FIFA in the sandwich of geopolitical foes

The latest corruption scandals within FIFA as investigated by the FBI in the US, has some shady pretexts and motives. The sudden scandals come in the wake of the impending election of a new FIFA president on the 29 May 2015; that’s two days before the election takes place.  It’s been alleged that the investigations have been on-going for three years and spans a period of 17 years, since 1998. Why stop there, why not include the investigations from beyond 1998 and include the 1994 World Cup. This should in all intents and purposes, be included due to the fact that in 1994, soccer was struggling to compete as a recognised national sport in the US. The support of the game could not compete with the support of baseball, basketball, or American Football. This then begs the question, that if the support of the game is not that prominent, how did they win the bid to host the tournament?

The US prosecuting authorities uses the excuse of unethical business practices, corruption, fraud, etc. as their motive for the investigations, which they claim, is unacceptable in US Society; yet they failed to prosecute a single individual who caused the global recession in 2008, through the sub-prime mortgage crises in the States. The overwhelming evidence gathered from the investigations of various big corporate banks, clearly exposed fraudulent financial deals being made by these banks to global financial partners, which in turn triggered the collapse of global markets, when the US housing bubble burst in late 2006, and early 2007.  Instead of authorities arresting and convicting these fraudsters, the US Federal reserve helped bailout the banks, because in the words of the Obama Administration; “they were too big to fail”. Conveniently, no-one could be convicted for their part in the collapse. So, the excuse of ethics, sound business practices, etc. does not hold water, as a motive.

Another question posed by journalists, who instinctively smelled a rat when news of the arrests broke, was the fact that the FBI was investigating the corruption scandal, with extradition and indictment of the suspects to the US to stand trial for their alleged crimes on US soil. Although the investigations were on-going for three years, the authorities still cannot confirm if these alleged crimes were committed on US soil, or similarly produce any evidence thereof. Why was the US administration taking the lead and digging their noses in matters not remotely related to politics, when there are other bodies mandated to investigate and rule on corruption in sport. The fact that the FIFA headquarters are based in Switzerland, the Swiss authorities should be taking the lead in investigations and the FBI should provide evidence and assist where necessary, and within their mandate. Not the other way around.

So what really is the US administration’s angle behind the FIFA corruption scandal?

It’s a known fact that Russia is hosting the 2018 World cup, and Qatar is hosting it in 2022. There have recently been reports about two prominent US Senators, deriding Sepp Blatter for his unwavering support for the Russian Federation; probably because the country’s economy is in a very healthy state, and thus the huge profits FIFA is bound to make from a tournament there. From a US perspective, the derision by the two senators, ties perfectly in with all the Russian bashing and Putin demonising in the wake of the Ukraine crisis. The fact that the Obama Administration and his neocon cohorts are embarrassingly losing this battle, they have no other card to play, to hurt the Russian economy or anything that Russia represents. Hence, their feeble attempt to upset the election of the FIFA president on the 29^th May, and thus cause some chaos in  planning of the tournament in Russia.