FIFA

FIFA   (IGO)
Abbreviation	FIFA
Motto	For the Game. For the World.
Headquarters	Zürich, Switzerland
Type	Federation of national associations
Staff	103
The organising body of the largest world sport since the 1990s. It has attracted exorbitant amounts of corruption.

The Fédération Internationale de football association (French for 'International Association Football Federation) is the world soccer (or football in non-American territories) organisation.

Deep State infiltration

Alex Spillius was an advisor to senior media adviser to Prince Ali of Jordan’s FIFA presidential bid, and to the European Movement’s UK referendum campaign. He has spoken at Council of Europe and Chatham House events on the future of journalism. Olli Rehn, banker and Finnish politician became chair of FIFA's COVID-19 Relief Plan steering committee. Rehn wrote a paper called the "Monetary policy in the emerging post-pandemic context.

Bribes

A mixture of romantic comedy and investigative journalism, this film reveals how Qatar got to host the soccer World Cup, and how that brought down soccer's world governing body, FIFA - Real Crime

Full article: Deep lobbying

In May 2006, British investigative reporter Andrew Jennings' book Foul! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote-Rigging, and Ticket Scandals (HarperCollins) caused controversy within the football world by detailing an alleged international cash-for-contracts scandal following the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner International Sport and Leisure (ISL) and revealed how some football officials had been urged to secretly repay bribes. President at the time Sepp Blatter was under the scope of a $1 billion bribe investigation.

In a further Panorama exposé broadcast in 2010, Jennings alleged that three senior FIFA officials, Nicolas Leoz, Issa Hayatou and Ricardo Teixeira, had been paid huge bribes by ISL between 1989 and 1999, which FIFA had failed to investigate. Jennings claimed they appeared on a list of 175 bribes paid by ISL, for up to $100 million. Panorama also alleged that FIFA requires nations hosting the World Cup to implement special laws, including tax exemptions for FIFA and its corporate sponsors and limitation of workers rights. Contrary to FIFA's demands, these conditions were revealed by the Dutch government, resulting in them being told by FIFA that their bid could be adversely affected. Following Jennings' earlier investigations, he was banned from all FIFA press conferences for reasons he claimed had not been made clear. The accused officials failed to answer questions about his latest allegations verbally or by letter. Prime Minister David Cameron and Andy Anson, head of England's World Cup bid, were highly critical of the BBC exposé, as they argued it hindered their chances of getting to host a World Cup.

In 2016, Eugenio Burzaco, an Argentine politician and spy appears linked to the FIFA-Gate affair, for the payment of bail to obtain the release and house arrest for his brother Alejandro Burzaco from prison in the United States. Secretary Burzaco contributed some 3 million dollars in cash and another 15 million in share certificates of the TyC Sports company itself, of which his brother Alejandro was CEO, and that it was the company from which the illegal commissions were paid to CONMEBOL and FIFA investigated by the North American justice system.

Assassinations?

US journalist Grant Wahl dies in Qatar while covering World Cup, brother suspects foul play - WION

Marc Bennett was a British travel advisor who was employed by the Qatar Airways company Discover Qatar for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. He was allegedly tortured and killed by secret police in Qatar. Following his death, Qatar Airways reported that he was arrested for "stealing company secrets", but refused to comment on how he died apart from the mentioning he was a valuable employee and the death was not work related. Despite probes from Bennett's family - that had a British coroner rule out suicide after reports "Bennett was subjected to torture" similar to CIA black site intensity - Liz Truss, who became Foreign Secretary 1 week after the death, closed the case.

In 2022, Grant Wahl, a prominent football journalist from the United States, passed away while covering the World Cup in Qatar. The 48-year-old journalist collapsed during extra time in the Argentina-Netherlands game, Wahl had appeared in earlier headlines that month when he was briefly detained by Qatari authorities for attempting to enter a stadium wearing a rainbow shirt in support of LGBT rights. US investigation ruled it a natural death. Wahl mentioned he had Bronchitis, although he was fully vaccinated and was living for weeks in a desert. Wahl's brother, Eric Grant, argued in ccm that Grant was killed for his reporting on worker rights and modern slavery in Qatar, mentioning he was healthy and was only taken to the hospital by a Uber taxi. Eric received death threats soon after.

Covid

Full article: COVID-19/Premature death/Athletes

In 2021, there was a 5-fold increase in sudden cardiac and unexplained deaths among FIFA players. Since December, 183 professional athletes (not only footballers) and coaches have suddenly collapsed, with 108 dead. The investigation revealed in over 80 of the cases, such as football stars Sergio Aguero and Christian Eriksen, the athletes collapsed while playing, racing, or training, or immediately after.

Epstein

Full article: Nicole Junkermann

Nicole Junkermann is a German-born Israeli state intelligence operative based in London. An ex-model whose name appeared in the Panama Papers from the Mossack Fonseca leaks and who became embroiled in a FIFA corruption scandal with Sepp Blatter and his family. Junkerman is suggested as a liaison of some sorts, as she appears in the flight logs of Jeffrey Epstein's travels. Wikipedia deleted her page and mentioning of the following scandal as well. In 2002, Junkermann acquired the rights for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany with her relatively new company Infront Sports and Media. The company was best known at this time for its president and chief executive, Philippe Blatter, the nephew of Sepp Blatter, the then president of FIFA.

 

Related Quotation

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Nepal	“500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have died in Qatar since it won the right to host the World Cup 10 years ago, the Guardian can reveal. The findings, compiled from government sources, mean an average of 12 migrant workers from these five south Asian nations have died each week since the night in December 2010 when the streets of Doha were filled with ecstatic crowds celebrating Qatar’s victory. Data from India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka revealed there were 5,927 deaths of migrant workers in the period 2011–2020. Separately, data from Pakistan’s embassy in Qatar reported a further 824 deaths of Pakistani workers, between 2010 and 2020.”	Pete Pattisson The Guardian	2022

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
File:FIFA-indictment.pdf	indictment	20 May 2015	FBI	US District Court of New York indictment against 14 senior officials of the Swiss-based world football governing body FIFA

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.