Blatter wins re-election despite FIFA corruption scandal

[Chicog]

Qatar are likely be stripped of the 2022 World Cup, according to a former senior figure in their bid team, who turned whistleblower to expose corruption.

Phaedra Almajid says the weight of evidence of wrongdoing from her and others will be so overwhelming that FIFA will be left with no option but to find another host.

Almajid has been under protective custody of the FBI and she fears her safety will be compromised further if the tournament is taken away from the tiny oil-rich state, who shocked the world by winning the right to stage the 2022 event in 2010.

While hoping justice is done, Almajid admits that the prospect ‘scares me a lot’ because some ‘extremists’ may feel she played a role in that happening.

She said: ‘There are people who are p***** off with me [for speaking out], and what really p***** them off is that I’m a female, Muslim whistleblower.’

Another consequence of recent events, Almajid believes, is that outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter may try to take 2022 from Qatar as part of a radical reform agenda designed to win him praise ‘and save his skin.’

Speaking for the first time since Blatter announced he wants a new election to pick his successor Almajid said: ‘I just don’t think Blatter actually intends to quit. Everything he does is very calculated. He’ll try very hard to save himself, I’m sure of it.’

Almajid, an Arab-American now based in the US, worked for Qatar’s 2022 bid team until early 2010.

She told the Mail on Sunday last year that a subsequent retraction of her allegations was coerced. In fear of her safety for herself and her family - she has two children, one of them severely disabled - she was taken into the protective custody of the FBI.

The FBI are leading the investigation which has led to 14 arrests, with even more expected. ‘The FBI have everything,’ she said.

Almajid also co-operated fully with a FIFA-funded probe led by Michael Garcia, a former US attorney for New York.

Disgraced former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, who has previously vowed to fight extradition, is in ‘tentative negotiations’ to talk to American law enforcers, The Mail on Sunday has learned.

A source close to the Trinidadian, accused of taking a £6.5million bribe from South Africa to vote for it to stage the 2010 World Cup, said: ‘Jack has finally come to terms with the reality of his situation.

‘His lawyers are negotiating with the US to try to minimise whatever consequences are coming his way.’

When another FIFA official, Hans-Joachim Eckert, released a summary of Garcia’s findings last November, Eckert claimed there were ‘serious concerns’ about Almajid’s credibility.

She had been guaranteed anonymity by Garcia. Instead she saw Eckert’s summary as a clear attempt by FIFA to smear her.

‘I’m still furious with the way I was portrayed,’ she says. ‘I was stupid enough to trust that FIFA wanted to find the truth.’

Almajid insists that her anger today, however, is most intense on behalf of others who have been victims of human rights violations in Qatar, across many different sectors of society. This anger in turn is also aimed at FIFA, a body that handed Qatar the 2022 World Cup.

One case of agonising personal interest to Almajid involves the deaths of 13 children in a fire at a nursery in a shopping mall in Qatar’s capital, Doha, in 2012.

Among those killed were two-year-old triplets Lillie, Jackson and Wilsher Weekes, whose parents Martin and Jane have become close friends with Almajid through their own quest for justice in Qatar.

The couple are from New Zealand although Mr Weekes is British-born. Among many shocking aspects of their case is that a member of Qatar’s royal family, Sheikh Ali Bin Jasim Bin Al Thani, owned the nursery where the Weekes’ children died, and was convicted in a Qatari court in 2013 of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to six years in jail. But he has not served a day of that sentence and instead continues in his role as Qatar’s ambassador to Belgium, and to the European Union.

There has been no official explanation as to why he remains at liberty. The issue will be considered at a United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva later this month.

Almajid says: ‘The Qataris don’t care about human rights. There are human rights violations being made across Qatari society and they make promises to fix them - and they break every promise.

‘The have said there will be justice for the family of the triplets who died in that fire and there has been none. Instead the man responsible is an ambassador.

‘The Qataris promise they will fix the human rights abuses around the labour being used to prepare for the World Cup. They haven’t and I don’t believe they will.

‘The Qataris don’t keep their promises. They won’t keep promises on human rights. I lived there and worked there for seven years and I know that the royal family there hate one thing more than anything - being publicly shamed. They should be shamed for the treatment of the Weekes family.

‘As for FIFA, they talk of reform but the biggest reform they should make in the process around the World Cup is to introduce a human rights pillar. The World Cup should not be awarded to countries that don’t respect human rights.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-3113870/Qatar-stripped-2022-World-Cup-according-country-s-whistleblower.html

[coulson]

There were similar threats to pull the plug before brazil, if they are pulled, where will they be held??? $10 billion already spent in Russia!

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/33041467

Another note, interesting article by the BBC below, indicating how after the Washington post article, the western media has lost the plot with the figures.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33019838

[Chicog]

There were similar threats to pull the plug before brazil, if they are pulled, where will they be held??? $10 billion already spent in Russia!

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/33041467

The threats to pull the plug on Brazil were down to the fact that they weren't sure if they'd have everything ready.

Slightly different.

[coulson]

There were similar threats to pull the plug before brazil, if they are pulled, where will they be held??? $10 billion already spent in Russia!

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/33041467

The threats to pull the plug on Brazil were down to the fact that they weren't sure if they'd have everything ready.

Slightly different.

Fair enough. But again, 3 years to go and significant $$$ already spent in Russia, who would take it on? And what would Putin have to say about it?

[Chicog]

There were similar threats to pull the plug before brazil, if they are pulled, where will they be held??? $10 billion already spent in Russia!

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/33041467

The threats to pull the plug on Brazil were down to the fact that they weren't sure if they'd have everything ready.

Slightly different.

Fair enough. But again, 3 years to go and significant $$$ already spent in Russia, who would take it on? And what would Putin have to say about it?

Either England, the US, Holland and Germany or France could easily organise it with even two year's notice as the infrastructure is all there.

It's really only ticketing and logistics once you've got that out of the way.

[Sparkles]

Australia has a proud history of holding international tournaments eg Olympics,Rugby Union WC etc and has most of the infrastructure already in place. 83,000 recently went to the Chelsea friendly and 71,000 to the Spurs game.

Participation and spectator interest in the game is accelerating beyond belief and the fact that we are now seen as part of Asia might be an advantage if Qatar was dumped.Short flight to NZ if more venues were required.I know it wont happen but hope I live long enough to see it happen.

[Chicog]

Australia has a proud history of holding international tournaments eg Olympics,Rugby Union WC etc and has most of the infrastructure already in place. 83,000 recently went to the Chelsea friendly and 71,000 to the Spurs game.

Participation and spectator interest in the game is accelerating beyond belief and the fact that we are now seen as part of Asia might be an advantage if Qatar was dumped.Short flight to NZ if more venues were required.I know it wont happen but hope I live long enough to see it happen.

I'd be happy for Aus to host it as well, but do they have enough venues?

[salty]

Interesting piece by Brian Glanville.

http://www.worldsoccer.com/columnists/brian-glanville/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead-but-where-now-for-fifa-362429

[carmine]

There were similar threats to pull the plug before brazil, if they are pulled, where will they be held??? $10 billion already spent in Russia!

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/33041467

The threats to pull the plug on Brazil were down to the fact that they weren't sure if they'd have everything ready.

Slightly different.

Fair enough. But again, 3 years to go and significant $$$ already spent in Russia, who would take it on? And what would Putin have to say about it?

Who cares what Putin has to say. And if Russia bribed their way to a winning bid who cares how many $$$$ they have already pumped into it. On another level does starting dirty wars in eastern Ukraine and their attitude and manner of dealing with certain social issues, for example gay people, make them a moral choice? Certainly not.

Theres a host of other countries who could host the next WC. Even a joint offer should be on the table.

[smokie36]

My gut feeling is the Russia tournament will take place.

Qatar not....you have to remember Russia is a big footballing nation with a long history of reaching the latter stages and was probably due its turn at being hosts.

Qatar is a joke.

[carmine]

My gut feeling is the Russia tournament will take place.

Qatar not....you have to remember Russia is a big footballing nation with a long history of reaching the latter stages and was probably due its turn at being hosts.

Qatar is a joke.

Oh it'll take place all right because the west doesn't have the balls to stand up to Putin. Lets face it, until the evidence was slapped in their faces they didn't even have the balls to stand up to a 79yo, fat bald midget.

Qatar on the other hand will almost certainly lose it. The one great tragedy with this will be the deaths of so many migrant workers.

[Chicog]

My gut feeling is the Russia tournament will take place.

Qatar not....you have to remember Russia is a big footballing nation with a long history of reaching the latter stages and was probably due its turn at being hosts.

Qatar is a joke.

Oh it'll take place all right because the west doesn't have the balls to stand up to Putin. Lets face it, until the evidence was slapped in their faces they didn't even have the balls to stand up to a 79yo, fat bald midget.

Qatar on the other hand will almost certainly lose it. The one great tragedy with this will be the deaths of so many migrant workers.

Oh that's OK, they'll find other ways to kill them.

[coulson]

My gut feeling is the Russia tournament will take place.

Qatar not....you have to remember Russia is a big footballing nation with a long history of reaching the latter stages and was probably due its turn at being hosts.

Qatar is a joke.

Oh it'll take place all right because the west doesn't have the balls to stand up to Putin. Lets face it, until the evidence was slapped in their faces they didn't even have the balls to stand up to a 79yo, fat bald midget.

Qatar on the other hand will almost certainly lose it. The one great tragedy with this will be the deaths of so many migrant workers.

It indeed is a tragedy, but the contributing factors are interesting when people stop getting carried away with incorrect figures and pointing fingers in the wrong direction.

Look at anywhere in the gulf, almost 100% of the labour/ site management workforce (anyone for that matter who even sets foot outside in the heat everyday) are most definitely not local, they are invariably from the sub-continent of India or the surrounding Countries. The responsibility of the HSE resource is to ensure a safe environment and minimize accidents, which despite being a tragedy in any case, also impede progress and hurt the bottom line of any development project (disruption of work, incident reporting, medical, repatriation etc etc). Nobody wants accidents!!

It is also a fact that the two most common causes of accidents are stupidity and negligence by the individual, foremost, and the immediate directing personnel. It is an individuals responsibility (assuming he actually cares for his own life) to ensure he has the tools and the know how to carry out a job safely. The unfortunate reality is, a lot of the time they do not look out for themselves and this is something they have learned to do in their home Country.

The labour workforce is still queuing up at the door in all Gulf Countries, makes you wonder what they are leaving behind?

Regarding the figures, below is an interesting article worth a read

http://www.bbc.com/n...gazine-33019838

[Jingthing]

If Qatar loses it and Russia doesn't, won't that correctly be seen as rather a RACIST bias in play?

I'm assuming damning hard evidence against both hosts will be coming out, and assuming that, they BOTH should lose it.

[smokie36]

If Qatar loses it and Russia doesn't, won't that correctly be seen as rather a RACIST bias in play?

I'm assuming damning hard evidence against both hosts will be coming out, and assuming that, they BOTH should lose it.

Can't argue with that on the surface....the real shame if the Russians are found to have paid bribes is that their claim to host it is as fair and valid as anyone's if you leave aside politics and view it from a straightforward footballing perspective.

A Middle East bid could perhaps be said the same of but Qatar on their own is just bizarre.

[Chicog]

The Qatar bid promised air conditioned stadia and a summer world cup.

It's now obvious that they lied so it shouldn't be any problem removing them.

[Chicog]

And let's not forget Blatter spunked millions making a movie to show what a top bloke he is.

Well.....

FIFA’s £17m vanity movie is biggest flop in history taking just £400 on opening weekend THEY say all publicity is good publicity, but tell that to FIFA which has just endured the worst opening weekend for a mainstream movie in American cinema history.

[mrbojangles]

The Qatar bid promised air conditioned stadia and a summer world cup.

I might be wrong but when all the talk about changing it to winter was abound, I think I read somewhere that the stadia will have AC but their "concern" was people outside the ground, walking to and from the games etc would still be in 50+ degree heat.

I just can't believe that they were even encouraged to bid in the first place. In the middle of summer just going from your A/C office to the car will make you sweat buckets.

Bit dusty here today though.

[carmine]

If Qatar loses it and Russia doesn't, won't that correctly be seen as rather a RACIST bias in play?

I'm assuming damning hard evidence against both hosts will be coming out, and assuming that, they BOTH should lose it.

Not at all. they don't have the balls to take it away from Russia so some evidence, if found will be held back and Qatar used as the sacrificial lamb. Obama and Cameron are completely spineless when it comes to Putin as has been very evident in recent months.

The whole concept of holding a world cup in Qatar is ludicrous and foolish and thats before morality enters into the discussion.

Thats what my moneys on anyway.

[Jingthing]

I agree taking it from Russia would be a much bolder move but considering the seriousness of what happened at FIFA, I think bold is in order now.

[carmine]

I agree taking it from Russia would be a much bolder move but considering the seriousness of what happened at FIFA, I think bold is in order now.

Obama and Cameron don't do bold. They're both full of it. They do "head in the sand and worry about our legacy" politics. They'll find some reason to make a valid point to let Russia '18 go ahead.

Once thats over and done with Putin can take the rest of eastern Ukraine too!!!

Can see Qatar have a hope in hell of keeping the '22 tournament. Someones got to take the wrap and its going to be them all day long.

[mrbojangles]

Obama and Cameron don't do bold. They're both full of it.

Agree on Cameron (and the rest of the world's gov't) but the USA are the one's who have/are bringing FIFA to account.

[carmine]

Obama and Cameron don't do bold. They're both full of it.

Agree on Cameron (and the rest of the world's gov't) but the USA are the one's who have/are bringing FIFA to account.

Only because its a federal offence. And they are calling out FIFA.

Thats a very big difference to calling out Putin, which he wil not do.

[smokie36]

I'm not against a World Cup in Russia....its a country which loves its football and will put on a good tournament.

Their human rights issues are more what the world should focus on bringing up to scratch with the eyes are on them over the next two or three years....not that I would expect much to change but small steps lead to large leaps.

[Jingthing]

The Olympics didn't help the situation in Russia. It's gotten worse. The theory that the World Cup would help is absurd.

[smokie36]

The Olympics didn't help the situation in Russia. It's gotten worse. The theory that the World Cup would help is absurd.

What would help?

No World Cup?

I just don't see much difference really.

[Chicog]

The Qatar bid promised air conditioned stadia and a summer world cup.

I might be wrong but when all the talk about changing it to winter was abound, I think I read somewhere that the stadia will have AC but their "concern" was people outside the ground, walking to and from the games etc would still be in 50+ degree heat.

I just can't believe that they were even encouraged to bid in the first place. In the middle of summer just going from your A/C office to the car will make you sweat buckets.

Bit dusty here today though.

They weren't encouraged to bid, they arrogantly assumed they could buy the world cup - and they were right.

These boys love to outdo each other. Bahrain got the F1 while Dubai's track was half built. The UAE got the first ATP tennis tournament and then Qatar nicked it from under their nose by buying one a couple of weeks earlier (or it might have been the other way round).

Just a bunch of big kids.

[wilai]

The Olympics didn't help the situation in Russia. It's gotten worse. The theory that the World Cup would help is absurd.

Any decent restaurants over there?

[Jockstar]

Sepp Blatter is considering staying on as FIFA president, despite handing in his resignation in early June, according to Swiss newspaper Schweiz am Sonntag.

The paper quoted an unnamed source close to Blatter saying that he "had received messages of support from African and Asian football associations" asking him to rethink his decision to step down.

Former FIFA governance adviser Michael Hershman had told ESPN's Jeremy Schaap earlier this month that he too was uncertain whether Blatter would walk away.

FIFA will set a date for the new presidential election next month, and it is expected to take place on Dec. 16, although the European Parliament has urged the 79-year-old to walk away immediately.

However, Schweiz am Sonntag said experts at FIFA doubted whether any of those vying to succeed Blatter, including former Brazil star Zico, could command a majority.

PR consultant Klaus J. Stohlker, who worked as Blatter's personal adviser from January to the end of May, told the newspaper: "It's hard to find someone who is equal to him.

"Blatter has built the organisation into a global, highly successful company, and he's a top diplomat. Blatter has a reasonable chance. It now depends on how he behaves in the coming months."

He added: "Blatter is the elected president at FIFA."

The news of Blatter's rethink comes just days after FIFA's director of communications and public affairs Walter De Gregorio also announced his resignation from world football's governing body.

The paper reports that De Gregorio had been a leading voice in the clamour for a new start at FIFA and that his differences with Blatter were insurmountable.

De Gregorio refused to comment when asked about those claims by Schweiz am Sonntag.

[Chicog]

Well he might just get escorted away, so I wouldn't sweat it.