The president of the German football Association, DFB/Deutsche Fußball-Bund- Wolfgang Niersbach – has said that his federation is shocked and disappointed by the corruption scandal surrounding FIFA along with being unpleasantly surprised at the way FIFA has reacted to it.http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16098346,00.html
Allegations of graft , payoffs to influence illegal activity, and charges of the giving of corrupting gifts and corporate enticements go back at least 2 decades to the 1990’s which then involved FIFA marketing company at the time called ‘International Sport and Leisure’ or ISL .
These particular charges deal directly with Sepp Blatter’s predecessor, the Brazilian Joao Havelange. http://www.dfb.de/index.php?id=511741
The Swiss Sepp Blatter took over the presidency of FIFA from the now 96 year old Brazilian João Havelange Havelange in 1998. He has been re-elected to a 4th term as FIFA President just last June, in what was really just an unopposed vote. This after his only running opponent ,a former committee member, was himself disqualified over allegations of having taken and receiving bribes.
Blatter’s reaction seems to be to shift all the blame to the elderly Havelange and he seems to be acting as if he is now – and was then – just a passive and innocent by-stander, a detached observer or almost like a tourist who is just passing by while he in fact was actively participating in FIFA policy and strategy at this time as Havelanges assistant.
Blatter has been working at FIFA since 1975, as Technical Director (1975–1981), then General Secretary (1981–1998), before his election as FIFA President in 1998 so hardly reason to seem as detached from these past scandals as he would make out.
Regarding kickbacks from the now disgraced marketing agency “ISL” , Blatter has said that “commission” payments were legal in Switzerland in the 1990’s and adding that ‘one cannot judge the past on today’s standards’.
This implies that morality –right & wrong- can somehow be related to fashion or the vagaries of popular taste at a given time, which is of course utter nonesense.
Instead he should be actively defending the integrity of FIFA – both past and present!
We will see how this scandal unfolds in the near future. Obviously FIFA will have to react a bit faster than they have with adding goal-line technology to the game!
It seems now that Blatter has suggested there may have been something underhand in the decision to award the 2006 World Cup to Germany. -http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1124830/fifa-president-sepp-blatter-raises-questions-over-2006-world-cup?cc=5739
FIFA President Blatter hits back at Germany - http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16099277,00.html
See also in German Kicker.de – http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/intligen/startseite/571831/artikel_dfb-weist-blatters-andeutungen-als-haltlos-zurueck.html and the best newspaper in Germany says – http://www.sueddeutsche.de/sport/bestechung-beim-fussball-weltverband-der-sepp-heiligt-die-mittel-1.1413168
The American Wall Street Journal wrote yesterday – “Soccer luminary João Havelange and his son-in-law, Ricardo Teixiera, who used to lead the Brazilian soccer federation, received millions of dollars in alleged bribes in the 1990s from a now-collapsed sports marketing company, according to a court document released Wednesday.” - http://blogs.wsj.com/corruption-currents/2012/07/12/isl-docs-allege-fifas-havelange-teixiera-took-millions-in-bribes/
Read about DFB 2012 final – http://www.ota-berlin.de/blog/05/12/borussia-dortmund-deservedly-win-dfb-pokal-2012-and-beat-the-german-champions-league-finalists-bayern-munchen-5-2-at-the-olympic-stadium-berlin-by-ota-berlin-contributor-mr-filip-v-d-plas/
Read about the DFB 2010 final- http://www.ota-berlin.de/blog/03/26/may-15th-at-the-olympic-stadium-berlin-dfb-pokal-2010-german-cup-final-will-be-between-werder-bremen-bayern-munich/
OTA-Berlin building at Rosa Luxemborg Platz will provide its apartments for the supporters of both teams – the U2 U-bahn stops at the Olypmic Stadium.
See also – http://www.brazil-world-cup2014.com/
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German football Association Deutsche Fußball-Bund/DFB ‘shocked’ by FIFA corruption & bribery scandal and apparent non-chalant response of Sepp Blatter – by OTA-Berlin contributor Mr Filip v d Plas from OTA Berlin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Germany License. If you use this article or parts of it, please refer to http://www.ota-berlin.de.
Tags: .brazil-world-cup2014.com/, DFB 'shocked' by FIFA corruption & bribery scandal, dw.de, FIFA corruption & bribery scandal, German football Association Deutsche Fußball-Bund, João Havelange and his son-in-law, kicker de, Ricardo Teixiera, The Swiss Sepp Blatter, Wolfgang Niersbach
Another day,and yet another FIFA scandal.
The former president Havelange named as the FIFA officials who had received 35 million euros in payments from ISL, the company awarded the TV rights for the 2002 and 2006 World Cup.
Confused as to how both men got away with their misdeeds for so long?
Swiss justice anyone?