For Americans who hear some brief comment on FIFA......they are generally lost....so this is intended for non-German benefit and bring people up to an understanding level.
FIFA is the international body which acts like the NFL's headquarters....except over soccer around the world. There are various committees and departments to FIFA. There's a disciplinary committee for the bad boys or bad managers. There's a department over rules. There's a group to handle complaints. And finally, there's a committee to handle the World Cup selection.
The World Cup, for those you without any knowledge of soccer, is held every four years and geared to be like the NFL play-offs. X number of teams meet in one country.....play out a series of games, and then move up. A championship game occurs at the end and crowns the champion of this World Cup.
Why not have the World Cup yearly? It's roughly five weeks long and takes up the bulk of summer vacation for most players.
I should note here that the series is always held in July and has been that way for decades.
So competition for the World Cup country is a big deal. Countries wine and dine the selection committee. The country has to show they have the resources to handle a minimum of a million guests coming in, and have modern stadiums. If modern stadiums are a problem.....then they have to build the stadiums, and ensure transportation capabilities will get fans to it.
For decades, there's been accusations of the selection committee getting bribes to give the World Cup to certain countries. No evidence has ever been shown.....until this past week. What the FBI says.....as selection committee members were arrested in Switzerland (where their headquarters is located)......is that bribes were used for the 1994 World Cup in the US, and in 2014 in Brazil. They have evidence to support the arrests.
What people generally think is that Russia (2018) and Qater (2022) also paid bribes, and that this is more of an attempt to get these guys talking over new stuff, than over the old stuff.
The amount of the bribes? Unknown. Taxation issues? It hasn't been discussed yet, but I'd think that some folks are in serious tax episodes if this is proven.
Hostility brewing? Oddly, ever since the Qatar announcement....a lot of folks are peeved. When the hot summer weather was discussed.....the selection committee suggested that it could all be overcome. Roughly a year after picking Qatar......the FIFA folks now suggest that it's not possible to play in hot weather, and the schedule will be radically changed (championship game ending the week before Christmas). This got a lot of the players and fans disturbed and angry. It was regarded as a five-star lie when Qatar got the games, and people think the selection committee got paid off.
Jail time? Oddly.....if convicted....these guys could be facing a couple years in some federal prison.
That's the whole thing in a nutshell.
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