FIFA Presidency

[blahblah]

Bin Hammam is officially running against Blatter.

http://www.the-afc.com/en/inside-afc/67 ... fa-top-job

Go for it you mad, crazy Qatari

[sevengoals]

Is this going to be
"Out of the frying pan into the fire"?

Beckenbauer is going on about a possible split in FIFA.

Come on Franzi what is it you really want to say, that you would vote for neither?


http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story ... ty?cc=5739

[Agostinho]

Does Beckenbauer even have a vote anymore?

I thought he was standing down after the recent World Cup 2018 & 2022 vote?

[sevengoals]

^
The question is how much influence he has?



And the game begins.
Bin Hammam opens with a challenge for a "debate" and lays a side bet on "block Platini".

Mohamed bin Hammam, the Fifa presidential challenger who yesterday began wooing the Uefa delegates who will prove pivotal to his chances of unseating Sepp Blatter, has challenged his rival to a TV debate.

The Qatari said he was also open to the possibility of making a deal with Michel Platini, the Uefa president who is thought to have ambitions to run for the Fifa job himself in 2015 and so is likely to be opposed to the challenger

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011 ... pp-blatter

Blatter goes "all in" by announcing he will stand done in 2015 if elected for a last 4 years, appealing to the Fifa family to be allowed to finish "the adventure".
(And gives Platini the chance to organize for a succession in 2015)

Sepp Blatter has announced he will make way for a successor as Fifa president in four years' time if he is re-elected in June. Blatter is seeking a fourth term in charge and is being challenged by the Asian Football Confederation president, Mohamed bin Hammam.

"Together we have the task of bringing together the adventure we have started. We want to ensure a better future for our youth."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011 ... ident-2015

[Steelinho]

I think it's Theo Zwanziger that gets the vote on Germany's behalf. If I'm not mistaken, it's the president of each country's Football Association (something like 208 countries all get one vote).

[sevengoals]

The English FA will abstain.
And Sep Blatter makes an outlandish suggestion!

FIFA President Sepp Blatter has not ruled out a rerun of voting for the 2022 World Cup host, after claims of corruption rocked last year's vote.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/fif ... 6059762023

How the Independent reported it

The Fifa president Sepp Blatter made the startling disclosure yesterday that he could not rule out a rerun of the voting for the right to host the 2022 World Cup finals which was controversially won by the tiny Arab emirate of Qatar in December.

more,
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 86520.html

[terry tibbs]

Should be more like:

The Fifa president Sepp Blatter made the startling disclosure yesterday that he could not rule out discrediting his direct opponent in the presidential election.
After months of telling the world Fifa is transparent and everything is ok in relation to last year's awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, he's now decided there is some political worth in calling into question the body he oversees.

How much longer will these clowns be tolerated?

[sevengoals]

These clowns are going to shred whatever credibility was left in FIFA.

Amazing stuff happening at the moment.
They are tearing themselves apart.

As the latest corruption allegations at Fifa came tumbling – this time, crucially, from one of its own senior members, Chuck Blazer – it prompted the recollection that just five months ago the prime minister and Prince William went to sell our nation to Fifa's decision-makers, and the Football Association's World Cup bid team attacked as "unpatriotic" the media who pointed to alleged bribe-taking at the organisation.

more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011 ... ion-claims

Adidas, a leading sponsor of Fifa, has said that the corruption allegations surrounding world football's governing body could be harming the sport and its backers.

more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011 ... llegations

Mohamed Bin Hammam, the Fifa presidential challenger accused of giving cash bribes to voters, has accused his opponent Sepp Blatter of effectively approving the alleged payments and called for him to be investigated as well.

As Fifa's warring family turned on itself and the governing body's crisis deepened, the Qatari claimed the dossier of allegations against him also alleged that his co-accused Jack Warner had told Blatter about the payments and took no action.

more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011 ... pp-blatter

Seven days ago, an individual at the heart of Mohamed Bin Hammam's Fifa presidential-election campaign was clear on what football's global governing body has become in the 13 years of Sepp Blatter's leadership. "Fifa has been transformed into a personal, private organisation," he said. "Everyone must work within Fifa on this principle or they are out."

As Bin Hammam stands charged by Fifa with alleged breaches of its ethics code that could end his career in football politics, let alone his presidential chances, those words seem prescient. He disputes the bribery accusations, also aimed at the Concacaf president, Jack Warner, raised by a fellow Fifa executive-committee member, the American Chuck Blazer, and rails against them as a "tactic" enacted by an electorally embattled Blatter. The Qatari challenger is certainly not alone in believing that he is at the centre of a politically motivated witch hunt.

more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011 ... atter-fifa

[sevengoals]

Here we go, here we go, here we go...

The Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, has been summoned to appear on Sunday before the organisation's ethics committee alongside two of his most senior executive committee members as world football's governing body threatens to implode ahead of next week's presidential election.

The 75-year-old will now appear alongside Mohamed bin Hammam, the Qatari challenger for the presidency accused of offering cash bribes, and Jack Warner, the controversial Concacaf president who has clung to a pivotal role in Fifa's power structure despite an alleged series of ticket touting and bribery claims.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011 ... pp-blatter

Beckenbauer for President!

[Agostinho]

Blatter, Warner & bin Hammam = axis of evil

[sevengoals]

The brown stuff has hit the fan.

Fifa will open a "full-blown" investigation into allegations that Mohamed bin Hammam and Jack Warner offered financial incentives to members of the Caribbean Football Union and has provisionally suspended them from all football activity, the world football's governing body has confirmed.

Sepp Blatter, Fifa's current president, however, will not face an investigation into the allegations that he knew about the payments. He will be free to stand for re-election unopposed at Wednesday's presidential vote after Bin Hammam withdrew from the race on Saturday night.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011 ... ifa-crisis

Where this will end is anyones guess.

[blahblah]

This has been utterly riveting. Jack Warner's may finally be called to account for decades of questionable profiteering and the AFC may have to consider a new president.

Now this is reality TV

[sevengoals]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog ... -live-blog

$40,000US in new hundred dollar bills.

[Agostinho]

Gotta check out Blatters presser...

Brilliant viewing!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/05/31/3231298.htm

[sevengoals]

Sepp Blatter insists that despite the serial corruption scandals wrecking his organisation's image, his position at the head of the world game is secure.

Yet never has a Fifa president – the Swiss is due to be elected unopposed for a fourth term on Wednesday – faced such an intense public outcry over the state of the organisation, which has seemed close to implosion as scandal after scandal has come to light.

more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011 ... t-election