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FIFA To Learn Stern Lesson About Vigor Of American Prosecution

Once again "it is the Americans who are acting as the world’s police," according to Ben Wright of the London TELEGRAPH. They "have led the charge." The "whiff of corruption has been hanging around" FIFA for years now. And yet "most countries appeared powerless to do anything about it," perhaps, as Simon Kuper wrote in the Financial Times this weekend, "because they weren’t prepared to make the necessary sacrifices for their principles." But now the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI "have rushed in where others feared to tread." What "makes America different?" First, Americans "have a deep-seated and historical abhorrence of white collar crime." Second, the path from law school, to legal firm, to the district attorney’s office or other regulators, and then on to political office "is well-trodden in the States." This means that U.S. regulators "are staffed by bright, ambitious people who actively go hunting for big scalps." Third, U.S. law "gives its agencies a great deal of lateral in prosecuting foreign nationals and companies." Which "brings us to the fourth and most powerful weapon that America has in its fight against corruption, fraud, tax evasion, money laundering and other financial crimes -- the mighty dollar." U.S. regulators "are able to effectively force foreign banks to aid their investigations." How? If the banks do not comply, the U.S. authorities "will hit them where it hurts by shutting them out of the largest financial market in the world" (TELEGRAPH, 5/27).

ONLY THE BEGINNING: In London, Matt Dickinson wrote a dawn raid is "plenty to be going on with, but surely this is just the start." The hope must now be that the law-enforcement agencies in the U.S. and Swiss prosecutors "keep on digging, and do not stop." That "is the tantalising prospect raised by one law-enforcement official involved in this morning’s arrests," who said, "We’re struck by just how long this went on for and how it touched nearly every part of what FIFA did. It just seemed to permeate every element of the federation and was just their way of doing business. It seems like this corruption was institutionalized." How far "will the trail lead?" (LONDON TIMES, 5/27). In Sydney, Michael Lynch wrote enough "is now surely enough." The "stench of sleaze and corruption" has hung over FIFA for so long, the organization "surely cannot continue in its current form." Once "it may have been regarded as merely a laughing stock, a sporting organisation where a few greedy chaps in powerful positions lined their pockets every now and then." Now it "is something far more sinister, resembling a kind of multinational racket where the good of the game is subordinated to the financial good of a handful of its controllers." FIFA, at the top level, "is beyond redemption in its current guise" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 5/27). In London, Oliver Brown wrote surely "this was the ultimate expression" of FIFA democracy in action: seven leading execs, "who had converged on Zurich in the expectation of another week of convivial expense-padding, being escorted off their five-star premises by plain-clothes police under the cover of giant bedsheets." So much, then, for Blatter's "blather about transparency." In the week of Blatter's re-election, "once as grim an inevitability as an unpleasant gas bill, this faintly vaudeville spectacle served as a fitting epitaph for his risible leadership" (TELEGRAPH, 5/27). In Sydney, Simon King wrote former Soccer Australia Chair David Hill said that the arrest of six high-ranking FIFA officials in Zurich amid allegations of bribes in the vicinity of $100M is a “very promising” step. Hill, who ran the code locally between '95 and '98 and "experienced first-hand the corruption of football’s governing body, was reluctant to comment extensively, as details were still coming to light," but said the ­outcome would be "very ­interesting." Hill: "Anything that brings on the long-overdue cleaning out of the stables at FIFA is a good thing." FFA said Wednesday that "it was trying to get to the bottom of the implications of the arrests." An FFA spokesperson said, "FFA is not in a position at this point to make any comment on matters related to FIFA that have transpired today" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 5/28).

CALLING FOR CHANGE
: The Scotland DAILY RECORD reported Scottish FA CEO Stewart Regan
"has again insisted the SFA will try to boot" Blatter out of football as FIFA stands accused of rampant corruption. Regan "has waded into the crisis" -- reiterating his organization will vote for Prince Ali bin al-Hussein. An SFA statement said, "Regan has today reiterated the Scottish FA’s call for change within FIFA, world football’s governing body." Regan: "What has happened today underlines the need for fundamental change in how FIFA is governed" (DAILY RECORD, 5/27). In Sydney, Tom Smithies wrote the former Australian football official who has campaigned for years to get FIFA reformed believes the arrests of senior officials marks an “unprecedented step” in the growing pressure on FIFA. Bonita Mersiades, "who worked on Australia’s World Cup bid until falling out with its European consultants, has since been a vociferous critic of FIFA and part of the #newFIFA campaign to demand reform." Mersiades: "All the while, we’ve known this investigation by the American authorities was going on in the background and yes, today’s events are unprecedented. Certainly it gives the world of football an opportunity on Friday to get FIFA’s house in order -- otherwise we’ll have to continue the process of trying to drive through reform. Really FIFA needs a complete overhaul" (DAILY TELEGRAPH, 5/27). The BBC's Ben Smith wrote FA of Ireland CEO John Delaney said that the FAI "will vote against" Blatter in Friday's FIFA presidential election. Delaney: "Regardless of the good he claims to have done during his tenure, he has to recognize that FIFA has an incredibly bad brand image. We won't be voting for him" (BBC, 5/26).

ON THE AIR: CNN’s Evan Perez said according to the U.S. Justice Dept., this investigation “spans a couple of decades” and FIFA “was being run as a criminal enterprise. So that’s not something you usually hear about world soccer” (“New Day,” CNN, 5/27). Perez said this is a “major announcement by U.S. prosecutors (and) they’re sending a message.” N.Y. Times’ Michael Schmidt said there was no “indication” FIFA had prior knowledge the arrests were coming but it knew “this investigation had been going on” and the arrests “were a complete surprise to them.” NBC’s Bill Neely said FIFA is “run like a mini-state and it sometimes sees itself really as above states and above the law.” MSNBC’s Mark Halperin said, “It’s an embarrassment to the rest of the world that the United States did this, but it’s great because these people were corrupt” (“Morning Joe,” MSNBC, 5/27). ... U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said “we basically resolve cases when the evidence comes together and they are ready for resolution” and the fact FIFA elections are happening played no role in the timing of the arrests. U.S. Attorney Kelly Currie said the “marketing companies were also handing out bribes to protect their contracts from competing marketing companies who might want to come in and perhaps bid higher. So the marketing companies themselves openly and notoriously among the co-conspirators were paying bribes to keep the contracts they had and extend those. I think our message to FIFA and all of organized soccer is that our investigation is going to continue" (ESPN, 5/27). ... ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap said “we got a sense … with all of the foreign press” in attendance at the press conference “there has been this global sense of frustration with FIFA for a long time and the feeling that no one could touch them. That clearly was addressed today.” Schaap said the “English journalists who have been all over this” have been “applauding the efforts by the United States here because it seemed like the rest of the world was inadequate to the task of bringing these charges or even taking FIFA to account” (ESPN, 5/27).

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