Merged: FIFA, Blatter and all

[Forever Fulham]

Top Sponsors to FIFA's Sepp Blatter: Leave Now
Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Anheuser-Busch InBev Call for Immediate Resignation

By E.J. Schultz. Published on October 02, 2015.




Coca-Cola Co., McDonald's and Anheuser-Busch InBev are calling on FIFA President Sepp Blatter to step down immediately amid fresh criminal proceedings against the embattled soccer leader. The statements by the key FIFA sponsors raise the pressure on Mr. Blatter to exit now, rather than keep to his own timeline of leaving sometime next year.

"For the benefit of the game, the Coca-Cola Company is calling for FIFA President Joseph Blatter to step down immediately so that a credible and sustainable reform process can begin in earnest," Coke said in its statement. "Every day that passes, the image and reputation of FIFA continues to tarnish. FIFA needs comprehensive and urgent reform, and that can only be accomplished through a truly independent approach."


A-B InBev stated that "it would be appropriate for Mr. Blatter to step down as we believe his continued presence to be an obstacle in the reform process." The brewer added that "A-B InBev has been actively engaged on the FIFA reform process both as part of a sponsor group including Adidas, Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Visa, and on an individual basis through continued conversations with the organization."

McDonald's stated: "The events of recent weeks have continued to diminish the reputation of FIFA and public confidence in its leadership. We believe it would be in the best interest of the game for FIFA President Sepp Blatter to step down immediately so that the reform process can proceed with the credibility that is needed."

That is a shift in tone from the fast feeder's July 17 statement, in which it said it had "expressed our concerns directly to FIFA."

A correspondent for the BBC tweeted the following, which he said was a response from Mr. Blatter's lawyer.

The calls for immediate resignation come after Swiss authorities recently started criminal proceedings against Mr. Blatter. U.S. officials earlier this year accused FIFA officials of a vast corruption scheme in which bribes and kickbacks influenced major decisions such as holding the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

As the Guardian reported last week, "After arriving to question Mr. Blatter at FIFA's opulent Zurich HQ and seizing his computer, the office of the Swiss attorney general said it had opened proceedings against him 'on suspicion of criminal mismanagement' and 'suspicion of misappropriation.' "

Mr. Blatter was due to step down in February. But Reuters reported earlier this week that he "has not ruled out trying to stay on as FIFA's president beyond February's scheduled election, despite facing a criminal investigation and a possible internal ethics probe."

[Nick Bateman]

One can imagine UEFA running the World Cup.

If any 'seed' is knocked out in the group stages they get a bye into the quarter-finals bypassing the last 16.  Of the 32 countries, 26 must come from Europe, 3 from South America, 1 North America (USA), 1 Africa & 1 Asia.

All the UEFA delegates who replaced FIFA must receive twice as much salary and perks in the endeavour to valiantly fight corruption.

[BigbadBillyMcKinley]

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/10021091/fifas-ethics-committee-recommends-suspending-sepp-blatter

But in all honesty, will England get treated any better? I doubt it!

[westcliff white]

he can appeal it for sure and I also think it has to be approved by the exec committee. hopefully they get him out

[Nick Bateman]

England or the British media's view of things?? Possibly.

[love4ffc]

Won't believe it until he is either in jail or completely out of FIFA.  Actually could see him installing a Fozzie Bear Muppet to do his bidding. 

[Burt]

Needs a root-and-branch clear-out and renewal like the Olympic movement did years back when it was in a similar state.

Blatter is just the head of a long poisonous snake.

[cottage expat]

It's only a "provisional"suspension and don't forget that the head of the Ethics Committee (who makes the final decision) is the same character who refused to publish the independent report on FIFA !

[cmg]

Won't believe it until he is either in jail or completely out of FIFA.  Actually could see him installing a Fozzie Bear Muppet to do his bidding. 

   "Qui? Moi?"
          -M.Platini

[love4ffc]

Won't believe it until he is either in jail or completely out of FIFA.  Actually could see him installing a Fozzie Bear Muppet to do his bidding. 

   "Qui? Moi?"
          -M.Platini

Exactly - a Muppet

[Holders]

Needs a root-and-branch clear-out.

"Wie treu sind deine Blatter?" Not very treu, methinks.

[BigbadBillyMcKinley]

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/10021551/fifa-suspends-sepp-blatter-michel-platini-and-jerome-valcke

[Forever Fulham]

This latest decision by FIFA to suspend Platini -- the presumed heir apparent -- suggests to me that the sponsors' demand that FIFA clean house immediately carried real weight.  Money talks.  Sponsorship money is heard over everything else.  The sponsors' legal counsels have likely gone over the indictment with a fine tooth comb, have conducted, and are conducting their own investigations.  Too much money at stake.  FIFA's brand, its reputation, its net impression to consumers of the products and services of these sponsors, at an all-time low.  These are negative impressions, not just the absence of positive impressions.   That money could be spent elsewhere, incurring positive associational values.  And FIFA knows it.   We're at a real tipping point now.  Maybe Blatter will try to slow roll things.  To stall.  To throw out a few more sacrificial lambs like Warner.  Part of me thinks he believes he can ride this out, lawyer up, and hang onto power by way of his lock on the one-nation-one-vote lunacy that gives the Solomon Islands the same voting power as England, Spain, or Italy, and the patronage system he put in place to curry favour (and a voting majority) with African, Asian, Caribbean and Micronesian countries.  But another part of me thinks we're past that now.  The sponsors are god, and they have spoken. 

[Nick Bateman]

Platini has presided over the blatant favouritism (corruption?) towards the G14 clubs, Real, Barca, Bayern, United, etc, as they threatened to LEAVE UEFA and with Rupert Murdoch's financial backing form a "Super League".  I would have called their bluff and called 'war' on those break-away clubs banning any of their players from international duty and preventing any clubs selling directly to them - even with Murdoch's backing they would have relented.

Problem I see is removing Blatter as a figure head will not solve any corruption in football, it will only get worse in my opinion, favouring the richer nations rather than how it is now.

[Burt]

The problem with FIFA is that all the exec bar a couple are under investigation or under suspicion and their processes totally discredited so to truly reform they will need to do what the IOC did back in 2002 after Salt Lake City and start all over. New people, new structure, new processes, new governance framework, new everything.

[Nick Bateman]

And the British media have been at odds with Blatter and FIFA since their terrible shambles of a world cup bid led by Arsenal guru David Dein (whom they had engineered in to replace Lord Tottenham whom was discredited from a Daily Mail/Mail On Sunday "sting"). 

Had England got the WC and Arsenal's Dein would now be head of the FA as they wanted, the same British media would be singing the praises of Sepp Blatter, FIFA, and America & the FBI would have continued to do, care and know nothing about our game.

[Logicalman]

I hope these events are the start of a new era for FIFA, with greater representation of all affiliations being put forwards.

FIFA has six confederations and 209 209 national associations.

If they had 2 representatives from each of the Confederations, with a 2 year tenure (OK, perhaps 4 at a push) and the President and Vice-President being elected directly from the affiliation voting, it might go a long way to making FIFA more democratic and avoid the autocratic regime we have experienced for the past 2 decades or so.

It would be good to see the WCF being played in a different confederation each time, and no country can host it more than once in 20 years, with a substantial amount of the cost of building/refurbishing stadia for the finals to be met by FIFA itself. Bring footie back to the roots again.

Oh well, like our very own hopes of Prem footie, one may dream of utopia!  :033:

[Nick Bateman]

Do you really believe they want to 'clean up' FIFA?  Or simply they (richer nations) want more of the "cake" that Blatter and FIFA in it's current format  is denying them??

[Logicalman]

Do you really believe they want to 'clean up' FIFA?  Or simply they (richer nations) want more of the "cake" that Blatter and FIFA in it's current format  is denying them??

That's the catch, isn't it Nick?
The richer nations are after controlling the sport even more so, and when they had Blatter & Co in charge, then money (apparently) spoke louder than anything else.

I firmly believe that now the corruption, and it's it's spread throughout FIFA has been laid wide open in the public domain (we all knew it was there, just it was never laid bare), that there will need to be a new regime and way of thinking inside of FIFA itself, and, led by the sponsors, the ethics committee have now recognized this has come to a head and needs sorting now.

As I said, I hope they do take a long hard look at the structure, and it bears some fruit.

Interestingly enough, I listened to a report on the BBC yesterday that indicated that there is a US Law firm involved in this process, along with the Ethics committee and another body that is the underlying cause of these events this past few weeks. Apparently it was indicated they are involved in an effort to resolve the indictments issues by the US Justice Department.

[Blanco]

And Blatter has the nerve to appeal the decision to suspend him. Why can't he just f*** off! The man won't go away.