did not take part in any meetings or discussions and was not involved in the tender process.

"Fifa's relationship with Infront dates back to long before Philippe Blatter joined the company in 2006. In fact, Fifa has worked with Infront in highly specialised areas of the Fifa World Cup project in part or in whole since 1997 to great success. It is this proven expertise combined with a very convincing offer that won them the award of sales representation from Fifa for selected territories in Asia for 2015-2022."

[hugobomb]

War veterans unhappy after Fifa bans England players from wearing a poppy against Spain

Saturday, 5 November 2011

Fifa rules prevent any changes being made to the home kit.

George Batt, general secretary of the Normandy Veterans Association, has described the decision as "disgraceful".

He said: "I'm lost for words. I can't see any harm in wearing a poppy. It's so sad.

"You surely don't need rules and regulations in Fifa like this?

"I would think about 90% of the population wear them [poppies].

"I think it's a bit childish because, after all is said and done, if it wasn't for us blokes, Fifa wouldn't be here."

The players will instead wear poppies on their training kit at Wembley before auctioning it off for charity.

An FA spokesman said: "The FA are proud supporters of our armed forces and we are only too pleased to recognise those that have sacrificed their lives for the nation.

"The England senior team will proudly wear poppies on their training kit and all our staff and representative teams will stop to observe the Armistice Day silence."

FIFA: Alway ready to take common sense into the woods and bash it's head in.

Are they really worried that if they let England wear a poppy, a side will change there home kit halfway through a season claiming prescident?

[Lineker]

Fucking retards. Seriously. Hope they defy the cunts anyway.

[IAceI]

Should just wear them anyways and take a fine, don't think there would be any complaints.

[Colly]

Just fucking wear them, FIFA don't like us anyway so just take the fine that would no doubt be miles more than other countries get for racist chants and hooliganism...

[The Pub Landlord]

Do you really think moneybags FA are going to pay a fine?

[Thrilla]

Watching the Gabon/Brazil game at the minute, the pitch is ridiculous, seen better at a Sunday League level. Brazil are 1-0 up, Sandro from Spurs scored.

I couldn't figure out where else to post this >_>

[IAceI]

I watched that match as well, the pitch, the floodlight failure, everything about it was a disaster.

At last, though, Hernanes is looking like the player he was once touted as. His development stifled in Brazil a bit, but since the jump to Lazio he seems to be doing quite well.

Other than that, yeah, some of Gabon's defending was borderline league one-esque and the match as a whole was a rather shambolic performance but a nice money spinner for the relevant people I'm sure.

I also like that Jim Beglin clearly knew nothing of any of the Gabon players (apart from Cousin's who was on bench) so just sort of described all of them as 'big, strong, athletic.. your typical African players'..

[Colly]

To be fair the pitch was probably better than the LA Galaxy v NY Red Bulls playoff game. That was awful. Jim Beglin is god though.

[Lineker]

Why were the Wales and Norway teams just led onto the pitch by a goat with a big unicorn horn on its head?

[King Ellis]

Hey, Craig Bellamy has feelings you know.

[Dan]

Wales are playing some really good football right now, shame for them it's not 2 years ago >_>

Edit: Ahaha Martin Tyler just compared Wales to Barca and the Spanish national team :lmao:

Edited November 12, 2011 by McDanlad's

[Cymbols]

Wales are playing some really good football right now, shame for them it's not 2 years ago >_>

Edit: Ahaha Martin Tyler just compared Wales to Barca and the Spanish national team :lmao:

Martin Tyler knows nothing. Wales are wayyyy better than both of 'em

[Lineker]

1610 FOOTBALL: Turkey manager Guus Hiddink will step down after the return leg of the Euro 2012 play-off in Croatia on Tuesday night, Turkish media reported without citing sources. Hiddink's team are 3-0 down following the first match.

Mad scramble for Guus in the New Year?

[Lineker]

Sepp Blatter is basically condoning racism in football on his Twitter. Fucktard.

[MDK]

Where does he say that? Link plz.

[brenchill]

Sepp Blatter is basically condoning racism in football on his Twitter. Fucktard.

[Lineker]

It's in response to a CNN interview he's done. @SeppBlatter

Twitter has kind of blown up over this.

[brenchill]

Why the fuck is Sepp Blatter even on Twitter?

This is where Twitter fails.