Maradona: FBI have exposed the truth about Fifa

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Rasheed. 8 years ago

The hook is now aiming at that ugly boy called Nyantakyi.Mr Coefficient indeed.

The hook is now aiming at that ugly boy called Nyantakyi.Mr Coefficient indeed.
OGOGLO QUARTER!!! 8 years ago

THE AFRICA FIFA REPS WERE BRIBED $1.5 TO VOTE FOR QATAR,,,,THEY ARE GOING TO ZURICH TO ELECT THE MAFIA HEAD AGAIN,,,,,,,,,,EEHHMM,,,RASHEED,THE FBI IS SEARCHING FOR YOU,,,FOR WHAT REASON I DON'T KNOW,,,

THE AFRICA FIFA REPS WERE BRIBED $1.5 TO VOTE FOR QATAR,,,,THEY ARE GOING TO ZURICH TO ELECT THE MAFIA HEAD AGAIN,,,,,,,,,,EEHHMM,,,RASHEED,THE FBI IS SEARCHING FOR YOU,,,FOR WHAT REASON I DON'T KNOW,,,
Rasheed. 8 years ago

The FBI needs me badly to furnish them with the corrupt practices of Nyantakyi.I know a lot about that ugly boy so I hinted the FBI about the kind information I have.

The FBI needs me badly to furnish them with the corrupt practices of Nyantakyi.I know a lot about that ugly boy so I hinted the FBI about the kind information I have.
OGOGLO QUARTER!!! 8 years ago

I TOLD THEM EVERYTHING,BUT I DON'T HAVE MUCH' APPOR' ON BABA ISSAH YAHATU AND NYATAKYI AS YOU HAVE SO THEY'R LOOKING FOR YOU,,,,

I TOLD THEM EVERYTHING,BUT I DON'T HAVE MUCH' APPOR' ON BABA ISSAH YAHATU AND NYATAKYI AS YOU HAVE SO THEY'R LOOKING FOR YOU,,,,
vigour 8 years ago

Nyantakyi will surely be invited by the FBI. He will have a taste of the American justice. Thief

Nyantakyi will surely be invited by the FBI. He will have a taste of the American justice. Thief
NEW YORK TIMES 8 years ago

With billions of dollars at stake, Morocco, Egypt and South Africa jockeyed in 2004 for the privilege of hosting soccer’s most prestigious tournament, the World Cup.

The outcome hinged on a decision by the executive com ...
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With billions of dollars at stake, Morocco, Egypt and South Africa jockeyed in 2004 for the privilege of hosting soccer’s most prestigious tournament, the World Cup.

The outcome hinged on a decision by the executive committee of FIFA, soccer’s governing body, and a single vote could tip the decision.

And at least one vote, prosecutors said Wednesday, was for sale.

Jack Warner, a committee member from Trinidad and Tobago, shopped his ballot to the highest bidder, federal prosecutors said. In early 2004, he flew to Morocco, where a member of that country’s bid committee offered him $1 million.

But South Africa had a sweeter deal, offering $10 million to a group that Mr. Warner controlled, prosecutors said.

He voted for South Africa. South Africa got the 2010 World Cup. And Mr. Warner got his $10 million payout, much of which prosecutors said he diverted for his personal use.

Despite Wednesday’s arrests, Sepp Blatter is expected to win a fifth term as FIFA’s president on Friday.

FIFA, a multibillion-dollar organization that governs soccer but has been plagued by accusations of bribery for decades, had several top officials arrested early Wednesday.

For FIFA Executives, A Haven of Luxury and Cash.

Sepp Blatter became president of FIFA in 1998. He has held other jobs with the organization.

In FIFA Politics, Blatter Is the Consummate Player.

Michael J. Garcia's resignation as FIFA's chief ethics investigator made clear that he did not consider the organization capable of reforming itself.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter said at a news conference Friday that the votes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups would not be reopened.

For decades, that was how business was done in international soccer, American officials said Wednesday as they announced a sweeping indictment against 14 soccer officials and marketing executives who they said had corrupted the sport through two decades of shadowy dealing and $150 million in bribes.

Authorities described international soccer in terms normally reserved for Mafia families or drug cartels, and brought charges under racketeering laws usually applied to such criminal organizations.

And, with Jeff Webb arrest, federation's leader goes down.

Was working on racism, other important issues. Was seen as potential Blatter successor

Hours after Swiss authorities arrived unannounced at a Zurich hotel and arrested top FIFA officials early Wednesday morning, the Justice Department and prosecutors for the Eastern District of New York forcefully declared that their investigation had only just begun and pledged to rid the international soccer organization of systemic corruption.

“These individuals and organizations engaged in bribery to decide who would televise games, where the games would be held, and who would run the organization overseeing organized soccer worldwide,” said Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, who supervised the investigation from its earliest stages, when she was the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

“They did this over and over, year after year, tournament after tournament.”

Soccer officials treated FIFA business decisions as chits to be traded for personal wealth, United States officials said.

Whether through convoluted financial deals or old-fashioned briefcases full of cash, people were expected to pay for access to FIFA’s river of money and publicity.

The federal indictment lists 47 counts, including bribery, fraud and money laundering.

Despite the broad nature of the charges, the case itself arrived at the Justice Department as something of a surprise.

The four-year F.B.I. investigation grew out of an unrelated inquiry into aspects of Russian organized crime by the Eurasian Joint Organized Crime Task Force in the F.B.I.’s New York office, according to people with knowledge of the case’s origins.

Authorities soon realized the potential scope of an investigation into the sporting world’s most powerful, secretive organization.

“Once we really began to peel back the layers of the investigation,” it became clear that corruption had been rampant for years, Ms. Lynch, who was the top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn at the time, recalled in a telephone interview.

“We always knew it was going to be a very large case.”

Though many of the charges revolve around activities that occurred abroad, Ms. Lynch said she never had qualms about bringing charges in the United States.

United States law allows for extradition and prosecution of foreign nationals under a number of statutes, and court documents say that the activity affected interstate and foreign commerce, and took place in part in New York’s Eastern District.

Ms. Lynch compared the FIFA investigation to cases involving Mafia members in Rome or Sicily.

In this case, she said, FIFA officials used the American banking system as part of their scheme.

“They clearly thought the U.S. was a safe financial haven for them,” she said.

If Bush had invaded FIFA instead of Iraq he'd have a street named after him in every European capital.

FIFA has been dogged by accusations of corruption for years, but the organization and its top officials typically avoided any punishment.

That has been especially true for Sepp Blatter, the organization’s longtime president, who is widely regarded as the most powerful man in sports.

Mr. Blatter was not named in the federal indictment, and after FIFA provisionally suspended the officials who were named, he issued a statement saying the investigations would make the sport stronger.

Jack Warner, a former FIFA vice president, is among those expected to face charges in the United States.

But American authorities were adamant that they were not finished. The indictment represented “the beginning of our effort, not the end,” said Kelly T. Currie, acting United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Neither he nor Ms. Lynch would comment on whether they were investigating Mr. Blatter.

But one federal law enforcement official said Mr. Blatter’s fate would “depend on where the investigation goes from here.”

Some of the means used to hide the payments were intricate, the indictment says: using fake consulting contracts; sending money through associates working in the financial industry; creating shell companies in tax havens; hiding foreign bank accounts; using safe deposit boxes; and “bulk cash smuggling,” prosecutors wrote.

Others were more straightforward. When FIFA was considering which country would host the 2006 World Cup, Mr. Warner sent a relative to a Paris hotel room to collect a briefcase filled with cash in $10,000 stacks from a South African bid-committee official, according to the indictment.

In 2011, an associate running for FIFA president wired about $360,000 to an account controlled by Mr. Warner, who, in turn, arranged for the associate to give a stump speech to Caribbean soccer officials at a Hyatt Regency in Trinidad. When the speech concluded, Mr. Warner told the officials that a “gift” awaited them in a Hyatt conference room.

The gift: envelopes containing $40,000 in cash from the associate, one for each of the member organizations.

Walter de Gregorio, the chief communications officer for FIFA, discussed the arrest of the organization’s leading officials on bribery charges on Wednesday, saying its president was not involved.

The day after the cash payments were distributed, Mr. Warner called the Caribbean officials to a meeting, angered that one of them had alerted a higher-up to the payments.

“There are some people here who think they are more pious than thou,” he said, according to the indictment. “If you’re pious, open a church, friends. Our business is our business.”

Even facilitating the bribes was lucrative: One man who helped funnel money between officials and those seeking officials’ favor said in 2014 that the charge for such services was a $150,000 annual fee and a 2 percent commission per payment.

Prosecutors built their case with help from a former FIFA executive and New York resident, Chuck Blazer, who secretly pleaded guilty in federal court in 2013.

Mr. Blazer, who was close to Mr. Warner, forfeited $1.9 million when he entered his guilty plea and agreed to make a second payment at sentencing. Mr. Blazer’s lawyer, Eric Corngold, declined to comment.

Prosecutors also went after Mr. Warner’s sons, Daryan and Daryll, filing a case against them in 2012. In 2013, each son pleaded guilty: Daryll to wire fraud and illegally structuring financial transactions, and Daryan to the same structuring charge, along with wire fraud and money laundering. Daryan forfeited $1.1 million and, like Mr. Blazer, agreed to make another payment at sentencing.

José Hawilla, who owned an influential Brazilian sports-marketing group, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and other charges late last year, and agreed to pay $151 million.

Each of those related cases was sealed until Wednesday.

In New York and Washington, it had been clear for many months that indictments were inevitable, two law enforcement officials said.

The annual meeting in Zurich provided the perfect setting. Rather than seek warrants and extradition hearings in several countries, the authorities could wait until most of the suspects were in one place.

Federal investigators and career prosecutors proposed the time and location, and after international lawyers at the Justice Department worked out the details with the Swiss authorities, Ms. Lynch gave final approval, the officials said.

The soccer officials charged are Jeffrey Webb, Eduardo Li, Eugenio Figueredo, Jack Warner, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Rafael Esquivel, José Maria Marin and Nicolás Leoz.

“FIFA welcomes actions that can help contribute to rooting out any wrongdoing in football,” the organization said in a statement.

Charges were also made against the sports-marketing executives Alejandro Burzaco, Aaron Davidson, Hugo Jinkis and Mariano Jinkis. Authorities also charged José Margulies as an intermediary who facilitated illegal payments.

It will most likely be months before the people arrested overseas will appear in Brooklyn federal court, given the length of normal extradition proceedings.

While the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar were not mentioned in the American charges, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland said Wednesday that it had opened a criminal investigation into how those hosts were selected.

For Ms. Lynch, the announcement of the charges capping the long investigation was bittersweet.

She was traveling in South Africa when the country learned it would host the 2010 World Cup.

Citizens were ecstatic with the hope that the world’s most famous soccer tournament would put South Africa back on the sporting map and bring the fractured nation together.

“I remember that vividly,” she said. “To learn that was engendered by corruption was truly saddening.”

Correction: May 27, 2015
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated the year of the FIFA presidential election that Jack Warner was suspected of attempting to influence. It was 2011, not 2010.
Yoogite 8 years ago

Incredible!!!

Incredible!!!
monami 8 years ago

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3 bedroom house for sale @bortianor. Gh¢300000.
0503848000 for more information
abiba 8 years ago

Great news of the week.

Great news of the week.
bob 8 years ago

Spot on Diego.Blatter is corrupt and has be taking down,he is the big the US is going after.They will get him.

Spot on Diego.Blatter is corrupt and has be taking down,he is the big the US is going after.They will get him.
Kay 8 years ago

Did Fifa supply the cocaine to Maradona that destroyed him?Don't be surprised soon he'll say the Americans are evils bcos he's been banned from entering their country

Did Fifa supply the cocaine to Maradona that destroyed him?Don't be surprised soon he'll say the Americans are evils bcos he's been banned from entering their country
KWESI OPPONG-ACCRA. 8 years ago

BLATTER IS A CUNNING CROOK WHO ALWAYS ROBES-IN OTHERS IN HIS NEFARIOUS DEALS.LITTLE WONDER HE PROTECTS AND PROMOTES VERY CORRUPT PEOPLE IN FIFA LIKE NYANTAKYI-THE CORRUPT GFA PRESIDEBT,GHANA.

BLATTER IS A CUNNING CROOK WHO ALWAYS ROBES-IN OTHERS IN HIS NEFARIOUS DEALS.LITTLE WONDER HE PROTECTS AND PROMOTES VERY CORRUPT PEOPLE IN FIFA LIKE NYANTAKYI-THE CORRUPT GFA PRESIDEBT,GHANA.
REPACKER 8 years ago

why not in your country .

why not in your country .
KWAKU 8 years ago

I beleive Abedi Ayew Pele know somethings about the corrupt practices in FIFA`s halls. He should be called and questioned, too.

I beleive Abedi Ayew Pele know somethings about the corrupt practices in FIFA`s halls. He should be called and questioned, too.
Whatever 8 years ago

The Americans are trying to embarras FiFA because it refused to shift the world cup venue from Russia. There's nothing impeccable about they did. This is a FIFA organization which awarded African its first cup hosting rights, ...
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The Americans are trying to embarras FiFA because it refused to shift the world cup venue from Russia. There's nothing impeccable about they did. This is a FIFA organization which awarded African its first cup hosting rights, building football centers across the African continent and you say what?
JOJI 8 years ago

Fifa is no monster after all,now,people of the world,we better be careful oo!'cos we are all being monitored by the World's Policeman.

Fifa is no monster after all,now,people of the world,we better be careful oo!'cos we are all being monitored by the World's Policeman.
Mallam, Medina 8 years ago

America is a modern day Trojan Horse. Never trust them. FIFA's decision to stage the World Cup in Russia has obviously touched US raw nerve. When Nkrumah favored socialism, what happened? CIA moved heaven and earth and remove ...
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America is a modern day Trojan Horse. Never trust them. FIFA's decision to stage the World Cup in Russia has obviously touched US raw nerve. When Nkrumah favored socialism, what happened? CIA moved heaven and earth and removed him through stooges Afrifa and Kotoka. What happened to Fidel Castro? What happened to Lumumba? The dirty fingers of US shaped their fates. Africa, wake up!! Can't you see through what America is doing now? But for Blatter, this African continent would never have see the world cup except in pictures!! America is dangerously pissed off bcos of Russia staging the world cup. Ghana and Africa will eventually fall prey by this witch hunting. Mark it on a wall!
LUCA BRASI, K'SHIE 8 years ago

Mallam, you're damn right! Our fickle mindedness and short memories are starkly on display. I will never trust the Americans. They always claim " OUR NATIONAL INTEREST IS AT STAKE" to justify their actions even to the detrime ...
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Mallam, you're damn right! Our fickle mindedness and short memories are starkly on display. I will never trust the Americans. They always claim " OUR NATIONAL INTEREST IS AT STAKE" to justify their actions even to the detriment of others. Mallam, I'm privy to your references. Their wicked tactics of elimination by substitution and substitution by elimination accounted for the removal of visionaries all around the world. Blatter is walking. Why isn't he busted? He's clean!! He loves Africa. He's the man in charge and therefore Russia gets the bid not American! You are right, Mallam. "America is dangerously pissed off"! We are soccer loving nation. Africa loves soccer. Trust me, but for Blatter our continent would never have seen the world cup! Talk about the Trojan Horse!! Never trust them. Hear this: "They're sailing on their ego trip. Million miles from reality. Don't care for you, don't care me. So much trouble in the world". Thanks, Bob Marley.
Yebopower 8 years ago

Go USA

Go USA
Chief amankwa 8 years ago

This dictator called blather presided on corruption over Fifa and there a smokescreen around him ,....

This dictator called blather presided on corruption over Fifa and there a smokescreen around him ,....

Maradona: FBI have exposed the truth about Fifa

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