# FIFA Officials Arrested On Corruption Charges **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [May 27, 2015, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946 "2015-05-27T06:23:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946/161 "2015-06-03T20:08:30Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > That doesn’t necessarily mean that it was France that paid the bribe. Somebody else might have made an unsuccessful bribe. Morocco, Switzerland and England were the other candidates, though the latter two withdrew. It’s possible, yes, but I see it somewhat like the Tour de France controversy. If Morocco, for instance, is giving bribes substantial enough that Blazer is involved in facilitating them, then France would need to “keep up” so to speak in order to win. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946/162 "2015-06-03T20:14:11Z")
Ah, wait, you are right **Really Not All that Bright**. I got my hands on the full plea and it appears Blazer was involved in a bribe by Morocco. And interestingly for the 2010 vote, Blazer helped the same guy take a bribe from Morocco AND South Africa. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946/163 "2015-06-03T20:17:54Z")
Oh, the guy that got the Morocco and South Africa bribes was Webb (the plea speaks of $10mil bribe, which had to go through FIFA eventually)! ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946/164 "2015-06-03T20:37:55Z")
I trust they didn’t give refunds to the losers. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946/165 "2015-06-03T21:02:15Z")
Well, Morocco did qualify for that Cup, which is somewhat unusual for them. Maybe Webb slipped them a helpful referee in the qualifying phase. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946/166 "2015-06-03T22:22:18Z")
> [@ISiddiqui](#): > > Ah, wait, you are right **Really Not All that Bright**. I got my hands on the full plea and it appears Blazer was involved in a bribe by Morocco. > > And interestingly for the 2010 vote, Blazer helped the same guy take a bribe from Morocco AND South Africa. Outrageous! An honest politician stays bought. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946/167 "2015-06-04T05:23:43Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Well, Morocco did qualify for that Cup, which is somewhat unusual for them. Maybe Webb slipped them a helpful referee in the qualifying phase. 😉 They did get a place in the[final though](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Said_Belqola). ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946/168 "2015-06-04T08:56:55Z")
Remember that nice Jack Warner who was claiming that this whole investigation was just groundless persecution? [He’s changed his tune and has agreed to sing like the proverbial canary](http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jun/04/fifa-crisis-jack-warner-says-he-fears-for-life-and-will-reveal-avalanche-of-secrets). Not only is he threatening to implicate Blatter directly but he’s also linked FIFA to corruption in an election in Trinidad and Tobago. I need to make some more popcorn - this is going to be a long and bloody show. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946/169 "2015-06-04T09:08:06Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Remember that nice Jack Warner who was claiming that this whole investigation was just groundless persecution? > > [He’s changed his tune and has agreed to sing like the proverbial canary](http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jun/04/fifa-crisis-jack-warner-says-he-fears-for-life-and-will-reveal-avalanche-of-secrets). Not only is he threatening to implicate Blatter directly but he’s also linked FIFA to corruption in an election in Trinidad and Tobago. > > I need to make some more popcorn - this is going to be a long and bloody show. This was all over local media, Jack seems to make daily press conferences. First one he made once he got out of jail he bragged how he was treated like a VIP and spent his entire stay in an infirmary bed watching television for 24 hours. He also has a personal weekly newspaper(The Sunshine) and a hour long daily radio show ostensibly for his fringe political party, and get this his main party position seems to be exposing corruption in the government:eek:😛 Get it sunshine? He was deputy acting prime minister a few years ago, but after his falling out with Kamla now he formed his own party is all about fighting corruption. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946/170 "2015-06-04T17:43:04Z")
It takes a thief to catch a thief, or however the saying goes. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2015, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946/171 "2015-06-09T04:18:23Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Remember that nice Jack Warner who was claiming that this whole investigation was just groundless persecution? > > [He’s changed his tune and has agreed to sing like the proverbial canary](http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jun/04/fifa-crisis-jack-warner-says-he-fears-for-life-and-will-reveal-avalanche-of-secrets). Not only is he threatening to implicate Blatter directly but he’s also linked FIFA to corruption in an election in Trinidad and Tobago. > > I need to make some more popcorn - this is going to be a long and bloody show. Keep the popcorn coming: John Oliver has purchased 5 minutes of airtime on the same Trinidadian TV channel in order to air a rebuttal titled “The Mittens of Disapproval Are On.” It’s supposed to show at 9:01 this evening. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2015, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946/172 "2015-06-09T04:46:00Z")
The FIFA-financed film, [United Passions](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2814362/?ref_=nv_sr_1), opened in ten theaters in the US over the weekend, and made **$607.** It stars Sam Neill as Joao Havelange and Tim Roth as Sepp Blatter. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2015, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946/173 "2015-06-09T12:46:36Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > The FIFA-financed film, [United Passions](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2814362/?ref_=nv_sr_1), opened in ten theaters in the US over the weekend, and made **$607.** > > It stars Sam Neill as Joao Havelange and Tim Roth as Sepp Blatter. NPR Morning Edition was saying this morning that the actual total was $900. At any rate, that was me, inbound on Md. Route 4, laughing like a banshee at the news. _$900?_ How does a movie only make $900? That’s a few _orders of magnitude_ below a terrible opening weekend for a normal flick. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2015, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946/174 "2015-06-09T13:12:56Z")
It was only in ten theaters. I doubt people were beating down the door to see it elsewhere, but it’s pretty hard to make significant money on ten screens. _Paranormal Activity_ made $500,000 in its first week in 13 screens, and that was with the benefit of a large viral marketing campaign and probably the best trailer ever (the movie was fucking awful, incidentally.) ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2015, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946/175 "2015-06-09T15:47:03Z")
How does that compare to Sarah Palin’s movie? ISTR it made something along those lines as well. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2015, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946/176 "2015-06-09T15:52:51Z")
_The Undefeated_ [actually did $65K](http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=undefeated11.htm) its first weekend. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2015, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946/177 "2015-06-09T16:25:48Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > It was only in ten theaters. I doubt people were beating down the door to see it elsewhere, but it’s pretty hard to make significant money on ten screens. Sure, but even on that scale, this is impressively bad. Let’s suppose they only charged $5 per ticket to see the FIFA movie - and I can’t remember when I’ve paid $5 or less to see a movie in an actual movie theater, so I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt here. That means they only sold 180 tickets. That’s 18 tickets per theater - not just per showing, but _over the whole damn weekend_. If they had one screen in a multiplex all weekend at each location, that would have been one or two tickets per showing. (And like I said, I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt. Actual ticket sales were probably less than that.) Like **RNATB** points out, Sarah Palin’s movie grossed $65K its first weekend - which constituted bombing, big time, but bombing at a couple orders of magnitude above the FIFA bomb. So this was epochally bad. I don’t know whether it’s possible to find out how many movies in the past 20 years have had a worse opening weekend, but it’s gotta be hard for a terrible movie that opens in just one theater to have that bad an opening weekend. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2015, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946/178 "2015-06-09T16:34:41Z")
You’d think that the press would get someone curious. Does that figure include potential critics? You’d also think that with FIFA being corrupt maybe they’d just pay people to go or buy up the tickets to at least make it look like people went. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2015, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946/179 "2015-06-10T05:17:12Z")
Here’s a link to John Oliver’s video message to Jack Warner begging him to release all his FIFA dirt (reasoning: “Why the hell not?”): [Deadspin](http://screengrabber.deadspin.com/watch-john-olivers-message-to-jack-warner-that-aired-on-1710240005) ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2015, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946/180 "2015-06-10T06:26:16Z")
> **[Ex-FIFA official Jack Warner allegedly diverted Haiti relief funds](https://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la-sp-fifa-jack-warner-20150610-story.html#navtype=outfit)** > > In a low, even voice, Jack Warner spoke of treachery and secrets. This just keeps getting more farcical. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges/720946.md?page=10)