FIFA the definition of corruption.

[Miracle@Istanbul]

I had to laugh the other day when one of the African FIFA delegates got sent home in disgrace for selling tickets for England's game against Trinidad and Tobago and then Sepp Blatter interviewed saying he will not stand for corruption in the FIFA organisation.

 

After the Panorama expose last week, I guess Blatter thinks he has to be seen to be doing something about how bent the organisation looks but they are going to need to a lot more than banish one rougue delagate.

 

Working in FIFA must be one of the best jobs in the world travelling the world on an expense account watching football trying not to be influenced as to which country you will grant the next world cup to.

[Figaro]

Any organisation that has Platini in a prominent position has to be allegedly dodgy

[Mike]

reckon the IOC runs it close

[DanielS]

All of the national and international sporting committees are populated by a large percentage of money-grubbing, backhander merchants. They're voted in through limited, closed-shop ballots and are answerable to nobody. Its a ridiculous situation all round.

[Miracle@Istanbul]

Its ridiculous for the fans who's cash runs the game yet have no say in how it runs, the ticketing situation for just about any big football match just highlights this. England fans are currently paying over £1000 for world cup tickets issued to corporate clients and Trinidad and Tabago were issued more tickets than England for their game, its just stupid.

[aka Dus]

Like every other 'voluntary' body, they should have limited and non-renewable terms of office. 4 years max in one position and no honorary life positions.

 

Very easy to sort out but I don't suppose the turkeys will vote for Christmas.

 

 

 

 

Its ridiculous for the fans who's cash runs the game yet have no say in how it runs, the ticketing situation for just about any big football match just highlights this. England fans are currently paying over £1000 for world cup tickets issued to corporate clients and Trinidad and Tabago were issued more tickets than England for their game, its just stupid.

 

FIFA didn't handle the ticketing but I take your point.

[Montse]

Poor little buggers, they must have been gutted....

 

Pupils back from World Cup fiasco

 

The children thought they had tickets to watch Portugal play Iran

Hundreds of Dorset and Hampshire schoolchildren have returned home from Germany after falling foul of a World Cup fake ticket mix-up.

Nearly 400 children from schools across the UK became caught up in the fiasco after leaving for Germany on Friday to watch football games on Saturday.

 

Parents were told they had match tickets as part of a £410-a-head tour.

 

The travel company involved, Activ4, said it would hold an emergency meeting to try to establish what happened.

 

Thirty boys from Portchester School, Bournemouth, Dorset, and a party of 23 from Mayville High School in Portsmouth returned home on Monday morning.

 

 

James Collins said it was hard to break the news to the boys

 

James Collins, PE teacher at Mayville High School, said: "We booked this tour in September 2005. They [the pupils] have been saving their pocket money for the last year.

 

"We got to Germany and on the day of the match our tour operator said that unfortunately there were no tickets. There had been a problem with our agent."

 

He said his group of boys were "absolutely devastated" when he told them.

 

He said: "I've never seen our group of boys so quiet in all my life."

 

Chris Bradey, headteacher of Portchester School, a specialist sports college, said: "The tickets had been sourced for them [the children] by the tour operator - and the tour operator has done nothing wrong - but let's just say the sourcing of the tickets proved to be of doubtful provenance."

 

This is absolutely regrettable for the young kids, because they have been deprived of a great opportunity to watch World Cup action

 

Andreas Herren, Fifa

 

Andrea Gritt, whose 11-year-old son Jaz was one of the 30 returning pupils, said she was shocked by what had happened.

 

She said: "Your son goes off on a school trip and it turns a bit disastrous.

 

"Although the staff made it really good and they've had a good time, the point was to go to a World Cup match.

 

"It didn't end up that way. It was just a trip to Germany really."

 

Andreas Herren, spokesman for Fifa, said: "This is absolutely regrettable for the young kids, because they have been deprived of a great opportunity to watch World Cup action.

 

"But unfortunately the incident confirms what Fifa and the local organising committee have been warning against from the start, that only tickets from official sources should be acquired and not other sources of a dubious nature.

 

"Unfortunately it is youngsters who are paying a high price for that."

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/5093838.stm

[Ostrich Man]

Andrea Gritt, whose 11-year-old son Jaz

deserves all he gets with a name like that.

[Gilps]

deserves all he gets with a name like that.

 

She was interviewed on the BBC local news today. Not only is she a daft-name-distributing bint, she's an attention-seeking-daft-name-distributing bint.