Soccer is
big. It’s bigger than baseball. It’s bigger than basketball. It’s bigger than
American football.
Soccer is so
big, it’s bigger than the United Nations (UN). The UN has 193 Member States. But
the international soccer association—the Fédération Internationale de Football
Association (FIFA)—has 209 members.
The
president of FIFA is one Joseph Blatter. He’s been called the most powerful man
in sports (“FIFA officials arrested over corruption charges, face U.S.
extradition”, ESPN and E:60 video, May 27, 2015). He appears to
be a very nice man (ibid). But he’s also a man who, according to some, rules
over a culture of corruption (ibid).
On May 29,
2015, Mr Blatter faces an election vote during a FIFA Congress meeting which
has gathered in Zurich, Switzerland. He wants to be re-elected President.
He’s got
some problems. First, On May 27, 2015, Swiss authorities arrested six senior
FIFA officials on charges of corruption. The good news is, Mr Blatter wasn’t
one of them (“Update: Sepp Blatter Not Among Arrested FIFA Officials”, Arutz
Sheva, May 27, 2015). The bad news is, the US apparently wants all those
arrested to be extradited to the US because, it’s alleged, their crimes were
carried out in the US--using US banks (ESPN, ibid).
The US can
be aggressive about these types of crimes. If you’re going to get arrested for
these crimes, I’d say one of the last places you’d want to be shipped off to
for prosecution would be the US. At last report, the US wants these guys.
The charges
include wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering (ESPN, ibid). In
addition, Swiss officials have announced other charges against these officials,
including the exchange of bribes adding up to $100 million (ibid). These bribes
were used to affect FIFA actions (ESPN, ibid).
Hours after
those arrests, Swiss officials opened criminal “proceedings” into how the 2018
and 2022 World Cup tournament choices (Russia and Qatar) were made (Graham
Dunbar, “Swiss open criminal proceedings in 2018, '22 World Cup votes”, Associated
Press, May 27, 2015).
The BBC
has reported that FIFA headquarters in Zurich “have been raided” (“Fifa
corruption probe: Officials arrested in Zurich”, May 27, 2015).
The second
problem Mr Blatter has is that the ‘Palestinian’ Football (soccer) Association
(PFA) has demanded that Israel’s soccer association (IFA) be expelled from
FIFA. The charge is that Israel somehow ‘discriminates’ against ‘Palestinian’
players and restricts their free travel (Eldad Benari, “FIFA President Asks
Israel to Make Concession in Dispute with PA”, Arutz Sheva, May 16,
2015).
Mr Blatter
has already been quoted as saying that the only way a FIFA member can be
expelled is for violations of FIFA rules—and Israel hasn’t violated any such
rules (David Gerstman, “The Palestinians Continue Their War Against Israel in
Soccer”, Legal Insurrection, May 22, 2015).
Mr Blatter
has asked the head of the PFA, Jibril Rajoub, to withdraw his request. Rajoub
has, so far, said no.
Rajoub has
been insistent (remember this point). For example, he’s said he won’t drop the
request (Eldad Benari, “Rajoub: We Won't Drop Bid to Have Israel Suspended from
FIFA”, Arutz Sheva, May 21, 2015). He’s said he ““will not withdraw the
motion and will not accept any compromise and any side deals” (Eldad Benari,
“PA's Rajoub Rules Out Compromise on Israel Bid at FIFA”, Arutz Sheva,
May 26, 2015).
Mr Blatter
has been trying to resolve this demand. He doesn’t know if he can.
The third
problem Mr Blatter faces comes from the pro-Israel NGO Shurat HaDin. Shurat
HaDin has a reputation. It takes terrorist organizations to court—and wins. No
one else in the world has done that.
It’s won
billions in judgment against Iran for terror acts committed against Jews. This
year, it won $400 million against the Palestinian Authority for acts of terror.
It’s not a frivolous organization. It carries a very, very big stick.
On May 25,
2015, Shurat HaDin submitted to FIFA a formal petition “to expel the President
of the Palestinian Football Association (PFA), senior PA official Jibril Rajoub”
(Ari Soffer, “Israeli NGO Seeks Expulsion of PA Official from FIFA”, Arutz
Sheva, May 26, 2015). This wasn’t just a counter-demand. It packed a punch.
Unlike
Rajoub, who simply demanded Israel be expelled because of ‘discrimination’,
Shurat HaDin based its petition on what it calls “gross violations of FIFA's
code of conduct, including advocating the killing of Israeli civilians living
in Judea and Samaria and [advocating] the use of nuclear weapons against the
State of Israel” (ibid).
It seems
that, while Israel hasn’t violated FIFA rules, the PFA President might have. Shurat
HaDin alleges that Rajoub’s public comments about Israel “constitute grave
breaches of his obligation to comply with FIFA's statutes and rules prohibiting
discrimination, intimidation and violence against individuals and groups”
(ibid). Shurat HaDin also alleged that Rajoub “promoted, supervised and
glorified a number of attacks by Fatah and by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
against Israel…Rajoub has said that the armed conflict between Israel and
Palestinian terrorist organizations should be fought by all means, and…if we
had nuclear weapons, we’d be using them" (ibid).
All Mr Blatter
wants to do is get re-elected. But now, some of his top officials are under
arrest for, among other things, accepting bribes. If bribes are important ($100
million) to FIFA decision-making, could they be playing a role in the scheduled
May 29th vote to expel Israel from FIFA? Is that why Rajoub so
adamantly refuses to compromise on his demand? He knows something the rest of
us don’t?
Swiss authorities
have begun to arrest FIFA officials for corruption and bribery. Could a
successful vote to expel Israel raise eyebrows? If Israel were expelled, might
US and Swiss authorities suspect that bribery was involved to buy the needed
votes? Would these authorities want to look at Members’ electronic data and
documents posted during the weeks leading up to that vote? Are FIFA Members
clean enough to withstand prying eyes?
Of course,
this is speculation. But then, how deep and wide does FIFA corruption run? Could it affect a FIFA vote to expel Israel?
Will there actually
be a vote against Israel? No one knows. But the script you’re looking at so far
approaches the unbelievable: in a single two-day news cycle we’ve seen ‘Palestinians’
wage uncompromising lawfare to get its hated enemy Israel expelled from
the world’s largest Sports Federation; major corruption arrests shatter the
peace of soccer’s most important conference; and a heavy-weight pro-Israel anti-terror
legal powerhouse demands that the ‘Palestinian’ trouble-maker be the one to be expelled
from the Federation, not Israel.
Want to know
where all this is going? Stay tuned.
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