In a shock move that absolutely nobody saw coming, corrupt tin-pot dictator Step Ladder has been re-elected president of FIFA. As a secret ballot, we won't know who voted for whom, but it seems reasonable to assume that most of UEFA voted for Prince Ali, an Arab royal who by some miracle appears not to have much in the way of blood on his hands.
>>6998 Fans. But the difference to then is nothing, they pay X pound and y% of that goes to the sponsor. The identity of that sponsor is pretty much irrelevant. Even Gazprom isn't the east Indian company.
>>6953 A lot of the representatives from Asian and Africa voted for Blatter. The whole thing has taken an east-west divide, which is a shame since now, nothing much can be done about corruption.
>>7098 Oh wow, I'd not seen the video (or, incidentally, ever watched Lee Nelson's Well Shit Show). Sepp is a legend. Are his security team mocking him or just asleep at the wheel? Observe how he had to order them to protect his image. Then he adopts this amusingly transparent feigned offence. And nobody can touch him.
>>7099 I particularly liked that after having to make up his mind whether to speak from the lectern or the chair, he then seemingly without a hint of irony says "we have to clean up here".
"The 1400-word article asks: 'He [Platini] was one of Europe's most skilful players of all time. But is he great enough to be Fifa president? Anyone taking one look in the direction of Qatar can have only one answer: no.'
"Platini is the only member of Fifa's executive committee to admit voting for Qatar's controversial 2022 World Cup bid."
Their brands are intimately attached to Fifa's and they're using that leverage to affect change, because if they pull sponsorship Fifa will lose millions and the organisation will be further discredited. They are assuming Fifa don't want that and will probably get their way. Either that, or you'll see them all jumping ship and Sepp will become the Joffrey Baratheon of world football.
Blatter and Platini banned for 8 years. Blatter says he's become a "punching ball". I guess this photo is him pointing out the scars he has to prove it. As expected, he's shown absolutely no fucking contrition whatsoever, going so far as to say that he may be banned from football, but until he's formally relieved of duty he's still president and isn't going to step down.
I'm surprised about Platini, though. He was speaking out against all this nonsense, while Warner, the South Americans and the Africans were all too busy defending Blatter's honour, as well as their own. Yet there he was taking what appears to be a rather substantial bung.
>>7399 The imperialist westerners took him down because he was allowing the world cup to be held in places such as Japan, South Africa, and Qatar. That is totally unacceptable.
The Americans were so pissed off that they started raiding offices half way across the world. No doubt this has all been planted to take down a benevolent, fair, and good natured human being.
I'm quite sure you're being silly, but you bring up something interesting. I wouldn't be surprised if Blatter doesn't think he's done anything wrong, because in a lot of these places bribery is the norm. I'm not saying that's right, or a status quo that should be backed up by the world's most powerful sporting body, but it is often the case.
>>7410 I am being silly, but the funny thing is that I had this discussion with a few international students at my pub, and they all said the silly shite I just said. It is bizarre to me, but it was like he was their Mother Teresa. The Nigeria and Chinese lads were heading into /boo/ territory with what they were saying, and they almost convinced me. The Indians were talking about how much more popular he made football in india because of all the extra funding he gave their FA (I don't know if it is true since I never checked it), and finally they all agreed that there was a good chance that the World Cup wouldn't have been held in Japan, South Africa, and Qatar, and that this was bad since Fifa would have only been dominated by UEFA and CONMEBOL members.
To be fair to them, until this century, the world cup hosts used to alternate between Europe and South America only. That happened until Blatter came along. The voting system now doesn't seem all that fair. Perhaps a system of holding it in a different continent every four years would be better. Some sort of fixed alternation. Maybe have them vote within the continental governing body to decide who hosts it, or maybe have a couple (or few) nations within a continent host it and spread the costs between them.
In any event, I feel that Blatter is really well liked (even loved) outside of the western world's bubble.
>>7411 He's well loved outside the traditional spheres for the same reason sweatshops are loved. In places like the Phillipines, people are thankful for those factories that employ children because by local standards the pay is reasonable and the working conditions are better than having them begging on the streets.
The other thing to remember is that Blatter didn't start anything. His predecessor turned out to be bent as fuck, so the real question is whether Blatter always had those corrupt tendencies or whether he was groomed by Havelange. It may be that he doesn't see anything wrong because for the last 30-40 years he hasn't known any different.
>>7414 >Don't pretend CONMEBOL is rolling in cash either. They had a better hit rate at voting against Blatter than UEFA did.
Source? Last I heard they all love him because he effectively keeps them in cushy jobs that allow them to siphon money like nobody's business. Most of them are themselves implicated, and around half have links to organised crime.
