Maybe AIPAC needs to bribe the football bodies like they do the two cartel parties to get these organizations to look aside too. Hopefully, the organizations will prove to be a lot more ethical than America's operatives of its two cartel parties.
Yes, and the Israel lobby successfully "lobbied" (a current term for "bribed") both parties to pass laws in 38 states forbidding organizing boycotts (yep First Amendment limits imposed on American citizens by a foreign government) or advocating for divesting from these Israeli economic supports. It was done so quietly that most who live in these 38 states don't even know it. Do you know if the state you live in obligates you to such a "loyalty oath" to Netanyahu's government? Do you know if Democrats or Republicans took the bribes to pass it in your state?
"State treasurers act as the chief financial officer and banker for their state, responsible for managing state funds, investments, and debt." Is a pro Israel
Zionist and invests in Israeli bonds even if he can get a better rate elsewhere.
Usually there is a board that tracks things like retirement funds and reviews include auditors, so it is difficult to have an individual investing in substandard funds for political reasons go undetected. It's also the case of using articles of incorporation that aim to screw retirees is hardly an exclusive act committed by either Israel or MAGA. An example from the past year: https://www.deccanherald.com/world/delaware-lawmakers-approve-corporate-bill-that-critics-call-giveaway-to-billionaires-3462915.
This screwing of retirees was passed by a Democratic Party legislature. I think of them as "The Doggy Democrats of Delaware" because DOGE downloading all our personal data was at a peak while the Democrats of Delaware worked to dump on all retirees whose funds were invested in companies incorporated in Delaware.
Google CalPers vs. Delaware. CalPers detected what was going on and objected. Delaware cannot stop CalPers from divesting from the companies the Doggy Democrats don't want them to do. Neither can Bibi Nuts'n'Yahoos.
FIFA and UEFA - all about the money. It's that simple in my opinion. Regarding "international law", I think that hard to enforce concept is used when it's convenient, but not taking seriously by many countries and organizations. Even Rubio cited "international law" within the last 24 hours, and that's just a bad joke.
“Neutrality” from FIFA and UEFA is a joke at this point. They had no problem banning Russia overnight, but when it comes to Israel, suddenly everything is “complex.”
Letting settlement clubs play while ignoring international law isn’t staying out of politics—it’s taking a side. This isn’t about football anymore, it’s about selective accountability.
If the rules only apply to some countries, then they’re not rules at all.
FIFA is a for profit corporation, not a moral arbiter. Expecting them to act on abstract principles or international law is completely missing how they operate.
The reason they banned Russia in 2022 was not some sudden moral awakening. It was purely logistical and financial. In fact, FIFA tried as hard as it could to keep Russia in. They originally wanted them to just play under the name Football Union of Russia without their flag or anthem. They only folded when national teams from Europe, specifically Poland, Sweden, and the Czech Republic, flat out refused to play against them in the World Cup qualifiers. I am from Czechia, so I remember exactly how this played out and why they did it. You simply cannot run a tournament if teams refuse to take the pitch. On top of that, major sponsors were facing a massive PR nightmare, and UEFA had to tear up a 40 million a year deal with Gazprom.
The fact that Russia was violating international law was secondary to the bottom line of FIFA. Assuming they would ban a massive source of income based purely on principles is laughable. If you look at the countries currently allowed in FIFA or the Olympics, you will quickly realize almost all of them have violated international laws at some point.
So, until major European clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Man United, PSG, or Bayern Munich refuse to play Maccabi Tel Aviv, or a powerhouse like Germany decides they would rather forfeit a World Cup match and go home than play Israel, nothing will change. Until the biggest sponsors threaten to pull their money over bad PR, FIFA will not lift a finger.
The ugly truth is that while there is some pushback from certain fanbases, the general mood in the big European football countries, the ones that make up the vast majority of the revenue for FIFA, simply do not care enough to demand change. Especially compared to the sentiment against Russia, which is literally threatening to nuke Europeans. The average Joe is not going to want the team they love to forfeit matches over a cause that feels distant to them. Until the fans and the money demand a boycott, FIFA is just going to keep counting their cash.
So good to see your name, Abubaker. I hope you are doing well. How do we fans join the boycott . What steps can we take. Is there a petition? If not, let's start one tomorrow!
Thank you, Abubaker, for this excellent article! And even though the crimes you report in this article are indeed horrific and egregious, I am glad that you are reporting them, both to help the truth reach wider audiences so that Palestine will be free and to help you pursue your dream of football journalism.
Has the foreskin of memory been cut from the Israeli mind? The people's sight made short so that they forget the global outpouring of sympathy, commiseration, aid when their Olympic team was kidnapped and murdered in Munich in 1972? Movies, TV documentaries, and an on-site account by an Arab crew made sure the world would remember. Israel forgot.
I so hope the court cases are fruitful. I am not going to be watching it on the BBC as I'm boycotting the BBC and Im hoping that if Israel play the crowd stands with their backs turned and boos them a lot. Whether I will crack and watch it on a different channel, remains to be seen. The fact that they have not been barred has already spoilt it for me. Im outraged at the racism, because that is what it is.
FIFA leads a sport that has embraced top-down table management, arranging match outcomes, setting allowed scoring windows within matches, distribution of key-market teams in lower-level leagues by these management techniques of spreading pain and increasing overall marketability in a predictable way, shaping the flow of matches to ease highlight-package assembly and to simulate drama, and, generally, rearranging football on the model of a corporate entertainment product with predictable revenue streams while eliminating the uncertainties involved in reliance on the competition among athletes. That is, FIFA has overseen the elimination of sport from their sport, for the good of the game - as their lawyers would describe it, by way of covering the details of this nonsense under a nondisclosure agreement included in all the relevant contracts.
We have in football what we have in corporate sports around the world, starting in the US. It starts with a desire to switch from a family-ownership model of sports franchises to a corporate one. Corporate management has as one of its core goals, after profit maximization, the elimination of competition wherever possible. Whatever corporate monkeys say about competition and markets, the goal of big capitalists is to undo competition. There are several routes to achievement of this goal, but big sport has selected collusion. League always colluded at the highest levels, but competition was long excluded from such collusion. Family businesses and their leagues were hurt by gambling scandals early last century. The undermining of sporting competition was seen by the public as the breach of trust it is.
As society has plunged into a right-wing toilet, gambling has replaced former industry throughout the US. Leagues in the US arranged their corruption efforts starting in the early eighties, before gambling was everywhere, but gambling proceeded through Las Vegas and eventually spread. Leagues arranged table outcomes, playoff outcomes - the big stuff. It took time to build to full, top-down fixing of games, but apparently they felt they were leaving money on the table, because, in one form or another, that is where they went. The success of corporate US leagues - which grew in the transition to being fast, highlight-driven, late-drama-prioritizing entertainment product with staff and management changes followed in talk shows and then internet addiction - became a model for sports-management process around the world.
FIFA looks to me like a huge syndicate of crooked organizations, run to maximize corruption and central control for the benefit of the wealthiest people in and around the world's most popular sport. They and their member groups climbed into bed with big gambling - as inherently criminal a field of endeavor as we have tolerated as legal - at their first opportunity. Their fingerprints, along with those of big tech (an increasingly corrupt industry) on the web, appear all over football (like other corporate sport-entertainment), in the stadiums, on the uniforms, in the broadcasts, on the internet, and in the league offices. This goes in only one direction: more corruption and more fraud.
These people made deals with the Saudis immediately after their chopping up of a journalist and getting caught in scandalous treatment of migrant workers that caused much death and misery, similarly stood up a World Cup in the inappropriate location of Qatar, with more reliance on generally mistreated migrant workers.
Is it any surprise they are not only protecting rogue-state participation despite an ongoing ethnic cleansing and breach of legal borders, with the protection including teams from occupied cities? Is it worse that this happens while the rogue state indiscriminately bombs two (or more) other countries, targeting civilian infrastructure and vital services, as they did in Palestine's Gaza? Obviously, Israel is trying to max out the ICC toxicity meter. FIFA is fine with that, of course, so long as money keeps flowing.
I love your reporting. It is THE BEST investigative reporting. Facts and not a lot of BS commentary. I’m even sick of Rumble. Thank you always for your courage and bravery to consistently search for truth and your conviction to remain committed to telling it. Been following you all for a long time.
BTW. I subscribe to drop site and could listen to your Tuesday videos right from my email - no problem. I live for these videos! I received it today and when I click on watch video it takes me to a blank page with your drop site logo
Maybe AIPAC needs to bribe the football bodies like they do the two cartel parties to get these organizations to look aside too. Hopefully, the organizations will prove to be a lot more ethical than America's operatives of its two cartel parties.
"Numerous U.S. state treasuries and pension funds invest in Israeli bonds''.Another way that tax payer money is quietly funded into Israel.
Yes, and the Israel lobby successfully "lobbied" (a current term for "bribed") both parties to pass laws in 38 states forbidding organizing boycotts (yep First Amendment limits imposed on American citizens by a foreign government) or advocating for divesting from these Israeli economic supports. It was done so quietly that most who live in these 38 states don't even know it. Do you know if the state you live in obligates you to such a "loyalty oath" to Netanyahu's government? Do you know if Democrats or Republicans took the bribes to pass it in your state?
"State treasurers act as the chief financial officer and banker for their state, responsible for managing state funds, investments, and debt." Is a pro Israel
Zionist and invests in Israeli bonds even if he can get a better rate elsewhere.
I believe this is happening.
Usually there is a board that tracks things like retirement funds and reviews include auditors, so it is difficult to have an individual investing in substandard funds for political reasons go undetected. It's also the case of using articles of incorporation that aim to screw retirees is hardly an exclusive act committed by either Israel or MAGA. An example from the past year: https://www.deccanherald.com/world/delaware-lawmakers-approve-corporate-bill-that-critics-call-giveaway-to-billionaires-3462915.
This screwing of retirees was passed by a Democratic Party legislature. I think of them as "The Doggy Democrats of Delaware" because DOGE downloading all our personal data was at a peak while the Democrats of Delaware worked to dump on all retirees whose funds were invested in companies incorporated in Delaware.
Google CalPers vs. Delaware. CalPers detected what was going on and objected. Delaware cannot stop CalPers from divesting from the companies the Doggy Democrats don't want them to do. Neither can Bibi Nuts'n'Yahoos.
Does FIFA and UEFA need money that badly that they will step over murdered Palestinians for it?
The answer is obviously "yes."
It seems that the 94% of Congress taking AIPAC $$$ will do it just to preserve their job titles. It's hard to get more shallow than that.
FIFA and UEFA - all about the money. It's that simple in my opinion. Regarding "international law", I think that hard to enforce concept is used when it's convenient, but not taking seriously by many countries and organizations. Even Rubio cited "international law" within the last 24 hours, and that's just a bad joke.
“Neutrality” from FIFA and UEFA is a joke at this point. They had no problem banning Russia overnight, but when it comes to Israel, suddenly everything is “complex.”
Letting settlement clubs play while ignoring international law isn’t staying out of politics—it’s taking a side. This isn’t about football anymore, it’s about selective accountability.
If the rules only apply to some countries, then they’re not rules at all.
FIFA is a for profit corporation, not a moral arbiter. Expecting them to act on abstract principles or international law is completely missing how they operate.
The reason they banned Russia in 2022 was not some sudden moral awakening. It was purely logistical and financial. In fact, FIFA tried as hard as it could to keep Russia in. They originally wanted them to just play under the name Football Union of Russia without their flag or anthem. They only folded when national teams from Europe, specifically Poland, Sweden, and the Czech Republic, flat out refused to play against them in the World Cup qualifiers. I am from Czechia, so I remember exactly how this played out and why they did it. You simply cannot run a tournament if teams refuse to take the pitch. On top of that, major sponsors were facing a massive PR nightmare, and UEFA had to tear up a 40 million a year deal with Gazprom.
The fact that Russia was violating international law was secondary to the bottom line of FIFA. Assuming they would ban a massive source of income based purely on principles is laughable. If you look at the countries currently allowed in FIFA or the Olympics, you will quickly realize almost all of them have violated international laws at some point.
So, until major European clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Man United, PSG, or Bayern Munich refuse to play Maccabi Tel Aviv, or a powerhouse like Germany decides they would rather forfeit a World Cup match and go home than play Israel, nothing will change. Until the biggest sponsors threaten to pull their money over bad PR, FIFA will not lift a finger.
The ugly truth is that while there is some pushback from certain fanbases, the general mood in the big European football countries, the ones that make up the vast majority of the revenue for FIFA, simply do not care enough to demand change. Especially compared to the sentiment against Russia, which is literally threatening to nuke Europeans. The average Joe is not going to want the team they love to forfeit matches over a cause that feels distant to them. Until the fans and the money demand a boycott, FIFA is just going to keep counting their cash.
So good to see your name, Abubaker. I hope you are doing well. How do we fans join the boycott . What steps can we take. Is there a petition? If not, let's start one tomorrow!
Clearly, there is no shortage of whores in this world.
Thank you, Abubaker, for this excellent article! And even though the crimes you report in this article are indeed horrific and egregious, I am glad that you are reporting them, both to help the truth reach wider audiences so that Palestine will be free and to help you pursue your dream of football journalism.
FIFA has sunk well below the meaning disgusting”.
not gonna watch any FIFA or UEFA with the exception of USA soccer: MLS
Until they kick Isreal soccer out of the pitch . Stop the genocide than play international soccer entho zionists of Isreal and zionists elsewhere
Some MLS teams have Isreal soccer players on their roster: If they be zionists: fire them
But you'll watch the zionists in the US soccer team. Hypocrite!
Has the foreskin of memory been cut from the Israeli mind? The people's sight made short so that they forget the global outpouring of sympathy, commiseration, aid when their Olympic team was kidnapped and murdered in Munich in 1972? Movies, TV documentaries, and an on-site account by an Arab crew made sure the world would remember. Israel forgot.
I so hope the court cases are fruitful. I am not going to be watching it on the BBC as I'm boycotting the BBC and Im hoping that if Israel play the crowd stands with their backs turned and boos them a lot. Whether I will crack and watch it on a different channel, remains to be seen. The fact that they have not been barred has already spoilt it for me. Im outraged at the racism, because that is what it is.
FIFA leads a sport that has embraced top-down table management, arranging match outcomes, setting allowed scoring windows within matches, distribution of key-market teams in lower-level leagues by these management techniques of spreading pain and increasing overall marketability in a predictable way, shaping the flow of matches to ease highlight-package assembly and to simulate drama, and, generally, rearranging football on the model of a corporate entertainment product with predictable revenue streams while eliminating the uncertainties involved in reliance on the competition among athletes. That is, FIFA has overseen the elimination of sport from their sport, for the good of the game - as their lawyers would describe it, by way of covering the details of this nonsense under a nondisclosure agreement included in all the relevant contracts.
We have in football what we have in corporate sports around the world, starting in the US. It starts with a desire to switch from a family-ownership model of sports franchises to a corporate one. Corporate management has as one of its core goals, after profit maximization, the elimination of competition wherever possible. Whatever corporate monkeys say about competition and markets, the goal of big capitalists is to undo competition. There are several routes to achievement of this goal, but big sport has selected collusion. League always colluded at the highest levels, but competition was long excluded from such collusion. Family businesses and their leagues were hurt by gambling scandals early last century. The undermining of sporting competition was seen by the public as the breach of trust it is.
As society has plunged into a right-wing toilet, gambling has replaced former industry throughout the US. Leagues in the US arranged their corruption efforts starting in the early eighties, before gambling was everywhere, but gambling proceeded through Las Vegas and eventually spread. Leagues arranged table outcomes, playoff outcomes - the big stuff. It took time to build to full, top-down fixing of games, but apparently they felt they were leaving money on the table, because, in one form or another, that is where they went. The success of corporate US leagues - which grew in the transition to being fast, highlight-driven, late-drama-prioritizing entertainment product with staff and management changes followed in talk shows and then internet addiction - became a model for sports-management process around the world.
FIFA looks to me like a huge syndicate of crooked organizations, run to maximize corruption and central control for the benefit of the wealthiest people in and around the world's most popular sport. They and their member groups climbed into bed with big gambling - as inherently criminal a field of endeavor as we have tolerated as legal - at their first opportunity. Their fingerprints, along with those of big tech (an increasingly corrupt industry) on the web, appear all over football (like other corporate sport-entertainment), in the stadiums, on the uniforms, in the broadcasts, on the internet, and in the league offices. This goes in only one direction: more corruption and more fraud.
These people made deals with the Saudis immediately after their chopping up of a journalist and getting caught in scandalous treatment of migrant workers that caused much death and misery, similarly stood up a World Cup in the inappropriate location of Qatar, with more reliance on generally mistreated migrant workers.
Is it any surprise they are not only protecting rogue-state participation despite an ongoing ethnic cleansing and breach of legal borders, with the protection including teams from occupied cities? Is it worse that this happens while the rogue state indiscriminately bombs two (or more) other countries, targeting civilian infrastructure and vital services, as they did in Palestine's Gaza? Obviously, Israel is trying to max out the ICC toxicity meter. FIFA is fine with that, of course, so long as money keeps flowing.
Hi all
I love your reporting. It is THE BEST investigative reporting. Facts and not a lot of BS commentary. I’m even sick of Rumble. Thank you always for your courage and bravery to consistently search for truth and your conviction to remain committed to telling it. Been following you all for a long time.
BTW. I subscribe to drop site and could listen to your Tuesday videos right from my email - no problem. I live for these videos! I received it today and when I click on watch video it takes me to a blank page with your drop site logo
CAN ANYONE HELP PLEASE!