Says he wants to publish damning report… June 24, 2010: THE TIMING was brilliant. I don’t believe the prosecutors in Zug conspired with FIFA to release their statement as the first round of the World Cup in South Africa was ending and the eyes of fans were on teams advancing …
Read More »Into the blogosphere: Wired868’s most read blogs of 2014
Brian Lara versus Sachin Tendulkar, the secret thoughts of a cussbud Minister, an internationally recognised community football coach in Chaguanas and constitutional reform debate were all among our best read posts for 2014. Here is our Top Ten list: 10. Cricket’s ‘Greatest’ debate: Santa Cruz statistician Franklyn “Uncle Frank” Hernandez …
Read More »Omertà (Part five): Looting Brazilian Football
Chapter five: Ricardo’s favourite shoemaker IF YOU BELIEVE Ricardo, he discovered the world’s most generous bank. It was located in Vaduz, in Europe, it lent him millions and charged interest, in the words of the Senator Alvaro Dias investigation, ‘absurdly below market rates.’ In fact, he never paid any interest …
Read More »Omertà (Part four): At Last! The Secret Bribes List
Chapter 4: How Mobsters João and Ricardo got rich Baur au Lac hotel,Zurich October 2010 ‘Mr Teixeira, Mr ‘Teixeira!’ Ricardo turns to look. It is a scruffy, grey-haired man in a Joe Colombo-style beige raincoat shouting at him from the hotel gateway. ‘Mr Teixeira, did you take your bribes through …
Read More »Omertà (Part Three): Havelange’s Golden Briefcase
Chapter 3: Havelange’s Golden Briefcase: Why is it so heavy when he leaves Zurich? ZURICH AIRPORT, anytime, 1974-1998. The easy thing for Rudi the chauffeur was meeting and greeting the FIFA President when his plane arrived from Paris. Havelange loved to stay a day or more in Paris on his …
Read More »Omertà: Sepp Blatter’s FIFA Organised Crime Family (Part 2)
Chapter 2 Best of Friends: The Crime Boss and the Boss of World Football (By Carolina Mazzi) IT IS RIO’S WEDDING of the year. The father of the bride is Brazil’s biggest gangster, racketeer and, they say, murderer of 50 rivals. He stays out of jail by paying off the …
Read More »Omertà: Sepp Blatter’s FIFA Organised Crime Family (Part I)
“Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios…” John Prine, Sam Stone, 1971 As this book is completed, we wait to see if the FBI will indict leading members of Blatter’s FIFA Family. The investigations by an FBI Organised Crime Squad, based in Federal Plaza, New York, began in …
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