du Nord Special Edition: FIFA Madness - Jack, Sepp & Mohamed Turn On Each Other

Welcome one and all! Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and Girls!

To the The Amazing
Jack Warner - Sepp Blatter - Mohamed Bin Hammam
FIFA Flea Circus!

FIFA is nearing fully chaotic meltdown with new scandals being thrown around almost everyday. Its like the greatest circus of all time. Thrills and spills galore. Not to mention more clowns piling out of a car than you could ever imagine!

A quick recap: Chuck Blazer stabs Jack Warner > FIFA stabs Warner and Mohamed Bin Hammam > Sepp Blatter stabs Warner and Bin Hammam > Bin Hammam stabs Blatter > Warner stabs Bin Hammam.

Extraordinary stuff!

Last Friday an ethics committee heard testimony about supposed bribes paid by Bin Hammam to Warner and other CONCACAF countries. They had been turned in by another FIFA & CONCACAF executive, and long time Warner ally, Chuck Blazer.

On Sunday both Jack Warner and Mohamed Bin Hammam were suspended indefinitely by FIFA.

Bin Hammam then withdrew from the race for the FIFA Presidency.

And Sepp Blatter once again is the only candidate left standing.

The timing on all of these allegations is just priceless.

That election is scheduled to happen on Wed Jun 1.

dN

On Monday FIFA pres Sepp Blatter held a most mandatory viewing press conference. See it here.
-Make sure you watch all the way till the end where it all seems to come apart.

Here are a few of my favorite moments from Blatter answers:
-Blatter literally said, "Crisis? What crisis?" Unbelievable.
-Blatter said there is no issue with the World Cup being in Qatar for 2022.
-When asked why has he let all of this happen under his watch, he replied, "We are too comfortable. We have to fight against the little devils. We have the opportunity, and we have a chance to restore the credibility, It is up to the executive committee to change things or not."
-Blatter said that faith, energy and morals will get us through this.
-Were were told that each Federation chooses their own leaders, so blame the federations if those people are corrupt. Blatter said that he cannot change who these people are.
-From here on out Blatter wants "Zero Tolerance" on ethics.
-An African magazine reporter refereed to the weekends infighting as "The night of the long knives." That's more than a little over the top, and actually not very funny, but still in some way a decent description of all the events.
-The closer Blatter got to the end of the press conference the journalists in attendance began to laugh at his answers. Which made Blatter angry and he said something about them having no class and no respect, and that they were not taking the entire incident serious.
-The press reacted furiously when Blatter walked away from press conference while many more people were still waiting to ask their questions.

dN

The Telegraph of London reports on an email to Jack Warner from a FIFA executive confirming that Qatar used bribes to acquire the 2010 World Cup.

dN

Warner's home country of Trinidad & Tobago has a special interest in all this international football madness mainly because he is a top dog in the nations ruling party, and officially the Works and Transport Minister, which controls the single largest portion of the budget in the whole country.

The 3 Trinidad & Tobago daily newspapers all are running multiple front page stories relating to the Warner crisis. Some of the headlines are just fantastic. Here is the roll-out:

Monday:

Guardian
-FIFA suspends Jack over bribery charges
-Jack responds to FIFA ruling: Abuse of process!
























Express
-Jack hangs in the balance
-JACK in shock























Newsday
-Jack: I will defend my reputation
-FIFA: THERE IS A CASE TO ANSWER
-Local Politics - PM: I have not asked Jack to resign

























Tuesday:

Guardian
-‘Blatter must go’
-Local Politics - Warner: Neglect ‘beyond the bridge’ amazing
























Express
-JACK HITS BACK
-CONCACAF: Blazer must explain
-Awesome impact on local football
-Local Politics - UNC backs up Warner
























Newsday
-BLATTER MUST BE STOPPED
-Local Politics - Government MPs stand by Jack

























dN

I figure that the only thing that will make FIFA change is if their big money sponsors stand up and demand answers.
-The biggest are Adidas, Budweiser, Castrol, Coca-Cola, Emirates Airlines, Hyundai, McDonalds, Sony and Visa.

Qatar federation president, and now suspended FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam has demanded that he be declared innocent. Here is his press release.

One very interesting variable in all of this is that outside of England other big European countries don't really seem all that bothered by the story. Here are just a few of the big daily newspapers that have barely covered this story at all, much less with vigor:
-Marca - Spain
-AS - Spain
-Bild - Germany
-L'Equipe - France
-Gazzetta - Italy

And finally lets look at the three latest articles from Al Jazeera has on this story, seeing as they are run by the government of Qatar, who are also basically Bin Hammam's employers:
-Beckenbauer says FIFA is 'Blatter's baby'
-Qatar hits back over Valcke email
-Ethics member says FIFA needs 'deep' reform
(I would not call any of that much of a defense for Bin Hammam.)