/(2)kissinger-eat-jsb.jpg)
/(1)fat_man_mcdonalds.jpg)
Hard Man Henry Kissinger will boot out Blatter
We do know why Bulgaria’s Ivan Slavkov had to go. A BBC Panorama programme caught him in 2004 with his hand out for bribes. Lord Seb Coe leant a helping hand to the Commission, and of course there was Blatter, appointed the previous year as new head organiser of Zurich Local 666 of the International Corruption Cartel and his mentor João Havelange.
That all happened in the early Spring of 1999. I attended many tedious press conferences through the year as the IOC members wrestled with high-falutin’ moral topics – and some cosmetic constitutional changes. In December the IOC reforms document was handed round. What had Kissinger been doing? At the press conference I asked him about a crucial point; was the IOC going to continue selecting its members?
Kissinger replied, ‘I haven’t read it carefully.’
BLOOD ON THE PITCH
THE IOC HAD to ‘let go’ a few grasping members. But the rest were pretty much united, chanting the mantra of Olympic idealism. It’s not the same at FIFA. There’s a determined land grab going on spearheaded from New York by Chuck Blazer and backed up by the Partners. It’s war.
There’ll be blood on the pitch. Two other executive committee members are said to have been present in Trinidad. At this rate their ruling committee may soon be inquorate. Ex-FBI boss Louis Freeh has been hired to investigate since the day the Warner-Bin Hammam dollar fest was blown out. Mr Freeh made his name taking down Mobsters in New York. FIFA should give him a free hand to take down what increasingly appears to be an organised crime family at the heart of world football.
That’s good. Except that Chuck Blazer who launched the attack on Warner, is now being heralded as the ‘Mr Clean’ of FIFA. Is this the same official who for 20 years failed to be bothered by Jack Warner’s rapacious activities?
WHERE DOES it all end? We found out in February 2006 when IOC President Jaques Rogge, sliced, diced and reconstituted by the Partners, made an historic announcement at a McDonalds burgers ‘Balanced lifestyles’ press conference on the eve of the Torino winter games. ‘McDonald’s has supported the Olympic Movement for more than 30 years now, and we share many of the same ideals,’ said Rogge without looking at his cue card. So much for the war against obesity.
Rogge has a further task to perform for the Partners. As part of the clear-out at FIFA, his Ethics Commission has to hurry up with their investigation of dual membership officials involved in the ISL bribes scandal.
TOSS THE BUMS OUT
Africa’s Issa Hayatou, Blatter and Havelange were named by BBC Panorama last November in the programme that the English FA and the FIFA toadies insulted as ‘unpatriotic.’ Hopefully they’ve learned their lesson – and so has the IOC. Do your duty Jacques – toss the bums out. Henry Kissinger and the Partners will require nothing less.
The voters who clung to Sepp will find themselves national and international jokes; 186 discredited officials, some twits, some venal thugs. They voted for corruption, shafted their own fans, pocketed their FIFA expenses for the Zurich trip, deluded that they would be listened to by the Blatter henchmen.
Scotland and England may yet emerge as homes of the brave football officials who withstood the onslaught of despicable FIFA dupes – and from too much of their own media.
Sunday Herald, June 5, 2011