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The Soccer Indictments

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I know little about soccer and even less about the FIFA indictments announced yesterday by Attorney General Loretta Lynch.  This story in the NYT suggests that DOJ saw rampant graft and is determined to impose criminal penalties.

This is not a conventional case to say the least, and undoubtedly warrants thinking about, both in terms of what the Department is doing and what is failing to do while it pursues this case. But I thought one cartoon in the New Yorker was pretty funny one way or the other.
The New Yorker Cartoons's photo.

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One reason that the FIFA case matters, aside from the staggering amounts of money involved in the alleged fraudulent schemes, is the human tragedy of epic proportions currently taking place in Qatar.

In order to build the huge venues necessary to host a World Cup, which Qatar will be doing in 2022, Qatar is utilizing foreign laborers (mainly from Nepal) who are essentially slaves. They are not allowed to leave Qatar, they are often not paid, they live in filth, and they are forced to work in scorching heat with inadequate supplies or safety measures. About 1200 of them have died so far, and if the dying continues apace until all the stadiums are built, about 4000 of them will die.

What does this have to do with the FIFA case? Well, one of the major avenues for bribery, graft and corruption involving FIFA officials is in the awarding of World Cup tournaments to bidding nations. The World Cup is the largest sporting tournament in the world, and nations compete tooth and nail for the opportunity to host one. It will surprise no one that it is alleged that FIFA officials have accepted bribes in exchange for votes for World Cup host nations. No sane person would ever think that Qatar was a good place to have the World Cup -- it is difficult and expensive to travel to, it will be 120 degrees on the field during games, it is a conservative Muslim nation that does not condone women attending sporting events or the sale or use of alcohol, and it is not exactly a powerhouse in the world of soccer, among many other reasons. Therefore, it does not take a great leap of logic to conclude that Qatar was awarded the 2022 World Cup (over Australia and the U.S., by the way) because Qatar provided the biggest bribes. And because FIFA officials accepted those bribes, over a thousand workers -- slaves, really -- have died.

I, for one, wish the FIFA indictments had happened years ago and I hope the U.S. and Swiss governments nail them right to the wall.

Oh, and the cartoon is very funny.

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