With Fate of Game Hanging in Balance Nothing Will Happen

Because when there's shit to get done, the shit goes down to the Bahamas.

Yep, the FIFA Congress is being held at the Imperial Ballroom of the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island.

Imperial. Atlantis. Paradise.

Truly this is the world's game.

Anyway, a bunch of billionaires, ex-players, federation presidents, Olympic representative, and other lovers of perks and patronage are holding a get together starting tomorrow (Wednesday) to discuss things that actually matter to the game. Even money is that almost nothing changes. "Hey guys, we could discuss ways to make the games better, or we could use our billions to impress chicks in bikinis."

A sample of people whose lives are better than yours:

There is no shortage of maneuvering at this gathering. Frank Lowy, chairman of Australia's soccer federation, brought his 240-foot yacht into Bahamian waters and is said to be lobbying for a World Cup. A stream of people at dinner Monday waited to greet London Olympics organizing committee head Sebastian Coe. He, too, is trying to lure a World Cup to his country, either the 2018 or 2022 tournament.

Anyway, items on the agenda include: changes to the Olympics, the 6+5 rule, drug testing rules, the 2018 and 2022 World Cups (although no lobbying is supposed to take place), and goal line technology. But first... the whores!

No matter what happens, if anything (or nothing) the Bahamians will be happy to have been talked down to for the duration of the activities.

Just one question: Why the fuck does FIFA need to bring "10 tons of material" from their Zurich headquarters?

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One More Reason None of Us Is Seriously Considering Going to South Africa in 2010

Not sure what's worse here: the story itself, or that it's not the least bit surprising.

Anyway, an African Nation Congress official who blew the whistle on corruption in stadium construction for the 2010 World Cup was gunned down outside of his house. Next to his son. After hosting a party.

Mpumalanga police spokesman Superintendent Abie Khoabane said details of the shooting were sketchy and that police had not established a motive for the attack. Three shots were fired, one at close range, which hit [Jimmy] Mohlala in the chest. Another hit his son in the leg. According to Sibiya, neighbours found Mohlala lying in a pool of blood. He was certified dead on arrival at a local hospital.

Last year, other ANC members wanted Mohlala removed from his post after singling out colleague Jacob Diadia "over alleged irregularited relation to the construction of Mbombela stadium."

Diadia was suspended, but—and this is priceless—the ANC recalled Mohlala. After he refused to step down, the party took disciplinary action against him. So, in South Africa when you expose potential corruption you lose your job and your life in that order?

Yes the rest of the world can't wait to come to a country where "disciplinary action" and "gangland style assassination" are interchangeable terms.

Okay, we're making an assumption that the killing was a direct result of Mohlala's whistleblowing over 2010 stadium construction. And police haven't determined that to be the case for certain. But when you're inviting the world to a party you're hosting, even the appearance that you're killing people who are trying to keep things on the up and up is, well, bad. Suffice it to say South Africa's evite list of "No's" might keep increasing by a few hundred million or so.

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More match-fixing, more easy sentences

In the few short months of this blog, I've become the go-to guy for a couple of subjects. I'm the bad jersey guy. I'm also the guy who writes on Scotland which nobody reads or cares for (sorry for so much Gretna this season). Now, with this new article, I feel I'll also be known as the guy who writes about match-fixers getting lenient sentences. Boy, what a c.v. I've built myself, huh? Anyway, details after the jump, as per usual.

This time we go to Singapore, where Liaoning Guangyuan (that's a team) forward Zhao Zhipeng had his court sentence reduced from seven to five months on appeal. He was convicted of accepting a $2700 bribe from his manager to help the team lose a match by at least three goals. That's right, the manager, Wang Xin, wanted his team to get a Paul Jewell-esque result.

In fact, Wang Xin was charged with offering bribes to all of his players on that day, and seven are charged with having accepted. Which makes Zhao Zhipeng's winning defense curious. Supposedly the manager was a fearsome beast and the player had no choice but to accept. Okay, fine. But what about the players who did not accept? Were they made of stronger mettle than the accused? I doubt it. At least four players are said to have refused. The formerly internationally fearsome Singaporean court system rolled over on this one, it would appear.

Wang Xin, for his part, was also arrested, but has skipped bail. Presumably, he has gone back to China, where authorities will have a hard time finding him, because, as everyone knows, all those guys look alike. Right?

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I'd like his debt payment plan, please.

Is this the referee or is it Ryan Cabrera?

Mercifully, we will start today with a post neither lauding Liverpool, nor containing tears for Arsenal. We will focus on a referee, though, because those guys always turn out to be bastards.

Coming from the old news file, German referee Robert Hoyzer was convicted in 2005 of accepting bribes to fix matches in 2004 and earlier. Hoyzer shows up again this week because the terms of his settlement of the DFB have been released, and boy, did he get a sweetheart deal.

Alright, so maybe Hoyzer did not get a sweetheart deal per se, but he did get a greatly reduced rate. As part of Hoyzer's settlement, he agreed that the DFB lost 750,000 euros, or $1.18 million at today's rate, becuase of his actions. Instead of having to repay in full, however, Hoyzer agreed to pay about $1500 a month over 15 years, a total of $270,000. If he fulfills these terms, the DFB will agree to drop any claim at further renumeration.

I wonder if his lawyers can talk to my student loan people? I would love to have that kind of consolidation of debt.

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Jack Warner's Serbian relatives

The lessons of Jack Warner have gone worldwide. I've been able to break them down as follows:

1. Take control of a soccer association, either national or, preferably, continental.
2. ?????
3. Profit!

Today's A-Plus student is Zvezdan Terzic, the president of the Serbian Football Association. Unfortunately for him, the police in Serbia don't view the outcomes of Mr. Warner's coursework as legal, so Terzic now has a warrant out for his arrest.

Seriously, suits this nice cost money

Terzic is accused of personally profiting off of at least one transfer while director at OFK Belgrade, a position he held from 1997 to 2005. The transfer that the arrest warrant was issued for, is from 1998. This was the transfer of Vanja Grubac to Hamburg SV. Hamburg told Serbian investigators they were obliged to pay Terzic 1.1 million German marks (~$850,000) for the transfer. This is what Harry Redknapp refers to as "Monday".

While Terzic's mess definitely looks bad, it pales in comparison to the scheme launched by Dragan Dzajic, the Serbian NT's general manager. Dzajic and two other officals were arrested last month for skimming approxiamately $9 million dollars off of the transfer of Goran Drulic's $22 Million move to Real Zaragoza from Red Star Belgrade. To do so, they opened a bank account in Drulic's name and forged his signature to withdraw the money. Or, as Harry Redknapp calls it, "every other Wednesday".

Harry explaining where the money came from

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