Soccer 2014 - 2015

What influence does he have with the US government? He may be smarter than he looks and was able to distance or buffer himself at all times but aside from that, he's not that rich and what the fuck do we care that he runs FIFA?

I get Galaxy tickets through my work probably once a month. Will be nice to see Gerrard in person finally later this summer. After watching the EPL all weekend and going to a game it's still a big difference though.

Maul_sl said:

Whats the quality of the US league now anyway?

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Varies, I'd say it's comparable to good League 1 sides up to decent Championship sides. Due to the salary cap and the DP rules the average pay for an MLS player is something like $300,000 a year and that might be even over stating it. Pretty sure ManC's payroll is larger than the entire MLS's pay roll though that goes for a lot of leagues.

Warrik_sl said:

As a non-soccer fan, can someone tell me what implications, if any this will have on the sport or FIFA in general aside from a bunch of people going to jail?

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As of right now nothing until FIFA changes itself or the other soccer associations break away from FIFA and form their own organization. In essence FIFA robs from the fans around the world who pay to watch or participate in their sporting events to use to enrich themselves and their cronies while consenting to mass deaths (Qatar), changing of public laws to suit their needs (South Africa, Brazil etc) wanton graft and corruption (again Brazil, half those stadiums are now empty and falling apart) and more.

Chris_sl said:

They only do the world cup, so two events in the next 7 years may be affected.

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Eh?

Confederations Cup
Womens World Cup
U20 and U17 World Cup

They also sanction all the regional tournaments such as the Copa America and the Euro's.

Szlia_sl said:

Blatter is probably a cunning scoundrel of the highest order, but, under his reign, FIFA made more and more money and, thanks to him, a significant chunk of this money is redistributed to the national federations to help with operating costs, infrastructure building/renovation, etc. The super rich UEFA and its 50ish members does not care, but for the 150ish other federations it is a blessing (for the sport and/or their own pockets) and, at times, a condition of their very existence.

Basically, as long as the voting system will remain '1 federation = 1 vote', there will be corruption (as the heads of small federations hold very valuable power) and Blatter will get reelected (because he has a proven track record of making money for the federation and using it for the sport globally and not just to serve the interests of european federations).

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You're either from Blatters home town, a fool or a total idiot. Probably a combination of all 3 in reading your first paragraph. Since FIFA doesn't actually care how the money is spent once it is given to the shit holes that get it, what makes you think that even a sliver of it doesn't go to the pockets of those people that run those federations? Not only that but Swiss law make their non-profits have to report nothing at all so you have no way to know anything that they are doing according to your own government. Not to say that the idea is a bad one, it's not. But ask the people of Trinidad how much FIFA money improved their lives, they'll tell you it just kept Jack Warner and his family around. What about the poor folks in Brazil that got swept out of their homes in the Favelas to comply with FIFA's request? How about the Russian people when they find out the $50bn that was spent for 2018 mainly went to Putin's cronies? Then we can go to the Qatari workers, pretty sure they're really happy about FIFA's help for the 3rd world right?