The United States Department of Justice  asserts that the defendants, as well as FIFA itself, are involved in  irregularities in the sale of commercial rights tournaments, contracts  of sports marketing and television companies. (With information from  international news agencies).
ZURICH / SWITZERLAND - FIFA, the supreme  body of world football, is the subject of various investigations, one  US and one from Switzerland. Nine leaders of 
FIFA  were arrested in Switzerland this week after being charged with  suspicion of corruption involving an amount of up to $ 150 million.
By ANTONIO CARLOS LACERDA
PRAVDA.RU
Hours later, Swiss authorities announced  that they would do their own research on the process of choosing Cups  of host countries, 2018 (Qatar) and 2022 (Russia). The Swiss police  entered the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, and seized  electronic evidence.
Why is this important?
FIFA is the body responsible for world  football. In recent years, it suffered allegations of corruption,  particularly in the process of choosing the 2022 World headquarters -  the winner was Qatar. In December 2014, FIFA decided not to release its  own investigation of corruption - which, according to the organization,  said the selection process was free. The report's author, American  Michael Garcia, resigned.
The World Cup generates billions of  dollars in revenue. The arrests and the investigation cast doubt on the  transparency and honesty of the selection process in recent tournaments.
How come Brazil appears in research? 
Three Brazilians are implicated in the  corruption scheme, according to the US Department of Justice. One of  them is the former president of the CBF José Maria Marin - the note from  the Department of Justice does not detail the suspicions against him.  The 
CBF  was expressed about the investigation through a statement saying "wait,  responsibly, its conclusion without any judgment to previously condemn  or declare innocent."
A US court says José Hawilla, owner of  the Traffic Group, the largest sports marketing agency in Latin America,  confessed to the crimes. The Traffic owns broadcast rights, sponsorship  and promotion of sporting events and players, and media companies in  Brazil. Consulted by the report, the attorney J. Hawilla, José Luis de  Oliveira Lima, said the owner of Traffic "supports the investigation and  provided clarifications due to US authorities" and is released in the  United States.
The third Brazilian investigated by the  FBI is José Lazaro Margulies, owner of Valente companies Corp. and  Somerton Ltd., both linked to sports broadcasts. A statement released by  the US Justice further states that it investigates alleged payment and  receipt of bribes in a sponsorship "of the CBF for a large company US  sportswear."
The US court also cites the Brazil Cup, organized by 
CBF,  as one of the competitions in which there might have been corruption in  negotiating broadcast and marketing rights. The World Cup 2014, held in  Brazil, is not mentioned specifically in the document.
How would the scheme?
The complaint states that from 1991 to  date, FIFA officials were involved in various crimes, including fraud,  bribery and money laundering. The court states that two generations of  leaders have used their positions to make partnerships with sports  marketing executives who prevented others from having access to  contracts and maintained the business for them through tuition fees.
Most of the schemes, according to the  Justice Department, involves receiving bribes from marketing executives  to marketing of media rights and marketing of various sports  competitions - including Copa America, Copa Libertadores and Brazil.
 Who are the accused?
Football key figures were arrested in  Latin America, North America and the Caribbean. In addition to the  Brazilian involved, the president of CONCACAF, Jeffrey Webb, was  arrested, seen as a likely successor to the organization's president,  Joseph Blatter.
Another key figure is Charles "Chuck"  Blazer, FIFA's former representative in the US, who apparently became an  FBI informant. He pleaded guilty and has returned $ 1.9 million.
Joseph Blatter was arrested?
No. The FIFA president - and most  powerful man in world football - is not among those mentioned in US  indictments. But the American justice states that they were involved in  the service of FIFA - of which he is president. So far, he did not  comment. 
Blatter is likely to be re-elected to the presidency of the organization on Friday.
Recently, he was forced to deny rumors that he was avoiding travel to the US because he feared arrest.
Why were they arrested?
The FBI has been investigating Fifa for  three years. The investigations were initiated because of the process of  choosing the countries headquarters of the cups 2018 and 2022 (Russia  and Qatar) but was expanded to analyze the FIFA agreements over the past  20 years.
The accusation of the US Department of  Justice says that corruption was planned in the US, even when it was  done elsewhere. The use of US banks to transfer money is a key part of  the investigation.
Why Switzerland?
It is the headquarters of FIFA - the  registration of the organization as a charity makes it pay reduced  taxes. Switzerland is known as a country where non-transparent companies  are welcome, especially in relation to taxes. But its extradition  agreement with the US is clear: people involved in crimes may be sent to  the United States.
Apparently, US authorities pounced when  FIFA's annual congress made everyone gather in a country that would not  put obstacles to extradition.
The Swiss also seem to be going after  Fifa, with three ongoing investigations - including one announced hours  after the arrests, on the choice of the host cities of the next World  Cup.
How much money is involved?
A lot, supposedly.
The US complaint alleges corruption  involving US $150 million, and this does not include other transactions  around the world. An earlier report on corruption in the Caribbean,  leaked, claims that bribes of $ 40,000 were paid to officials in  envelopes full of cash.
Almost all income comes from the FIFA  World Cup, the most lucrative sporting event in the world - surpassing  the Olympics. Last year's World Cup cost Brazil about $4 billion, and  FIFA profited over $ 2 billion. The cost of the next two World Cups  should be higher: the World Cup in Qatar should cost more than $ 6  billion.
Only competing to host the World Cup  already has a huge cost: the British FA spent 21 million pounds to run  for the 2018 World Cup.
The Cup of Russia and Qatar will be held in other countries?
This is unlikely, but not impossible.  The US complaint deals with corruption in the past - the 2010 World Cup  in South Africa, for example, is mentioned - but not future venues. The  Swiss investigations shall be fruitful in this regard, but we would need  to have overwhelming evidence to make the election again.
Qatar faces complaints of mistreatment of immigrants working in the World Cup works.
Changing the Russian Cup would be  difficult. Few countries have stadiums, infrastructure and money to host  the event in such a short time. In that event an option would be  Germany, which hosted the 2006 World Cup.
Qatar is much more vulnerable and has  been flooded with complaints and allegations of corruption since it was  chosen to host. But even after seeing several corruption scandals, an  unprecedented change of a summer tournament to winter and a scandal over  deaths of migrant workers, there are chances that they still Host the  most important football competition in the world.
But according to the US Attorney Kelly T. Currie, the investigation will not stop there.
"After decades, according to the  complaint, the blatant corruption, organized international football  needs a fresh start - a new chance for their institutions to make an  honest oversight and support a beloved sport around the world. Let me be  clear: this complaint is not the last chapter of our investigation, "he  said.
In turn, Russia complained about the US  stance with FIFA, "the world judge". The Russian Foreign Ministry said  the arrests of leaders of FIFA and football marketing executives  appeared to be an illegal US attempt to impose its laws on foreign  states.
"Without going into details about the  allegations that have been raised, they point to the fact that this is  another case of illegal extraterritorial application of US laws," the  Foreign Ministry of Russia said in a statement on its website.
The Russian Ministry also said it hoped  the arrests are not used to tarnish the image of FIFA and not put a  shadow over its decisions, including decisions of a personal nature.
"Once again, we ask that Washington stop  trying to establish itself as a judge beyond its borders, and follow  international legal procedures," the Russian Foreign Ministry stated.
ANTONIO CARLOS LACERDA is International Correspondent PRAVDA.RU
- See more at: http://english.pravda.ru/society/showbiz/30-05-2015/130810-corruption_scandal-0/#sthash.uQ4gDmGj.dpuf
 
3 comments:
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Reference "The Serpent People" Article.....Comments disabled.......So the "Serpent people were recorded as being in Khazaria in the 8th Century ? So what ? This comment is not intended to be insolent. It is a "suggestion" that as these entities "appear" to have nothing in common with mankind, it may well indicate they came from elsewhere, in the universe. I believe Michael Tsarion has indicated that a "group" of evil entities were chased across the universe and "accidentally" ended up on planet earth. ...the link is...www.librarising.com/cosmology/atlanticrevisited.html.......IF, the "entities" in question wee the "forebears" of the Serpent people, then Khazaria is not their home and, the grossly abused peoples of Ukraine are under no obligation to tolerate their presence. The Serpent people/khazar zionists, whatever name is used, need to be EXPUNGED from this beautiful Planet Earth, ONCE AND FOR ALL.
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