Fighting FIFA's corruption is a side effect at best for the US, this is a money making exercise. Improving your foreign trade balance if you will.

The ethics committe has banned Platini and Blatter from football for 8 years.
Joyeux Noël Michel.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/dec/21/sepp-blatter-michel-platini-banned-from-football-fifa

I like the fact that the head of the ethics committee is the same guy who basically covered up everything from the Garcia report

For years they've virtually dismissed all accusations of corruption and yet now are suspending people left right and centre.

Great news, now we just need someone to investigate and suspend the ethics committee.

I love how Blatter is almost outright saying that the whole point of this "ethics committee" was to protect him and his cronies, and now he's furious that they've turned coats.

jones wrote:

Fighting FIFA's corruption is a side effect at best for the US, this is a money making exercise. Improving your foreign trade balance if you will.

that money is a rounding error in the justice department.

Isn't the Department of State responsible for that?

And a rounding error here or there still constitute a cash injection of a billion or two for the dept. You don't really believe the U.S. are doing this to fight corruption, do you

The USA has a fair share of soccer fans who care about the game.  Lots of kids playing soccer throughout the country.  You see it all the time driving by schools.   The sport came late to the American scene, and the big three rule in the burgeoning sports industry. 
The new AG at Justice at the very least has gotten the ball rolling, so to speak.  Who else out there in the legal arena is pushing hard?

I'm pretty sure the sport came to the U.S. as early as to everyone else, think they finish 3rd or something in the very first WC. And yeah while you have lots of kids playing it it's blatantly not as popular as other sports or as football is in other countries, not really necessary to explain that is it?

Explain what?

Soccer didn't come to my area of the Northeast until the mid fifties or so.  Hungarians fleeing the Soviet Union brought soccer to the area where people had never seen it play. Today, kids play in school leagues, and soccer is very, very popular in certain areas.  Great rivalries.  My girlfriend's son's team just won their league championship, major underdog.  That high school is in a town of 15,000.  Some parents prefer their children playing soccer instead of American football. You can figure out why.  And frankly, if the state of amateur soccer is healthier than professional soccer, then that's fine by me.  

It may never make it as a major, major professional sport here, but it has made inroads. The sport has continued to grow in a gradual way over the years.  It's just not part of the fabric of the culture like MLB, NFL and to a lesser degree NBA.  You can watch as much professional soccer as you want on TV.  The sports packages offer southern hemisphere, premier league, bundesliga, la liga, etc. So the media is catering to the sports fan who enjoys the sport.  

:hat:

mags wrote:

Explain what?

That football is not nearly as popular in the U.S. as it is in comparable countries. Or Africa or South America for that matter.

Really? Who would have thought that?
:hat:
Seriously, don't quite get the point you are trying to make, unless it's just your usual USA bashing.

I think Jones is trying to say that helping remove corruption from football isn't the US's main priority when taking down FIFA.

Why do you dispute the point then in the first place

But yeah, when I say other countries care more about football than you it's just my usual USA bashing, sure. Now jog on.

edit: what Ray says

Ray, I get what he is saying.  IMO, It's a chance for the relatively new Attorney General to make a name and bring an international case to the fore. The AG saw an opportunity where  others, i.e.,  the major football nations, fear to tread.  Regardless of what you or anyone else thinks is the priority, the point being is that  a not so major football nation has taken the lead in bringing down Blatter World. Thank you.
 
Jones, These are your words "that the country that cares the least about football " is leading the investigation.  As I pointed out, soccer is well and alive in the USA.  Not a major, major sport, but loved by millions of sports fans over here.    Just don't get the thinking that you need to be a major power in soccer to lead the legal battle.

Go chill. :hat:
END

Seriously guys and gals!
Whatever the reason it is a great thing for this cancer to be removed.
Don't care if the richest country in the world takes all the money as none of the other countries had the balls to do so and, worse, joined in the corruption dance.
My only issue is wondering what this soccer of which they speak is.

mags wrote:

As I pointed out, soccer is well and alive in the USA.  Not a major, major sport, but loved by millions of sports fans over here.    Just don't get the thinking that you need to be a major power in soccer to lead the legal battle.

You've completely missed the point. This statement and mine do not exclude each other, it can be loved by millions of school kids and their "soccer moms" and still have clearly less importance to your country than to every other Western nation (Western because they are the prominent FIFA members).

Regarding the rest of your post, the only thing I said is the U.S. haven't taken down Blatter out of love for the game or even to fight corruption because it's morally wrong. Whether it is to get some money out of it or because of a new Attorney General (which I didn't know about), there are certainly ulterior motives for their clamping down on an organisation which has been corrupted and rotten for decades. And if the new guy is anything like their predecessor Eric Holder I'd trust them even less than FIFA themselves.

edit: Just checked, it's Loretta Lynch. She was leading the HSBC case a few years back wasn't she? Not exactly what you'd call a paragon of virtue either.

As a final note, you should take your own advice and chill mags, my post wasn't an attack on your great homeland. If anything it's directed against the big European FAs, everyone knows how all FA cadres are deeply corrupt or at the very least have nepotism issues, it's still embarrassing that nobody from the lower ranks or so managed to launch a proper investigation.

And it is loved not can be loved by millions of fans, men, women and children, not just kids and "their soccer moms"...

And now you say your attack is:
 \
If anything it's directed against the big European FAs, everyone knows how all FA cadres are deeply corrupt or at the very least have nepotism issues, it's still embarrassing that nobody from the lower ranks or so managed to launch a proper investigation. 

You might have started with that sentence rather than your put down about why the AG is going after FIFA, you know America, billions, blah, blah, blah.
In any case, Blatter and company are under serious attack. 

You have your point of view. I can't make up my mind what it is - the corrupt European FAs, Attorney General's not so pristine and possibly ulterior motives, or both, and then some. 

I have my point of view.  Blatter World is being pursued in the American courts because major football nations fear to tread. 

We'll see how it all plays out.  Emphasis on the word "out" preceded by Blatter.
:hat:

Honestly, I don't care too much about 'why'. It needed to be done, the need has been there for a long time, and now finally things are moving.