Monday, June 1, 2015

Speaking of Corruption - FIFA Scandal

Speaking of Corruption - FIFA Scandal 

I highly recommend that you watch the John Oliver video clip (Youtube Link) if you're interested in this piece. It's short clip and he does a great job laying out the facts in a comical way.

The FBI arrested some of FIFA's top officials last Wednesday in Switzerland. The US Government has accused FIFA officials for soliciting $150 million dollars in bribes and kickbacks. The IRS caught Chuck Blazer, a corrupt American FIFA official, for tax evasion. Blazer became a FBI informant and with his help the FBI managed to produce a 164 page indictment on FIFA officials.

Sepp Blatter, maybe the most controversial figure in soccer, won his fifth term as president of FIFA last Friday. Blatter has not been charged with an criminal offenses by the FBI (yet?).  John Oliver explains why FIFA is so corrupt and why it will not change its current system (Video clip of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Youtube Link). To summarize FIFA officials will not force Blatter out because they are reaping the benefits from the current system. The only way change can happen is if the US government charges Blatter with criminal offenses, or if FIFA sponsors (Budweiser, McDonalds, Adidas...) pull their sponsorships.

Questions:

What are your general thoughts? What do you find most appalling about this clip? Do you see any similarities with FIFA and the big corporations/super-managers we've talked about in class?           

     

8 comments:

  1. Sepp Blatter, *the most controversial figure in soccer. I would also recommend the first part of this "FIFA series" that Oliver has done (he speaks about how FIFA has the ability to manipulate laws in the countries that host the World Cup, amongst other things). The stuff that FIFA has been getting away with for the last 20 years is almost laughable...until now. Hopefully, this case that the FBI has built against these senior executives of FIFA really has some stick behind it. Because this organization has been tarnishing the image of the world's favorite game for too long. And I certainly have hope that the FBI will can and will do their job, but I worry that much of this will be all for naught if they are not able to take Blatter out of his position.

    What many corporations have done with moving their money (through the double Irish Dutch sandwhich system), although certainly somewhat immoral and shady, is not illegal. What FIFA have been doing is completely and utterly illegal, in terms of their tax evasion. They must be stopped!

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  2. This is a great clip because it really does a great job of laying out how these arrest came to be. It is sad to see that an organization like FIFA has been getting away with these things such as bribery as well as gender inequality for such a long time. In addition, it is interesting that the US lead the charge on these arrest, but it makes sense because many countries within FIFA are smaller nations who rely on FIFA for financial benefits from world cups.

    When comparing FIFA to corporations I believe that they are very similar because as we saw with big corporations last week's class corporations use shady tactics to move their money, while FIFA does shady tactics within their organizations. I am interested to see if anything changes in the future and how these proceeding will go.

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  3. I am so glad Blatter stepped down from FIFA President. The corruptness is the organization is outrageous. I find it appalling is how FIFA goes into other countries and makes them build these magnificent stadiums that are rarely used again. Not to mention giving Qatar the next world cup and the crazy amount of lives that have been taken from them already. All of the other corruption is terrible and I'm glad arrests were made, but I am most appalled that they are making the women play on artificial turf; the safety of these female athletes is not being taken into consideration and this is blatant sexism.

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  4. This video clip is an interesting one! I just have a great difficulty believing that, as president of FIFA therefore responsible for the whole organization for years( until his resignation toady), Blatter was not aware of any of the problems caused by FIFA.

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  5. I don't really follow soccer so I learned a lot that I wasn't aware of from this video. It's definitely shocking how corrupt an organization like FIFA can be. I'm glad that the organization is beginning to be put under scrutiny because this is all pretty ridiculous. It's good to see that people are starting to be held accountable for their actions.

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  7. This was a long time in the making! It felt like Sepp would never leave office, but I'm glad he did. He was a brutal businessman, who controlled a very powerful yet corrupt organization that benefited from his misdoings. I'm glad the FBI was able to build a case and almost force Sepp to resign. Let's hope enough of the right people are infused into FIFA.

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