D.C. isn’t the only body of rich men that wreaks of corruption. World soccer body FIFA, long known as perhaps the most corrupt sports organization on earth, decided on Friday that it was perfectly fine with a culture of graft and bribery as it re-elected chief Sepp Blatter, who has presided over the corruption for decades.
Mr Blatter, who apparently sees nothing wrong with the way FIFA conducts itself, wasted no time in pointing the finger at the United States and Europe over the corruption allegations that overshadowed the soccer committee’s annual congress and threatened his presidential bid.
In an interview Friday with Swiss channel RTS, Blatter said the arrests of seven FIFA officials in Zurich, Switzerland, on U.S. warrants only two days before the election “are not a coincidence.”
Showing just how deluded the 79 year old is, he further stated “I am not certain, but it doesn’t smell good,” in reference to what he sees as an unjustified attacks on his graft-ridden organization.
He then went on the chalk up the arrests to sour grapes over the 2022 World Cup. “There are unmistakeable signs: The Americans were candidates for the 2022 World Cup, and they lost. The English were candidates for the 2018 World Cup. They lost” he said.
What remains to be seen is how sponsors, who really call the shots, will react. Credit card titan Visa has said it will be looking at whether to continue with the sport while Nike, as we covered earlier, could face criminal charges for paying bribes to secure lucrative sponsorship rights.
Expect that if FIFA loses a slew of marquee sponsors because of its dirty culture things will change very quickly for the sports body and Mr Blatter.
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