Soccer?

It is very frustrating to see what power the mafia FIFA has over South Africa.

Obviously what they do is not to the benefit of the country but to the benefit of their own pockets.

I wonder who in our government received how big bribes to bring the silly soccer to South Africa?

It is said that South Africa so far spent R63 Billion on infrastructure for the world cup soccer, while the country has a huge unemployment figure and people living in shacks and dreadful conditions. With the R63 billion we could provide housing for more than 600,000 families in South Africa. Or we could provide food for a year to 5 million poor people in South Africa.

What upsets me even more is the way FIFA bully and manipulate everybody in the country. I see in this morning’s City Press (sorry, that article has been deleted, try this link) that our country will not even be allowed to charge FIFA tax on most of the revenue they bring in. Thus they will bring the money into the country and take it out with them without South Africa ever seeing a cent of benefit from it.

Here is an excerpt of the article:

A senior government official said: “Fifa are a bunch of thugs. Not even the UN expects you to sign away your tax base. These mafiosos do.”

The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has been forced to accede to an extraordinary “tax ­bubble” around “Fifa-designated sites” which ­exempts Fifa, its subsidiaries and foreign football ­associations from paying income tax, customs ­duties and value-added tax (VAT).

As a consequence South Africa, which has already spent R63 billion, will stand to lose tens or possibly hundreds of millions of rand in potential revenue.

According to a document compiled by SARS, by the end of April R613 million worth of goods had been imported into South Africa for the tournament. Rebates of R118 million were paid out on those imports in line with special tax measures for the World Cup.

The National Treasury says it is unable to provide estimates of the amount of foreign currency brought into and taken out of SA, but said one of the guarantees was “unrestricted import and export”.

Some of Fifa’s commercial affiliates, licensees, host broadcasters, broadcast rights agencies, ­merchandise partners and service providers will not pay taxes on the profits they make during the World Cup. But VAT will be paid on ticket sales and foreign-based soccer players will be taxed on income they receive for playing in the tournament.

I see that they will most probably not even use local reporters at the games. The goods they sell will not be local goods and those they are selling will not be taxed. They also did not want to use local artists for the opening, but seems like after a big fight some local artists are now included in the opening. And so we can continue the list of how FIFA uses South Africa and its people as tool to enrich themselves without giving back to the country as much as they should.

So, who is the soccer for, for South Africa or for FIFA’s pockets?

It is not only me who thinks that FIFA is corrupt and uses others to enrich themselves. You should read FOUL by Andrew Jennings. Click here to buy it now

Here is an excerpt from the Kalahari.net review:

Andrew Jennings, an award-winning investigative sports reporter, spent four years delving into the dark side of ‘the beautiful game’. The result is this explosive and damning expose of the officials that run football’s world governing body, FIFA , now fully updated with the political fallout from World Cup 2006. No individual has managed to penetrate the sanctified domain of FIFA and probed successfully into its often criticized yet unproven corruption of the world game. Until now. Author Andrew Jennings argues how FIFA President Sepp Blatter and his associates have misappropriated their position at the head of the world game in their desire for power, control, and a lucrative pay-off. How did these bizarre characters manage to take such control? Foul! is the explosive story. Jennings has undertaken unprecedented research in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, interviewing hundreds of officials and amassing an extraordinary library of damning documents. He tells how Blatter and his cronies built an invincible electoral machine to keep him in power forever. He revisits the 1970s and the privatization of international sport and its revenues by a close-knit group of officials and marketing agents working for their own self-interest. And he brings the story up to date with new disclosures about how Germany won the contest to stage the 2006 World Cup and the inside story on the dirty battle to host 2010.

FOUL FIFA

Also Read Player and Referee Conflicting Interests and the 2010 FIFA World Cup (TM) by the institute for Security Studies

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