FIFA '15: The Indictments

All Hell is breaking loose.

I don't think I could get this in one, or several, post(s).

I think the best thing I can do at the moment is piece together what I can.

There is an American at the center of this situation.  Chuck Blazer was ousted, two years ago, from the FIFA Executive Council as Executive Secretary of CONCACAF.

Ironically, the expulsion (and Blazer's claims that then-acting CONCACAF President Jack Warner bribed Caribbean voters for the 2011 Sepp Blatter Re-Installation $40,000 each for their votes) came on the heels of Sepp Blatter up for another term as the head of FIFA in 2011.

Well, it sounds like the soccer officials at that election were not the ONLY people he told.

On November 1 of last year, the New York Daily News dropped a bombshell on the soccer community (one I can't believe I missed):

To save his ass from a deep tax debt (and his own involvements with FIFA corruption), Chuck Blazer was an FBI informant from about the time he made the claims about the 2011 FIFA Election.

He's in at least $30,000,000 deep for corruption himself, and today's indictments state that, more, in the range of nine figures.  Word is he had an Trump Tower apartment...  for his CATS!

Blazer turned in Warner to FIFA on the charges to avoid a life ban of his own.

So that was reported in November.

Today, the FBI unsealed (and here's a rare Justice Department news release!!) the indictments and threw open (at least to some unwary Americans) the political realities of soccer.

According to the DoJ release, 14 individuals (9 with FIFA, 5 more with corporate interests) have indictments in US courts on a variety of charges (totalling 47), encompassing what the US government calls "a 24-year scheme to enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer.":

• Jeffrey Webb, the current President of CONCACAF
• Eduardo Li, a member-elect of the FIFA executive committee, a member of the CONCACAF executive committee, and the President of the Costa Rican soccer federation
• Julio Rocha, among other things the President of the Nicaraguan soccer federation
• Costas Takkas, the attache to Webb, and former head of soccer in the Cayman Islands
• Eugenio Figueredo, the President of CONMEBOL for 2013-14.
• Rafael Esquivel, President of the Venezuelan soccer federation, member of CONMEBOL's Executive Committee.
• José Maria Marin, the President of the Brazilian federation for the last three years until April of this year.  (Hmmm, the questions I'd like to ask HIM about 1-7!!!)  Marin was only removed by the son of a journalist murdered by torture during the dictatorship of Brazil, which Marin praised in the Brazilian congress in 1975, according to his Wikipedia page.

Those seven were arrested today in Zurich by Swiss authorities at US request.

So before we go further, let's take a look at something:  You have arrested the current President of CONCACAF, the most recent before current President of CONMEBOL, the President of soccer in Brazil, and similar in three present cases in other countries and former in a fourth.

This is "all-in" to try to clean up soccer.  This, somehow, fails, and the United States will be out of FIFA so quickly for "political interference" (a personal favorite of Blatter's), my head will spin.

I've been able to locate additional indictments for the following:

• Nicolas Leoz, Paraguay, the President of CONMEBOL from 1986-2013.  So you now have COMNEBOL knee-deep in this going back the entire 24 years, plus probably at least five more.
• Jack Warner.
• Alejandro Burzaco, CEO of Argentina sports communication company Torneos y Competencias.
• Aaron Davidson, chairman of the Board of Governors for the North American Soccer League (now the second-highest professional soccer league in North America).

In addition to the 14, guilty pleas of these 4 people have been unsealed:

• Blazer, former CONCACAF General Secretary and member of the FIFA Executive Committee
• Jose Hawilla, the owner and founder of sports marketing firm Traffic Group, headquartered in Brazil (this guy too -- if anyone, after today, wants to believe that 1-7 was not the biggest fix in the history of world soccer, I defy you to try to convince me)
• and two "corporate persons", Traffic Sports International, Inc., and the company's US satellite, headquartered in Florida.  Davidson is President of the latter.
• Hugo Jenkis, head of Argentina's sports TV group Full Play.
• Mariano Jenkis, Full Play Group's Vice-President.
• Jose Marguilez of Brazil's arm of Traffic Group.

FIFA has banned all future involvement with any party so indicted.  Whether this is a material consolidation of power or a mere formality will depend on if Blatter falls or not.

Wow.  That's pretty much damn near everybody not affiliated with MLS or the Mexican groups or the like.  You got the US in there, you got Brazil, Argentina, the heads of CONMEBOL going back to 1986, the heads of CONCACAF going back about as far as relevant...  This is beyond "all-in".  This is basically saying everything (almost-certainly including the USA 1994 World Cup bid and hosting) has been a sham in the Western Hemisphere going back at least to 1991, if not further.

And, yes, I mean everything.  I will go to my grave believing 1-7 Germany over Brazil in the World Cup semifinal was fixed, and today would seem to indicate far more credence to that stand than I even I had when I found the purported picture of someone cashing in on the exact result to the tune of 2000-1 or something to that effect.

It is now clear that there is only one acceptable result, and I will give another reason in my next post above (above if you read it on the main pages):

• FIFA, as presently administrated, must be liquidated under relevant laws.  The organization can no longer exist.  To the extent possible, world tournaments should be played, but only if their veracity can be verified.  Otherwise, we risk the women, again, being the first victims, as the Women's World Cup is less than 10 days from commencing in Canada -- an event with it's own controversies.
• Sepp Blatter must be arrested, before Friday's vote, and world soccer taken into some sort of administration.
• The very future of soccer/football worldwide must be re-evaluated.  It is clear that the entirety of Blatter's (mis-)administration of soccer has been wholly corrupt and almost-certainly in concert with the likes of Dan Tan, Permual, and the other match-fixers who effectively run football.
• If this means countries like Turkey, Italy, much of Eastern Europe, and much of Southeast Asia cannot continue their teams, so be it.
• The 2022 World Cup in Qatar must be moved or completely cancelled.  I'll give another reason in the next post.
• The 2018 World Cup in Russia, same thing.

This may be the biggest sports story in the world for a long time to come.  And you don't even know the half of it....