So today I am not going to restate the facts that I brought up a couple days ago, where we looked at the facts of the "High Risk" Qatar bid and amazed that somehow the facts didn't seem to matter. We knew that Jack Warner was corrupt, but now comes news that the betrayal of the USA 2022 bid starts at the top of the US Soccer community. You can go back to 1994's World Cup to know the influence of Chuck Blazer on every aspect of the beautiful game in America, but would you believe that the root of the US's defeat was Chuck Blazer?
Imagine what it would take for a citizen of US to not back the bid of their own nation? Yet a couple of sources are suggest just that:
In the 2022 race there are suggestions that Warner has not delivered his three Concacaf votes to the US which would mean, incredibly, that the American ExCo member Blazer did not even vote for his own country.
and then there is this:
The stink that is growing daily from the corrupt world cup hosting vote took a very bizarre twist today as news begins to filter through that Chuck Blazer the American general secretary of CONCACAF did not vote for his own country but for Qatar.
Blazer who is very close friends with ticket tout Jack Warner voted along with Warner to give Qatar the right to host world cup 2022 and thus go against their very own team from their very own federation.
Now while they don't name any sources, it is funny that such rumors quickly were reacted to by Blazer himself:
"Let there be no doubt, I happily confirm that I voted for the USA in each of the four ballots taken," he said. "I consider it an insult that anyone could presume anything else after 30 years of dedicated service to our sport in America."
With the voting being by secret ballot there is no way to know what the truth might really be, but it is clear that as the World continues to wonder about the recent round of FIFA voting, that the pampered lifestyle that members like Blazer enjoy (check out his own blog to see what I am talking about). We have seen this type of thing before with the IOC, and while scandals have happened at all levels of soccer it is clear that the indication is that we have entered a whole new level recently.
Of course it was Blazer who recently said of Qatar:
It is clear that the behind the closed doors at FIFA that lots of deals were being made, the shame is that it appears both World Cups were awarded because of deals and not on the merits of the actual bids. How bad is the corruption, well even the Tehran Times is covering it, read the full article that I quoted above from the New Zealand Herald to get the scope of the deals and double dealing that goes on.
I don't know how Chuck Blazer voted, but if you have read my blog for long I have often wondered if many of the power brokers of soccer in the US are more interested in what they can get out of the game, than doing what is best for the game. Things like this are what fuels my cynical view of FIFA, US Soccer, and even MLS.
OFF MY SOAPBOX