Althouse: "Swiss authorities conducted an extraordinary early-morning operation here Wednesday to arrest several top soccer officials and extradite them to the United States on federal corruption charges."

May 27, 2015

"Swiss authorities conducted an extraordinary early-morning operation here Wednesday to arrest several top soccer officials and extradite them to the United States on federal corruption charges."

"As leaders of FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, gathered for their annual meeting, more than a dozen plain-clothed Swiss law enforcement officials arrived unannounced at the Baur au Lac hotel, an elegant five-star property with views of the Alps and Lake Zurich. They went to the front desk to get room numbers and then proceeded upstairs."

What a scene!

ADDED: Shouldn't America leave soccer problems to the countries that call it football?

44 comments:

Curious George said...: Meh. Pikers compared to the Olympic committee.; 5/27/15, 8:12 AM
traditionalguy said...: Surprise, surprise. A World Government type body is unexpectedly 100% corrupt.

Only Deniers can see any problem with soccer science awarding the Summer World Cup to a 122 Degree F. temp Qatar.

Anybody checked the Clinton Foundation for Speech fees on this yet? It looks like their Method of Operation. If not somebody had better remember to include them next time to avoid arrest.; 5/27/15, 8:17 AM
PuertoRicoSpaceport.com said...: FIFA (and pretty much all big sport) is corrupt?

Who could have imagined it? I am shocked, Shocked!, I tell you.

Next questions for the press to investigate:

Does a bear shit in the woods?

Is the Pope Catholic?

Is water wet?

John Henry; 5/27/15, 8:23 AM
Roger Sweeny said...: That FIFA officials are corrupt is one of those things that "everybody knows." Nice to see that something is actually being done about it. As a resident of the Boston metropolitan area, I am also glad that right now, no one here is willing to spend public money on the 2024 Olympics. Which means the IOC will never pick us as the "host."; 5/27/15, 8:26 AM
furious_a said...: Teh Beautiful Game.; 5/27/15, 8:31 AM
traditionalguy said...: Actually the news is that the Pope is Marxist.; 5/27/15, 8:31 AM
Hagar said...: "Soccer" is football.
"American football" is grab-ball.; 5/27/15, 8:52 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: I hope the Swiss authorities had the decency to order up room service.; 5/27/15, 9:02 AM
ndspinelli said...: Long overdue. Next, the Olympic Committee.; 5/27/15, 9:04 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Hopefully nobody was letting a small amount of air out of soccer balls whose starting pressure was not important enough to make note of, and which officials were unable to accurately measure. Because that would be a real crime.; 5/27/15, 9:08 AM
Sebastian said...: "Is the Pope Catholic?"

Is he?; 5/27/15, 9:10 AM
Mary Beth said...: I've been seeing a good bit about Qatar lately and how they're treating immigrant labor as slaves.; 5/27/15, 9:14 AM
MadisonMan said...: I wonder if this means they'll stop trying to work with American Cities that want to host World Sporting Events.

Win-win!; 5/27/15, 9:29 AM
cubanbob said...: "ADDED: Shouldn't America leave soccer problems to the countries that call it football?"

Yes. Considering the minimal connection to the US and the amount of resources spent on this by the DoJ when there is so much bribery and corruption here in the US maybe the corruption problem is in the DoJ.; 5/27/15, 9:35 AM
bleh said...: This is a clear indication that peace and prosperity have returned to America. There are no significant law enforcement objectives that need to be achieved at home. Because Obama is so great.; 5/27/15, 9:41 AM
Sammy Finkelman said...: Mary Beth said... 5/27/15 @ 9:14 AM

I've been seeing a good bit about Qatar lately and how they're treating immigrant labor as slaves.

Qatar - the government of Qatar - supports pro-terrorist al Jazeera - and yet somehow it manages also to be an ally of the United States.; 5/27/15, 9:56 AM
Tank said...: At least there's no way this could involve the Big V.; 5/27/15, 10:04 AM
Magson said...: Hagar said...
"Soccer" is football.
"American football" is grab-ball.

5/27/15, 8:52 AM

*****
Football was the game. The some wanker at Rugby College decided to pick it up and run with with it. And thus was born "Rugby Football" as opposed to "Association Football."

American Football is simply an evolution on Rugby.; 5/27/15, 10:32 AM
cubanbob said...: Sammy Finkelman said...

Mary Beth said... 5/27/15 @ 9:14 AM

I've been seeing a good bit about Qatar lately and how they're treating immigrant labor as slaves.

Qatar - the government of Qatar - supports pro-terrorist al Jazeera - and yet somehow it manages also to be an ally of the United States.
5/27/15, 9:56 AM

Placing rather large orders with Boeing helps keep the relationship friendly. Better than placing those orders with Airbus.; 5/27/15, 10:36 AM
Xmas said...: There can be no corruption. It's perfectly rational that the Football governing body would agree to have their premier Outdoor Football tournament in Qatar in the summertime.

I'm not sure how the US is involved with this. And I'm shocked that Blatter wasn't picked up in the raid. They must be looking to get one of the subordinates to roll on Blatter.; 5/27/15, 11:25 AM
Clyde said...: The Daily Beast's article about this was headlined "TEAM AMERICA SMASHES CORRUPT FIFA," which made me think of the song from Team America: World Police: America, Fuck Yeah! (Link is NSFW, obviously!)

Also, completely unsurprisingly, the Clinton Foundation was involved, receiving thousands of dollars in contributions from the Qataris.; 5/27/15, 11:45 AM
Known Unknown said...: I'm not sure how the US is involved with this

Lynch said that FIFA used U.S. financial institutions to conduct some of the fraud, thus breaking U.S. laws.

Interesting to note that the Clinton Foundation has ties to the Qatar World Cup bid and FIFA. The Obama/Clinton War continues.; 5/27/15, 11:46 AM
Lauderdale Vet said...: I told my wife a few months ago that the race was Hilary's to lose and that the only way she wouldn't be handed the next Presidency was if the Obama Administration actively sought to undermine her.

Every few days there seems to be another story tangentially related to the Clintons. Many of them seem to have the Administration's fingerprints on them.

So let's say Hilary is effectively undermined by this constant buzz of suspicion and negativity. Who would the Administration actually want to succeed Barack? Elizabeth? Michelle?

...or is this a rope-a-dope act to squeak a Republican into the white house so they can more effectively regroup their own influence as outsiders, "organizing" from the sidelines, the beltway be damned?; 5/27/15, 11:47 AM
Known Unknown said...: .or is this a rope-a-dope act to squeak a Republican into the white house so they can more effectively regroup their own influence as outsiders, "organizing" from the sidelines, the beltway be damned?

I suspect more this would be the motive until an Obama 'successor' can be found.; 5/27/15, 11:55 AM
Etienne said...: Meanwhile, stupid people keep buying tickets. It's really all their fault. It's like women in short dresses, they deserve to be raped...; 5/27/15, 11:56 AM
Clyde said...: I guess they found where to stick those damn vuvuzelas!; 5/27/15, 12:21 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: ""Swiss authorities conducted an extraordinary early-morning operation here Wednesday to arrest several top soccer officials and extradite them to the United States on federal corruption charges.""

There's no better proof that Obama is not an American than that he lets his DOJ take kickball seriously.; 5/27/15, 12:39 PM
Anthony said...: The dickens you say! Oh well, at least international cycling is clean.....; 5/27/15, 1:17 PM
Unknown said...: "Jim Miller on Politics" (blog) speculates that Eric Holder was quite annoyed that USA did not get selected for the soccer championships. Sorry I can't link that.; 5/27/15, 1:30 PM
SJ said...: I don't know what American law the DoJ wants to charge these men under.

However, it would probably be called "American Imperialism", if the opponents of American Imperialism wished to call it that.

After all, the FIFA people probably violated one of those US laws which require all business interactions with any government in the world to adhere to US law that forbids bribery.

(Every so often, the multinational corp I work for reminds employees about this law, and how it impacts the behavior of the Corp and any subsidiary, contractor, or business partner.); 5/27/15, 1:38 PM
Douglas B. Levene said...: From the silver-lining-in-every-cloud department: These arrests will probably derail the efforts by the Jew-haters to expel Israel from FIFA. http://time.com/3898089/palestinians-fifa-israel/; 5/27/15, 2:36 PM
Patrick said...: This will teach those corrupt FIFA officials. Next time they will think before rejecting Obama's proposal to have the tournament in the USA. Done mess wkth him. He won!; 5/27/15, 3:04 PM
hombre said...: Long overdue. These guys have corrupted "the beautiful game."; 5/27/15, 3:34 PM
gerry said...: Yes. Considering the minimal connection to the US and the amount of resources spent on this by the DoJ when there is so much bribery and corruption here in the US maybe the corruption problem is in the DoJ.

Somebody in the DOJ took a bribe from someone who got screwed by FIFA execs. Interesting novel idea.; 5/27/15, 3:44 PM
eddie willers said...: The only way to make soccer more boring is to bring in lawyers.; 5/27/15, 3:50 PM
David said...: So Trinidad can prosecute Americans who use a bank there in connection with an alleged crime? How about Cuba? Venezuela? Any country X?

I wonder just how popular that would be in New York, Washington and Miami (just to name a few.); 5/27/15, 4:12 PM
glenn said...: Actually my read is that the arrest of an American for income tax evasion kicked this thing off here.
And I see the fine hand of Prez Blatters opponent in the Friday election in this.; 5/27/15, 4:19 PM
Richard Lawrence Cohen said...: Once again, we intervene to save Europe.

By the way, "soccer" is a 19th century British word, short for "Association football." If they don't want to use it anymore, to hell with them.; 5/27/15, 4:45 PM
CatherineM said...: Watch this video on FIFA from last year from John Oliver. Funny and enlightening.

http://youtu.be/DlJEt2KU33I; 5/27/15, 4:59 PM
cubanbob said...: gerry said...
Yes. Considering the minimal connection to the US and the amount of resources spent on this by the DoJ when there is so much bribery and corruption here in the US maybe the corruption problem is in the DoJ.

Somebody in the DOJ took a bribe from someone who got screwed by FIFA execs. Interesting novel idea.

5/27/15, 3:44 PM

Possibly but not likely, this bunch isn't that smart. More likely is the use of these resources in this peripheral case as an excuse to not look for corruption in government here as the usual suspects are members of a certain party that isn't named by bien-pensant journolists unless someone falls out of favor. In other words, look here! Squirrel!; 5/27/15, 5:18 PM
Skeptical Voter said...: Our host asks us, "Shouldn't we leave soccer problems to the countries that call it football"?

Well maybe. But this isn't about a soccer problem or a football problem. This is a "disrespect" problem and like all things involving those with a thuggish nature, payback is a beeotch.

Our Dear Leader wanted to bring the World Cup back to the shores of the USA in 2022. (He'd already blown his bid to have the Olympics in Chicago--flew all the way to Copenhagen to make a pitch in person and the Olympic site selection crew told him to take a hike).

Now he makes a play for the World Cup in 2022--need something in the Obama legacy cupboard after all which is looking awfully bare these days.

Once burned by the Olympic site committee which had rejected his majesty's wishes, he wasn't going to be embarrassed again. So he sent Mad Dog Holder down to do the negotiating. And guess what--Holder got stiffed too.

So Holder doesn't get mad (although for a guy with experience in handling a bribe from Marc Rich, you think Holder could have done a better job with FIFA where all things are for sale). Nope Holder and his boss Obama get even. Disrespect us you twerps and we'll sue you for international bribery and haul you back to the good ol USA.

I dunno---why don't they go whole hog and confine and try 'em at Gitmo? Or put it another way, Holder went down to deal with international sports organization whores and they didn't stay bought. Can't this administration do anything right?; 5/27/15, 5:57 PM
JamesB.BKK said...: Not about FIFA or corruption in international bodies. About US pols in control of the US superstate working to get more control over other countries and to improve their skim and the skim of the USG.; 5/27/15, 7:39 PM
Michael said...: It is illegal for US companies to offer bribes in the world marketplace. Think of those American companies which might profit from a deal with FIFA. Think of the money involved. Think of why an American company might want, say, television rights.; 5/27/15, 8:26 PM
Jaq said...: Did somebody give money to a Republican or something? What is this about?; 5/28/15, 12:19 PM