According to the BBC, the FIFA communications director Walter De Gregorio has been fired after telling a joke about the World Cup governing body on Swiss TV.
Gregorio told Swiss chat show Schawinski: “…the FIFA president, secretary general and communications director are all travelling in a car…Who’s driving?”
“The police.”
FIFA announced in a statement that De Gregorio had “relinquished his office,” though according to the BBC, he was asked to leave by the still-acting-president Sepp Blatter.
“Sepp Blatter has sensationally quit amid the bribery scandal that has consumed FIFA,” writes the U.K. Daily Mail.
He announced it at the Zurich FIFA headquarters at a hastily-called news conference. Blatter is currently under intense scrutiny as the FBI in the U.S. investigates whether bribes were authorized by soccer’s world governing body.
Blatter announced he will continue in the role until an “extraordinary congress” can be called to vote in a successor.
“…Although FIFA have given me a new mandate, it doesn’t seem to be supported by everyone – fans, clubs. Those who inspire FIFA like we do.”
The resignation announcement comes after a press on Tuesday that reportedly linked FIFA’s number two man – secretary general Jerome Valcke – to payments made in 2008 that investigators believe amounted to $10 million in bribes. FIFA said in a statement that the payments were approved in 2007 by the chairman of FIFA’s finance committee at the time, Julio Grondona, write The New York Times.
“I only want to do the best for FIFA and my institution,” said Blatter in Zurich. “I decided to stand again as the best option for football. The elections are closed but the challenges we face haven’t come to and end. FIFA needs restructuring. Although FIFA have given me a new mandate, it doesn’t seem to be supported by everyone – fans, clubs. Those who inspire FIFA like we do.
“This is why we will cause a process, it will be held to. I will continue to exercise my function as president at FIFA until next time. The new elections will be held until in Mexico.
“I will not stand of course and I am free from the constraints of an election. I will be free to focus on an election.
Blatter’s 17-year reign as FIFA’s top official has looked increasingly untenable since the FBI charged 14 officers with high-level corruption last week.
He reportedly would like to recommend term limits for the FIFA presidency. “We need a structutual change of profile change. We need to look at the profiles and attitude of all the members. We need limitations on mandate in terms of office presidency…,” he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/03/sports/soccer/sepp-blatter-to-resign-as-fifa-president.html
Despite the chaos and controversy engulfing world football’s governing body, FIFA president Sepp Blatter has secured a fifth term in charge, according to The Guardian newspaper.
The 79-year-old defeated his rival, the Jordanian Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein. Blatter polled 133 votes to Prince Ali’s 73, which would have been enough to take the contest to a potential second round but his 39-year-old challenger withdrew.
It could yet prove a hollow victory. Blatter has weathered the storm in the short term but the result leaves him presiding over a split FIFA as he faces the biggest self-inflicted crisis in its 111-year history. “For the next four years I will be in command of this boat called FIFA and we will bring it back ashore, we will bring it back to the beach,” he said, promising to make this four year term his last.
Blatter gained 133 votes to Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein’s 73 in the first round of voting, not enough to secure a two-thirds majority, but the challenger conceded defeat.
Prince Ali will claim a moral victory, writes The Guardian newspaper.
Blatter appeared giddy after winning his fifth term as president, writes The Guardian. “I like you, I like my job and I like to be with you. I’m not perfect, nobody’s perfect,” he said. “Trust and confidence, together we go,” he said.
Also, Zurich police confirmed today that they were responding to a bomb alert at the venue where FIFA is hosting its widely-watched annual congress, amid a massive corruption scandal that has seen several FIFA officials detained.
Zurich police spokeswoman Brigitte Vogt confirmed that a bomb alert had been received at the venue where FIFA is holding the scheduled vote for the presidency that Blatter is expected to win, writes the South China Morning Post.
“I can confirm there has been a bomb threat against the FIFA congress, officers have been dispatched,” the spokeswoman said.
Above, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch comments on the FIFA corruption bust saying, it was a “long-running” investigation and the DOJ will bring the wrong-doers to justice.
(Updated post)
Acting on an indictment by the U.S. Justice Department, Swiss police arrested several top FIFA officials on charges of corruption on Wednesday. They were accused of widespread corruption dating to the 1990s.
Sepp Blatter – the FIFA president – was not arrested, and is expected to win a fifth term as FIFA’s president today, Friday. Blatter became president of FIFA in 1998.
The FIFA congress will begin at 8:30am UK time on Friday (9:30am in Zurich, 3:30am New York time).
The Guardian reports that here are several items on the agenda – including “suspension or expulsion of a member” and “president’s address” – before “item 17:” election of the president. The results of that election may be around 4:00pm UK time (around 11:00 am New York time).
Incumbent FIFA president Sepp Blatter – angling for a fifth term in the top job – and his only rival, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, will each address the congress before the 209 associations cast their votes, according to The Guardian.
CNN
Acting on an indictment by the U.S. Justice Department, Swiss police arrested several top FIFA officials on charges of corruption.
The officials were allegedly arrested Wednesday morning in Zurich. They were accused of widespread corruption dating to the 1990s.
The New York Times reports that Sepp Blatter, a Swiss national, “has ruled FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, for the past 17 years with no term limit, no external oversight, no passion for business ethics, no appetite for reform and, apparently, no shame over the rampant scandals, corruption and match-fixing that have sullied the beautiful game.”
FIFA is a multibillion-dollar organization that governs soccer but has been plagued by accusations of bribery for decades, writes the New York Times.
What About Sepp Blatter? A FIFA spokesman said that Blatter remains serene despite the arrests of officials on corruption charges and that a leadership vote will go ahead on Friday.
Mr. Blatter was not charged. Still he remains wildly unpopular, except among his “enablers,” writes the New York Times – corporate sponsors like Coca-Cola, Adidas and Visa, and docile national soccer federations.
Mr. Blatter, 79, is expected to win a fifth term as FIFA’s president on Friday, but he presides over an organization with a reputation in tatters. Sepp Blatter became president of FIFA in 1998. He has held other jobs with the organization.In FIFA Politics, Blatter Is the “consummate player,” writes the New York Times.
(Updated article)
FIFA head judge Hans-Joachim Eckert condensed a 430 page dossier on FIFA corruption into a 42-page report that revealed no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the successful candidates, Russia and Qatar.
Canadian news group Truth Mashup discusses it.
Wikipedia states that Charles “Chuck” Blazer was an American “soccer administrator” and member of the FIFA Executive Committee from 1996 to April 2013, when Sunil Gulati was elected to replace him.
It has come to light that he was an FBI informant used to spy on FIFA, the New York Daily News reported.
Blazer, who is now suffering from cancer, secretly recorded conversations with officials he arranged to meet at his London hotel during the 2012 Olympics, the report said. He supposedly had a key fob with a secret recording device.
The FBI pressured Blazer into working for them from 2011 because he failed to pay income taxes on millions of dollars he made as a leader of CONCACAF, soccer’s governing body for North and Central America and the Caribbean, said the report published at the weekend.
Other sources are reporting that before he could secretly record international soccer executives at the 2012 Olympics, he had to get approval from Scotland Yard.
That approval — and Blazer’s actions — may hold the keys to help unlock the secrets of global soccer’s legendary corruption.
After the Daily News reported exclusively Sunday that Blazer had spied on his colleagues on behalf of the FBI and IRS at the 2012 London Games, a member of Britain’s parliament called for a probe by his nation’s Serious Fraud Office, an arm of that country’s criminal justice system.
OK, Fine. 