FIFA - fo-fum, I smell the ...........

Remember the Giant's song in the fairy tale "Jack and the Beanstalk" ?

Fee-fi-fo-fum,
I smell the blood of an Englishman.
Be he alive , or be he dead,
I'll grind his bones to make my bread.

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I'm sick and tired of the never-ending news in the print and electronic media - especially Channel 4 and ITV3 - revealing the financial shenanigans in FIFA .  As if there's no other significant news and grief affecting the world to report on.

Corruption in the world of sports is no gob-smacking issue.  FIFA has been the subject of scrutiny for years - though they seem to have a teflon-like skin.    And it's not so different to the powers-that-be turning a blind eye to other scandals and depravities, both financial and moral.

For instance, crimes like paedophilia have been swept under the carpet for yonks.  In the Catholic Church paedophiles have been tucked away and protected by the establishment for decades; and what about the 4,000 infants buried in unmarked and unconsecrated graves in a septic tank within the grounds of a home for unwed mothers run by Catholic nuns from 1925-1961?

 See:         http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ireland-mass-graves-government-may-launch-inquiry-into-800-children-found-in-septic-tank-9487946.html

Just yesterday, there came another revelation of institutional child sex abuse going back decades - this time in the Methodist Church.

See:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32909444

Besides, secular institutions and non-religious characters are also capable of  "crimes of moral destruction"- especially in the entertainment media - Jimmy Saville, Rolf Harris, Gary Glitter, Dave Lee Travis, the list goes on.  Such perfidy has also touched those who were elected representatives and defenders of democracy in the British Houses of Parliament.  Names like Cyril Smith, Rhodes Boyson, and Leon Brittan have cropped up again and again, together with stories of cover-ups by their Parliamentary peers, and the wider establishment.

Here in my home patch in Leicester there's the case of the Labour MP for Leicester West, Lord Greville Janner.

Decades ago, Leicester folks knew "it was a matter of office gossip that he liked boys, or young men in their mid-20s".

Lord Greville Janner of Braunstone

Here's an outline of  Lord Janner's "crime that will not speak its name".

From Mail Online 26 April 2015

Twenty two offences, nine victims.   But Lord Greville Janner's dementia got him off the hook.   Well, here's a comment in one of the newspaper reports regarding Janner's disability to be charged in court for sex offences .......

Read more in : http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/greville-janner-how-mps-rallied-to-defence-of-a-man-unfairly-put-through-hell-by-a-wicked-slur-10183177.html


Maybe Leicester needs an American style  FBI and State Department sponsored investigation???

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And now we have the most recent knave of moral transgression - FIFA - as exposed by the FBI .

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Here are four titillations to be considered.

1.  President Vladimir Putin argues that the criminal inquiry is aimed at ousting Sepp Blatter.... as punishment for continuing to support Russia as host for the 2018 World Cup.

2.  Why is the US policing  soccer,  ooops football?

Qatar beat US to the 2022 bid for the World Cup

Read : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-32889845

 According to a BBC report: "The pantheon of world soccer  [ooops, that word again]  has a new hero".    And who is it?     It's US Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch

Read:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32912118


3.  Working in conjunction with US is Switzerland.   Switzerland has abandoned her banking secrecy provisions (now undertaken by Singapore and Hong Kong instead) and is no longer a heaven for tax evasion and money laundering; in addition, the Swiss Parliament recently classified heads of sporting associations as "politically exposed persons".     The Swiss now launch an investigation into Fifa over its "financial irregularities".   ("Traditionally," said The BBC, " Fifa has been subject to the vaguest legislation, its book-keeping standards needing to be no more rigorous than those of the village ski club" ).            

All well and good.     But ....what about that doyen of international banking, HSBC?  A report in February 2015 (in The Guardian) revealed how the Swiss failed to  supervise or control HSBC Swiss from hiding large sums of money paid in by drug runners, "politically exposed persons" like political figures and their relatives involved in corruption, money laundering, blood diamond trading, corrupt military sales and also the looters from the former Soviet Union.

Read : http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/08/hsbc-files-expose-swiss-bank-clients-dodge-taxes-hide-millions?CMP=share_btn_tw

And as for the fourth titillation:


4.  According to Jason Ditz, "Already we're seeing a dramatic shift in focus for the FIFA conference, and the planned vote on suspending Israel for the mistreatment of Palestinians seems almost certain to be delayed".

Read : http://news.antiwar.com/2015/05/28/timely-us-arrests-against-fifa-may-delay-israel-vote


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Predictable Postscript:

Heard the news an hour ago that Sepp Blatter was re-elected.  It does help when every country, however tiny or poor are given one vote each - just like USA or UK or Australia.

Also, as predicted, Israel was not kicked out of  FIFA.

Have a fragrant weekend.  I hope to go out and smell the roses.