Putin to the rescue for FIFA – Republic

AFP

Presidential elections in the global federations will take place as previously scheduled – on Friday.

The heads of FIFA decided that scandal with the arrest of 14 people and an official disclosure that the activists created a system of corruption, as well as prali dirty money and used the position for private gain, they are not sufficient reasons to show discontinued. The remaining deaf to the cries of UEFA, which at one point even threatened to boycott the vote, to postpone elections for another term.

The only rival of the ruling football since 1998. Sepp Blatter is therefore Jordanian Prince Ali bin Hussein. Events of Wednesday morning certainly much weakened position of the 79-year-old Swiss, but probably not enough to have not been elected for a fifth term. Although the vast majority of the European national associations – with the exception of Spain and Russia – will support the Jordanian prince, it is still Blatter is a character that guarantees African, Asian and Caribbean football associations multimillion-dollar subsidies for “the development of football.” And that they would support the current president (and have far more votes than UEFA), not really caring about how this will be received in the Western world.

Meanwhile, the scandal at FIFA slowly takes on a new dimension – political. British Prime Minister David Cameron called on Blatter to resign. British the government sent a letter to EU ministers responsible for sport, would have supported Cameron.

Meanwhile, relief for FIFA and Blatter personally came from the direction from which it could be expected that there will come – from Russia, which after all got the right to organize the next World Cup (2018). Swiss took in defense of Vladimir Putin, who took the opportunity to attack the Americans. – This is another example of overt attempt to extend its jurisdiction by Americans to other countries – Putin said today. – It all looks very strange. The arrests were carried out at the request of the Americans. International officials are accused of corruption. Probably there was a breach of certain provisions, I do not know that. With all but certainly this case has nothing to do with the US. None of these officials is not an American citizen. I have no doubt that this is an attempt to stop Mr. Blatter of being selected for the next term.

The gravity of the situation has also begun to reach out to those who are largely responsible for the gigantic scale of corruption in FIFA – the sponsors. Those who by all means try to win lucrative contracts with the world federation and were guarantors of maintaining a culture of Bribing, now beginning to threaten the FIFA finger. The first said VISA, which indicated that it could withdraw its cooperation.

With so much hypocritical that VISA was a direct beneficiary of the rot prevailing in FIFA. I recently finished a contract governing body of football with MasterCard. To talk he joined VISA, but she had the advantage that they knew the offer of the former sponsor and that its offer – $ 35 million for eight years – has been selected. MasterCard sued the process of selecting a new sponsor to a US court and won the case. English “Guardian” recently suggested, moreover, that it is precisely because of this process, Blatter so avoiding visits to the United States.