In case one wonders why the United States is enforcing this:
"U.S. investigators got help from Chuck Blazer, the longtime general secretary of the confederation, the New York Daily News reported in November. Blazer wore a hidden recording device in a keychain to meetings with soccer officials at the London Olympics and elsewhere, the paper said. The IRS had leverage over Blazer: He hadn’t paid taxes on millions of income for more than a decade, according to the paper.
...
The choice of Qatar for the 2022 tournament angered many nations, and the U.S. in particular. The U.S. was beaten in a final vote run-off with the emirate after rival offers from Australia, South Korea and Japan had been eliminated in previous rounds. Former President Bill Clinton led a U.S. group that traveled to Zurich to make a final pitch to voters."
> The investigation into Blazer’s tax affairs turned up some choice claims about his lifestyle - including the revelation that Concacaf paid $18,000 a month for his Trump Towers apartment, and another $6,000 a month for a second Trump Towers flat, used mainly by his cats.
I just read the NYDN report. Surely some FIFA officials (and their counsel) knew something like this was coming.
The report also mentions Blazer is gravely ill with colon cancer. Does anyone know how the prospect of one of the star witnesses being unable to testify would impact the prosecution's raid/trial timeline?
"U.S. investigators got help from Chuck Blazer, the longtime general secretary of the confederation, the New York Daily News reported in November. Blazer wore a hidden recording device in a keychain to meetings with soccer officials at the London Olympics and elsewhere, the paper said. The IRS had leverage over Blazer: He hadn’t paid taxes on millions of income for more than a decade, according to the paper.
...
The choice of Qatar for the 2022 tournament angered many nations, and the U.S. in particular. The U.S. was beaten in a final vote run-off with the emirate after rival offers from Australia, South Korea and Japan had been eliminated in previous rounds. Former President Bill Clinton led a U.S. group that traveled to Zurich to make a final pitch to voters."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-27/u-s-starts...