Maradona candidate for FIFA presidency

Argentine football player and coach Diego Maradona says he will run for the presidency of the International Federation of Association Footbal (FIFA), a journalist close to the star says.

“He told me he would be a candidate for president of FIFA and authorized me to communicate it,” Uruguayan journalist Victor Hugo Morales tweeted.

Maradona has been a harsh critic of incumbent FIFA president, 79-year-old Swiss Sepp Blatter. Blatter is under considerable pressure from investigations into claims of corruption by the FBI and Swiss authorities.

The scandal, which has already led to charges against 18 senior FIFA officials, has forced Blatter to announce he would resign soon. He made the announcement just days after defiantly winning his fifth term as FIFA president in late May.

Blatter will stay acting president until a successor is chosen between December 2015 and March 2016 – and Diego Maradona could be that successor.

Maradona is one of the most controversial figures in the history of football. The 54-year-old has played for seven football clubs and Argentina’s national team.

He was also addicted to cocaine for almost two decades, which had him suspended for 15 months in 1991 after he failed a drug test. He overcame the addiction in 2005, but it caused him heart problems.

After retiring from the field, he managed several football teams, including Argentina’s national squad. His latest job was managing the Dubai-based club Al Wasl.

With Maradona as FIFA-president the organization will probably focus on being much more anti-European. Global soccer has been one of the most effective vehicles to promote multiculturlism.

Washington politicizes soccer

Washington’s attack on world soccer is following the script of Washington’s attack on the Russian-hosted Sochi Olympics. The difference is that Washington couldn’t stop the Olympics from being held in Sochi, and was limited to scaring off westerners with lies and propaganda.

In the current scandal orchestrated by Washington, Washington intends to use its takeover of FIFA to renege on FIFA’s decision that Russia host the next World Cup.

This is part of Washington’s agenda of isolating Russia from the World.

This Washington-orchestrated scandal stinks to high heaven. It seems obvious that the FIFA officials have been arrested for political reasons and that the recently overwhelmingly-reelected FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, was forced to resign by Washington’s threats to indict him as well. This can happen because Washington no longer is subject to the rule of law. In Washington’s hands, law is a weapon that is used against everyone, every organization, and every country that takes a position independent of Washington.

This clears the deck for Washington and its British lapdog to take over FIFA, which henceforth will be used to reward countries that comply with Washington’s foreign policy and to punish those who pursue an independent foreign policy.

The only hope for South America, Asia, and Russia is to form their own World Cup and turn their backs on the corrupt West.

It is astonishing that Russia, Asia, and South America so much desire to be part of the corrupt and immoral Western world. Why do countries wish to be associated with evil? Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and perhaps Argentina and Brazil have learned that being in the Western orbit means putting their country under Washington’s control.

Putin, Lavrov, and China’s leaders say that being associated with the West is like being associated with the plague. Yet they still want to be associated with the West. Why do Russia and China think that their self-esteem depends on Washington’s approval?

FIFA is a Swiss-based organization. Yet the arrests of FIFA officials is based on a Washington-initiated “investigation” by the FBI. By asserting the universality of US law, Washington is asserting the authority of its police and prosecutors over sovereign countries.

Why did Switzerland, and why do other countries lay down in obedience to Washington’s assertion of the universality of its laws? Are the political leaders paid off or are they threatened with assassination or false indictments?

What explains that of all countries on earth only Washington’s law is universal, acknowledged and bowed down before in other countries? Is if fear of retribution?

Possibly, but one answer is that the entire point of being a leader of a foreign country is to be made rich by kowtowing to Washington. One year out of office and Tony Blair was reported to be worth $50 million. Where did the money come from? No one wanted to listen to Blair’s speeches when he was Prime Minister. Why did Americans pay him six-figure sums to give speeches?

Putin can become rich, too. All he needs to do is to turn Russia over to Washington.

Here we are in an orchestrated soccer scandal hyped to the hilt by the presstitute media while all the real scandals go unremarked.

For example, a number of the mega-banks in the West have pleaded guilty to felony charges and only suffered fines. As Finian Cunningham has pointed out, the money laundering and price-rigging by the “banks too big to jail” dwarfs the alleged criminality at FIFA. The Securities and Exchange Commission actually issues waivers to the banks for their criminal activity. One dissenting SEC commissioner accuses her colleagues of encouraging “recidivism” by the constant issue of waivers.

Washington itself cannot be believed as not a single significant statement out of Washington’s mouth since the Clinton regime has been true; yet, Washington still parades around as the arbiter of truth.

Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction. Assad did not use chemical weapons. Iran did not have a nuclear weapons program. Russia did not invade Ukraine. But Washington convinced the world that its lies were true.

It is almost a certainty that politicians up in arms over unsubstantiated charges that FIFA took bribes have themselves taken bribes. Just look at the bribes given to Congress by corporations to vote fast track for TTIP.

Can anyone name even one leader of one EU country (other perhaps than Greece at the moment) who doesn’t take bribes from Washington?

According to Udo Ulfkotte, no one can name even one British or EU newspaper that doesn’t take bribes from the CIA.

How many UN votes are determined by Washington’s threats and bribes?

Whether or not FIFA decisions are tainted by bribery, the purpose of the “investigation” is to cast doubt on the decision to hold the World Cup in Russia. The World Cup is a global spectacle and conveys prestige on the host country. Washington intends to deny this prestige to Russia. That is what the “investigation” is about.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts’ latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West and How America Was Lost.

FIFA’s Blatter resigns

Sepp Blatter has announced he is stepping down as president of FIFA, football’s governing body, and has called on a special congress to elect a successor. The news comes less than a week after Blatter was reelected as FIFA chief amid a bribery scandal.

Switzerland’s office of attorney general (OAG) said that it is not investigating Blatter in connection with the FIFA corruption probe.

“Joseph S. Blatter is not under investigation by the OAG. His announced resignation will have no influence on the ongoing criminal proceedings,” the attorney general is cited as saying by Reuters.

Jordan’s Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, who gave in to Blatter during the vote last Friday, will run in the new FIFA election for president, AFP reported.

Sepp Blatter has taken this step to save the organization, Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko has told the Tass news agency.

The new congress will take place between December 2015 and March 2016, the chairman of FIFA’s audit and compliance committee, Domenico Scala, has said. He has taken the floor after Blatter.

Former Daily Show host, the very unfunny John Oliver made Sepp Blatter his personal White Whale, repeatedly calling out the FIFA President on his show with lengthy items detailing the FIFA corruption scandals.

On last Sunday’s show, Oliver begged FIFA sponsors – which include McDonalds, Adidas and Budweiser, to pull their support.

The Guardian as well as the Financial Times singled out South Africa. From The Guardian:

Blatter’s announcement comes after Fifa had admitted it paid $10million destined for the South Africa World Cup to an account controlled by the disgraced former vice-president Jack Warner. The payment followed a letter from the South African FA to Fifa secretary general Jérôme Valcke.

From the FT:

His resignation came at the end of another bruising day for Fifa, after one of his most senior lieutenants, Jérôme Valcke, was alleged to have had personal knowledge of a $10m payment at the heart of a US corruption probe.

Mr Valcke was the recipient of a letter from the South African football association on March 4, 2008, asking him to withhold $10m from the funding of the World Cup “operational budget” and for the money to be “advanced” to a fund controlled by the then “President of Concacaf”, Jack Warner.

The letter, which was shown on South African television, was confirmed by its South African signatory, Molefi Oliphant. “The copy is official,” he said. “That is the copy, you have it, so you can draw any opinion you want to. That is the correct letter,” he said.

Blatter understands New World Order

Fifa boss understood very early that there’s a new world order in which westerners don’t matter much, writes Simon Kuper in the FT.

Blatter knows which of the soccer nations have money, and that is why he will be re-elected.

In the 19th century, it was the British, later Americans, then Russians and currently Gulf Arabs.

That’s why on Friday he will be re-elected to his fifth term as president of Fifa, the corrupt global football authority. Western countries rightly decry Blatter. However, we ought to recognise his genius. This 79-year-old understood very early that there’s a new world order in which westerners don’t matter much.

I only realised how deluded most of us westerners were on December 2 2010. That afternoon Fifa’s executive committee (Exco) chose Russia to host the 2018 World Cup and Qatar to stage the 2022 tournament. I had followed the bidding campaigns for years. I had had many off-the-record conversations with western bidders. A few had predicted Russia’s victory. Almost nobody foresaw Qatar’s.

Writing in the Financial Times before the vote, I chastised bookmakers William Hill for making Qatar runaway favourites. Hadn’t Fifa’s own evaluation report called Qatar’s extreme heat “a potential health risk for players, officials, the Fifa family and spectators”? I tipped Russia and the US to win. I was wrong. So were almost all other western observers. Theo van Seggelen, president of the international footballers’ trade union Fifpro, says: “For me — and I was reasonably close to the fire — the vote was a complete surprise.”

It turned out that Fifa cared only about naked power and money. In addition, more than a third of Exco’s 24 members were accused of corruption linked to the vote. Several resigned from football. Jérôme Valcke, Fifa’s secretary-general, wrote in a leaked memo that Qatar “bought” the World Cup. (He later said he’d been misinterpreted.) Last year The Sunday Times alleged that a Qatari, Mohamed bin Hammam, made payments totalling $5m to win support for Qatar’s bid.

Western countries, hopping mad to lose the World Cups, have cried “corruption!” But most non-western participants dismiss them (with some justification) as hypocritical, whining losers. Richard Attias, a French communications consultant who works with Qatar, told me: “Only a microcosm is interested in how World Cups are attributed — a very British microcosm.”

Fifa’s vote presciently recognised the geopolitical rise of Qatar and Russia. Fifteen days after the vote, a Tunisian fruit seller set himself on fire, and north Africans rose in revolt. Qatar, “flush with the success of winning the rights to host the . . . World Cup and with its international recognition soaring as a result,” then helped spark the Arab spring, writes Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Baker Institute fellow for the Middle East. Qatar funded Islamists across north Africa, and helped unseat Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi. In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea. We live in a new world order.

It suits Blatter. Coming from a small country, he is skilled at accommodating big power brokers.

Moreover, he thinks like them: Blatter, too, likes legal immunity, motorcades on empty highways, and respectful underlings. The central American football officials who recently compared him with Jesus and Nelson Mandela presumably knew the comparisons were absurd. But the absurdity simply emphasised their loyalty.

Western countries are powerless to change Fifa. They could boycott the World Cup but, characteristically, they won’t make sacrifices for their principles.

Now some westerners are complaining about Blatter’s unfair advantages over any opponent in Friday’s vote. Many national football associations fear their supposedly secret ballots won’t stay secret.

Africans in World Cup Soccer match-fixing scandal

Ghana has been exposed as agreeing to take part in international football matches organised by match fixers.

An undercover investigation found that the President of Ghana’s Football Association agreed for the team to play in international matches that others were prepared to rig.

The team is currently competing in the World Cup finals in Brazil, and on Saturday pulled off a 2-2 draw against Germany. A team launched a six-month investigation into match-fixing after receiving information that some football associations rigging scores in international games.

Christopher Forsythe, a registered Fifa agent, along with Obed Nketiah, a senior figure in the Ghanaian FA, boasted that they could employ corrupt officials who would rig matches played by Ghana.

Forsythe and Nketiah agreed on a contract which would see the team play in the rigged matches, in return for payment. The contract stated that it would cost $170,000 for each match organised by the fixers involving the Ghanaian team, and would allow a bogus investment firm ​to appoint match officials, in breach of Fifa rules.

Forsythe said that match fixing was “everywhere” in football and that he could even arrange rigged matches between Ghana and British teams.

He also listed a number of African and European countries, adding “we can look for match officials who will sing to our tune”.

Forsythe and Nketiah introduced the undercover team to Kwesi Nyantakyi, the president of the Ghana FA, at a five-star hotel in Miami earlier this month shortly before his team played South Korea in Miami before heading to Brazil.

During the meeting in Florida, the president agreed to a contract that would cost the investment company $170,000 and that they could appoint the match officials for each game.

During the meeting, the president suggested that the fictional investment company put on two matches after the World Cup to prove that they were able to organise games.

Officers from the National Crime Agency, Britain’s FBI, have asked Fifa to issue an alert over attempts to rig the game. Insiders say match-fixing is widespread. It is happening at every level and in many countries.

Match-fixing syndicates have infiltrated all levels of football and sport from national, regional and onto international.

Over the last month, Sepp Blatter, the president of Fifa, has faced calls to stand down after it emerged the former Qatari executive committee member had made millions of dollars in payments to Fifa officials.

Jack Warner, one of the people that participated in the decision to award Qatar the 2022 World Cup, was paid $1.2 million shortly after the vote.

FIFA to discuss ‘concrete proposals’ to fight racism

FIFA is to discuss “concrete proposals” for combating racism over the next few months and plans to put them into effect in May, soccer’s governing body said on Friday.

The proposals will be chewed over by FIFA’s executive committee at its next meeting in March and then presented to the annual Congress in Mauritius in May which is expected to have the final say, FIFA said.

“I am very pleased with the ideas that have evolved today and look forward to the deliberations with the executive committee next month,” said FIFA president Sepp Blatter following a meeting of the strategic committee.

“The aim is to present to the FIFA Congress in Mauritius in May concrete actions, as well as strong sanctions which will really have an impact.”

FIFA did not elaborate on what the proposals were.

Blatter has previously suggested that points deductions and even relegation could be used as sanctions for teams whose supporters are found guilty of racist behaviour.

Bulgaria, whose fans racially insulted a Danish player, and Hungary, whose fans were found guilty of anti-Semitic behaviour during a friendly at home to Israel, were recently ordered to play their next home World Cup qualifiers behind closed doors.

Italian authorities have drawn up plans for stopping games in cases of racism. Referees and the fourth official have been told to report incidents to public security officials who would have the final say. – Reuters