said and done fifa special
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jun/05/fifa-sepp-blatter
Quote:
August 2010
• Sepp – who says Fifa used the South Africa World Cup to "give hope to the world that through football we can become better human beings" – prepares to run for four more years in June's election. Among his early backers: Qatar's Mohamed bin Hammam, dismissing talk that he'll challenge: "Let me be clear. I will be backing Sepp Blatter to remain in office. He's my very good friend!"
September
David Beckham
• Focus shifts to the 2018/2022 vote in December. England 2018's bid team send David Beckham to Trinidad to coach 200 young players; Holland 2018 send Ruud Gullit there to train 25 coaches. Trinidad's Jack Warner says the gestures are "very heartening".
• Leaked documents show Fifa demanding all bidding nations guarantee them "full tax exemption" on "all revenues, profits, income, expenses, investments, and any and all kind of payments, in cash or otherwise".
• Elsewhere, Fifa executive Amos Adamu fails to appear in court in Nigeria on contempt charges, two months after telling the press: "The public sees every football administrator as a corrupt person and I cannot explain why. We should be more transparent to prove them wrong."
October
• Adamu, cleared in Nigeria, is caught in the Sunday Times sting trying to sell his 2018 vote. Sepp suspends him and five others, then nails the real villains: "Is it appropriate how the media trapped some members of the committee? Why did they do it? We talk about fair play in sport – that must apply to the media too." US member Chuck Blazer says the press must back off and stop creating "scams", while former executive Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder says the scandal has been overplayed: "Look, Fifa is not a pile of corrupt people. It is just that some of them took a wrong turn."
• Meanwhile, Fifa donate $25k from their $1.2bn reserves to ex-Togo goalkeeper Kodjovi Obilale, 10 months after he was shot at the Africa Cup of Nations and left unable to pay $100k medical bills. Following negative press, Fifa up the donation. Obilale: "It's a rotten world."
November
Amos Adamu
• Fifa ban six officials, including Adamu. Sepp: "I'm very satisfied. All doubts have been cast aside."
• Adamu, meanwhile, sends a text to all his phone contacts. "Hello, this is Amos. My email account has been hacked ... Anyone asking for money on my behalf is lying. Please do not send money to anyone. Thank you."
• Elsewhere, Spain's Marca quotes Bin Hammam as saying a vote-trade between Qatar 2022 and Spain-Portugal 2018 would be "not at all illegal ... lots of bids do it". Bin Hammam says the report is a "fabricated deception"; Fifa clear both bids of collusion.
December
Russia wins 2018, Qatar wins 2022
• Sepp says he's "a happy man" that Fifa is breaking barriers in "new lands" (though "gay people should refrain from sexual activities" in Qatar). Argentina's Julio Grondona denies he backed Qatar only after they offered him $78.4m to ease his FA's debt crisis: "Enough with all this. The belittling of my good name must end." England are trounced after Sepp warns voters of "the evils of the media", while general secretary Jérôme Valcke says the process was "perfectly organised and perfectly transparent". Jack Warner says: "Fifa lives by its principle of fair play."
January
Julio Grondona
• Grondona flies home to Argentina to deny claims he threatened a referee who alleged "systemic corruption": "I hardly know this referee. Nothing can be proven."
• Bin Hammam says he'll run against Sepp after all, on a pro-transparency ticket. Sepp reacts by pledging "a new anti-corruption unit" – then backs down four days later after "unease" among his executives.
• Sepp also attacks the International Olympic Committee for launching an inquiry into new claims against African Confederation member Issa Hayatou ("The IOC? They have no transparency! They manage their money like a housewife"), and says he'll pay new $250k bonuses to all Fifa members ahead of the voting in June.
February
• Accounts confirm Fifa made a $631m tax-free profit from South Africa, backing Sepp's verdict that the summer was "a love story... a love story between the African continent and me".
• He also opens up about collusion in the 2018/2022 process, now the dust has settled. "I'll be honest. There was a bundle of votes between Spain and Qatar. It was there. But it didn't work."
March
Mohamed bin Hammam
• Bin Hammam steps up the pace, insisting he'll bring an "absolute ethical, democratic and transparent environment" to Fifa – two years after his then Asian Confederation election rival Chung Mong-joon said Hammam represented "a serious lack of transparency and democracy" and "behaves like a mental". Bin Hammam also offers to double Sepp's grants to voters and reassures the football family that the contest will be clean: "President Blatter is a colleague and friend."
• Sepp, meanwhile, embarks on a pre-election tour of Asia, meeting Zaw Zaw, head of Burma's FA and a key backer of the ruling military junta linked to extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture and rape.
April
• Under pressure from Bin Hammam, Sepp brings back his anti-corruption unit proposal, promising a surprise for voters at June's congress. "I will present something very special!"
• Chung says he now backs the previously "mental" Bin Hammam: "He is the right man to bring change," while Bin Hammam calls on the FA for support. "I hope they trust me. Why shouldn't they?"
• In Brazil, Ricardo Teixeira, head of the 2014 World Cup, says calls from politicians for an inquiry into alleged financial irregularities on his committee are "an absurd insult".
May
Chuck Blazer
• With congress approaching, Panorama, Lord Triesman and Blazer take the number of Fifa executives denying corruption to 10, including Warner, Teixeira and Bin Hammam, who withdraws his candidacy. The FA abstain on a point of principle (six months after calling Panorama "an embarrassment to the BBC") while Warner says the allegations made him "laugh like hell". Sepp, cleared of counter-claims, disowns his executives ("I didn't choose them"), and again nails the real problem: "The British press have long been very critical."
June
• Congress ends. As delegates praise Sepp, Grondona says the English press were "more busy lying than telling the truth". Then he flies home to contest a lawsuit accusing him of "fraudulent economic interests". Sepp says that, after a tough few months, it's time to move on. "The Fifa ship is back on course! Now, let us make some headway."
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