It’s what they’ve always wanted. The soccer world was gazing straight at the United States last week.
Forget the World Cup of 1994. Now Uncle Sam was making waves which could reverberate for eternity and beyond.
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The dramatic revelations that the FBI were after FIFA had suddenly catapulted the beautiful game into everyone’s conscious in an instant. Don’t worry about trying to sell MLS to the masses. Just chase after Sepp Blatter and his cronies. Watch the interest grow.
Attorney general Loretta Lynch has instantly become the new darling of US soccer. The newspapers here, so top heavy with the traditional sports which dominate the conversation 365 days a year, were scrambling around with the rest of the planet to gesticulate about the horrors revealed by the men in suits from the FBI.
People who have zero interest in soccer have been talking about it this week. The shenanigans in the Zurich madhouse have been headline material since Wednesday.
The sickening sums of money Jeffrey Webb (below), head of CONCACAF which includes the United States in its membership, has been accused of filtering through the Miami-based TV marketing company Traffic was simply too much for the authorities to stomach.
FIFA corruption on another Brazil magazine cover with Blatter and locals: L-R Del Nero, Havelange, Marin, Teixeira. pic.twitter.com/ESOI65rIel
— Stephen Wade (@StephenWadeAP) May 31, 2015
Webb, who is from the Cayman Islands yet owns properties in Georgia, has strong links with the United States. This was, don’t forget, the man who urged to clean the game up in North America in a now laughable era of transparency.
A member who was on the FIFA audit committee yet, somehow, failed to see New Yorker Chuck Blazer – the first American to serve as a FIFA executive for 50 years – and former partner in crime Jack Warner run amok with millions of CONCACAF funds which started in the 1990s.
The repercussions on this side of the Atlantic could be felt for some time yet.
There are myriad US ties with potentially more to come. Blazer, who was ultimately used by the FBI as a turncoat, has represented US soccer since the 1980s. His disgraceful extortion of millions of CONCACAF funds to help satisfy his greed for lavish meals and large apartments on Fifth Avenue have long since cast a stain on the game.
Indeed, it was Blazer’s decision to turn whistleblower rather than spend the rest of his life in jail, which sensationally put the cat firmly amongst the pigeons. His self-serving, selfish actions have long been known.
Cover story in Brazil magazine on arrest of Marin: headline: Corruption meets FIFA standards. pic.twitter.com/U2XGVcIse7
— Stephen Wade (@StephenWadeAP) May 30, 2015
Yet the arrest of Aaron Davidson casts another dark shadow over US soccer. Davidson was a key player in ensuring the NASL – effectively the second tier behind MLS – made a comeback in 2009. He also owned Traffic whose links were strengthened when Enrique Sanz, who was responsible for business development within the CONCACAF region, was poached by Webb in 2012 to become the governing body’s general secretary.
The links run deep and now have been blown wide open for the world to gape at with growing disdain and despair. What a blow for NASL commissioner Bill Peterson who has worked tirelessly to establish his League as a true force.
Traffic helped fund four teams and currently own the Carolina RailHawks. Their Brazilian parent company have also been implicated in wrongdoing.
The financial implications for the NASL could be severe. Action from Peterson was swift, suspending Davidson, along with all business activities with Traffic Sports.
Fifa vice-president Jeffrey Webb accused of abusing his position to “solicit and collect bribes from sports marketing executives”. #fifa
— Ben Rumsby (@ben_rumsby) May 27, 2015
There was more. Next year’s Copa America is due to be played here.
It was going to be special too with North American, Central American and Caribbean teams all taking part to celebrate its centenary. Yet the revelations that the FBI are investigating bribes totaling $110m (around $40m are said to have already been paid) have sadly put the tournament in doubt. US soccer president Sunil Gulati is unsure if it will go ahead at all.
At a time when the beautiful game is booming, that would be a sorry hammer-blow to contend with, the kind of dirty scandal sponsors and backers don’t need any invitation to run a mile from.
Webb, CONCACAF and their dear leader Blatter have a lot to answer for. And, for that, we can thank the United States.
