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John Oliver: FIFA and the World Cup (Original Post) Renew Deal Jun 2014 OP
John has truly found his groove. trumad Jun 2014 #1
More on that film FIFA found $25m in spare change to fund muriel_volestrangler Jun 2014 #2
WHat a bunch of smug looking assholes... joeybee12 Jun 2014 #3

muriel_volestrangler

(101,146 posts)
2. More on that film FIFA found $25m in spare change to fund
Wed Jun 11, 2014, 06:56 AM
Jun 2014

I wonder how much they had to pay Tim Roth to throw away his credibility?



Starring Tim Roth – the actor famous for playing the duplicitous Mr Orange in Reservoir Dogs – as Fifa’s current president Sepp Blatter, Gérard Depardieu as the World Cup creator Jules Rimet, and the New Zealand actor Sam Neill as Blatter’s predecessor João Havelange, it bills itself as the story of “a group of passionate European mavericks” who “join forces on an ambitious project: the Fédération Internationale de Football Association”. The trailer, however, largely depicts men in a boardroom discussing football administration.

The film cost a reported £19m to make, with Fifa said to have pumped £16m into the project, and flatteringly portrays Blatter, Rimet and Havelange as visionaries and icons of the global game. Blatter himself was reported to have tweaked the script.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/may/22/fifa-film-tim-roth-sepp-blatter


Why Sepp Blatter sees Fifa, not Qatar, as the true victim of prejudice

The Swiss has finally stopped pretending to govern a sporting body and openly placed himself on a par with heads of state

Why have people assumed that Sepp Blatter is talking about Qatar when he accuses the British media of “racism” toward unnamed parties? I have another theory, given the persecuted tenor of the rest of the Fifa president’s comments: that he has finally gone the whole hog and perceives Fifa itself to be a race. For a man who has for so long characterised himself as noble yet besieged, you have to think Fifa-ism was always the next logical step.

At no stage in his provocative rallying cry to the African and Asian football confederations this week did Blatter explicitly delineate what he felt was racist about journalists exposing bribery and corruption in what amounts to the awarding of billion-dollar contracts. But the overwhelming focus of his dewy-eyed speeches about defending Fifa against those who seek to destroy it suggests that Herr Blatter casts world football’s governing body itself as the true victim of prejudice.

“Once again there is a sort of storm against Fifa relating to the Qatar World Cup,” he warned. “Sadly there’s a great deal of discrimination and racism and this hurts me.”
...
Admittedly, there are a few glitches in my thesis – the principal one being that not three years ago, a certain Sepp Blatter was explaining how racism didn’t exist in football. If I recall correctly what we’ll flatter as his reasoning, so-called “racism” can all be solved with a handshake, because the world of football is only a game. As underscored by the allegation that Qatar’s Mohamed bin Hammam helped broker a major natural gas deal between his country and Thailand, via the latter’s Fifa representative. Small boys in the park, jumpers for goalposts, rush goalie … marvellous.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/jun/11/sepp-blatter-fifa-qatar
 

joeybee12

(56,177 posts)
3. WHat a bunch of smug looking assholes...
Wed Jun 11, 2014, 12:51 PM
Jun 2014

Sam Neill looks like hell, Gerard is an asshat, wouldn't watch anything with him anyway.

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