FIFA Meltdown - All Whites for WC 2026

That's a relatively short term position Dale. As hard as it might seem, the right play is the the long term game here. Blatter won't be there in a few years time and change will happen.

Like it did when Blatter took over from the massively corrupt Havelange?

Adidas, Coke, Hyundai, Castrol, Budweiser, McDonalds, Sony, Visa, Johnson and Jonson et al

USA Attorney General and FBI involvement makes it different this time.

That's an interesting point.  [/off topicish]

Those people were involved in the Wall Street collapse as well where no one was given more than a bad telling off and they have continued with whatever they wanted.

Those people are turning a blind eye to corrupt practives in supporting the TPPI and all over the US government.

Those people have ignored massive evidence against those indicted here for decades.

So why are they sticking an oar in here?  Oh because US corporates lost money when the US didn't pick up a World Cup.  They are once again supporting the US rich.

It doesn't make what they are doing wrong and good on them for it but it's amusing as hell to see people painting them as the incorruptible white knights.

I was listening to Radio Sport - a caller phoned in and said that if it wasn't for Blatter, the pheonix would not be playing in an overseas competition - A League. If that is the truth then I might have to stick with the Devil and hope he gets re-elected. 

Loretta Lynch is no fly by night prosecutor

and remember it is the Swiss, not the Yanks, investigating Word cup bid process.

That is a stretch, plus his departure wouldn't necessarily change the current status.

Investigating it while seeing FIFA as the victim. 

Yes.  Two completely seperate investigations.  The US one is not investigating World Cup stuff, only corruption in American tournmaents which is why the arrests are all people from CONCACAF or CONMEBOL. 

The Swiss investigation is whether FIFA were ripped off by people around them on the voting rights, not investigating corrupt processes in FIFA.

Sports columnist Mark Reason believes NZ officials should have had the moral fibre to stand up and be counted.

"You needed people in influence to stand up and say, 'we don't think this is good enough," he said

"Some people might call me an idealist but there are other ways of raising money and we shouldn't have to be part of a very corrupt organisation to fund ourselves. No-one had been prepared to go on the record to condemn Fifa. They had every opportunity to remove themselves because professional football is such a small part of New Zealand sport."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/opinion/68938704/did-nz-football-fail-to-take-a-stand-against-fifa

True Hard News  - naive on my part

I'm not certain what 'crimes' have been committed. Paying bribes - is there a victim here if the payers are doing so with full knowledge? Granted, in the US, they have all of these 'racketeering' laws as a result of a long history of Mafia corruption, but do other countries have the same? I'm not certain we do. Switzerland has a history of protecting dubious investment and banking and if I recall correctly [all-be-it a long time ago] don't they have a system that promotes this kind of behaviour. Maybe that was one of the consideration when choosing Switzerland as the home of FIFA.

I agree with this comment.  Previously everybody played along because nobody pointed out the emperor was naked. Blatter is a very talented politician (better than Berlusconi and their like) who knowd the dirt on everybody around him. Everybody was on the take (at certain level of access to the inner circle) therefore everybody played along. Blatter simply knew when to distance himself, when to put up a smoke curtain, and when to offer inducements which will appear above board. Who got caught? Small minnows, or those challenging Blatter for supremacy, like Bin Hamman.

I'd have thought the Asian countries would vote for the Jordanian prince for President, since Jordan are part of the AFC. 

Either way, NZ is in a tough position. Whatever they decide it will effect the under 20 tourney.

NZF will vote for change 

http://www.nzfootball.co.nz/nzf-to-vote-for-change...

YES

Who the fudge calls Mark Reason an idealist?!

Not the word that comes to mind.

So, all the speeches and voting kickoff in a few hours then...

In an ideal world, organisations like UEFA would have a much larger say in who makes the decisions over top of (typically corrupt nations in Africa and Asia. (Sorry those are terrible sweeping generalisations, but lets be honest?...). On top of this a few rules around presidency length are well overdue.

Hard News - I did not think the U.S. investigation was brought about by U.S. companies. I had read that the attorney general had previously worked towards nailing fifa but at the time she was more junior and didn't have the muscle. Now she obviously does.

I reckon that there might be a last minute change of heart in some of the Blatter supporters, who knows what sort of rumours are flying around Zurich at the moment? I know on paper there's a lot of support for Sepp but if there's a sniff that Blatter is going down then I suspect that people might switch to Ali. 

UEFA's threatened boycott if Blatter wins might be a deciding factor - that'll cost a lot of people a lot of money, and if sponsors start to go too... it might be a situation where Blatter is given up to save the greater interests of everyone. Not for football, but for self-interest. Money talks, and although Blatter has got where he is by doling out money, who's to say that Ali wouldn't continue to dole out money for his long-term security in the post if he won. 

Ditching Blatter would mean that FIFA could probably change very little and continue to run as it has, but the public scrutiny would die down if Blatter was gone and the gravy train could continue pretty much uninterrupted. If Blatter stays, the whole house of cards could come crumbling down around him.

Of course, that's assuming Blatter doesn't have a stack of files on everyone to ensure he takes them down with him if he goes.... which he probably does.

Genuflect! Show some respect! Down on one knee!

(PS Blatter is just like that cop at the end of Casablanca being SHOCKED to find gambling on the premises.)

And I get the thing that developing nations are more corrupt in general than first world ones, but I'd say it's only because it's easier for people there to get away with it. Blatter is Swiss, his right-hand man Jerome Valcke is French, and the charges that have led to this were brought about by an American (Chuck Blazer) who changed sides when his corruption got busted. Like I said, transparency and accountability are the keys to stopping this stuff.

The problem is that if Blatter goes then a lot of other stuff could come out. I'm sure Blatter has the situation managed so that the other people at the top owe him. If Blatter goes then they all go down.

I'm pleased we will not be voting for Blatter but changing the vote now is hypocritical. We all knew Blatter was corrupt three weeks ago and we were still going to vote for him.

Yes. Let's be honest. Russia is a member of UEFA. And everyone knows how corrupt Italian football is.

Seriously: if you want to point fingers, point them at the tiny, poor countries who are more than happy to take bribes. And those seem to be mainly found in CONCACAF and - sadly - OFC.

And yup it's hypocritical but I'd rather that than sticking to our guns and continuing to support him.

Ultimately, if enough shark hits the fan that people involved get scared and change the way they run things then that's a good result, even if some of the scumbags stay. 

Agree with everything you've said. Definitely need some accountability; back when Qatar won the world cup after failing to not come last in all of Fifa's 'world cup suitability tests' bar one the people making the decisions need to be challenged.

Interesting article from 2013 about accountability and FIFA.

Mark Aspden says on president vote: "We are voting on principle". How are they voting on the suspension of Israel then?

I get the impression there is a lot more explosive stuff yet to come out about New Zealand's behind the scenes (till now) political manoeuvring in world football politics.

Get the popcorn ready. Might be fun over the next 48 hours to see what stuff the bigwigs in Oceania and Asia have to say about little old NZ.

Depends on her contract. There might be a severancy clause.