Bertrand: FIFA Corruption Crackdown Should Serve As Cautionary Tale To Other Leagues
BOSTON (CBS) - United States indictments detained several FIFA leaders in an early-morning raid in Zurich on Wednesday, as part of a corruption probe that has rocked soccer's governing body.
This scandal was a topic of discussion on 98.5 The Sports Hub's Zolak & Bertrand program.
"Everybody knows [FIFA is corrupt]. They've had so many issues with bids, locations, and human rights issues in some of the places where they are building stadiums and planning future World Cups. FIFA is a joke. FIFA is corrupt. Everyone thought that about FIFA, and today a number of officials were arrested in Switzerland," said Beetle.
"FIFA is going down, and I'll tell you what, they are just scratching the surface of this. They're rounding up everybody today, and that's when people start talking," added Bertrand, who notes that FIFA president Sepp Blatter is likely going down as well.
Bertrand can't help but feel like this will serve as a warning sign to other leagues, particularly one with so many similarities: the National Football League.
"FIFA changes venues every four years for their biggest event. What other sport in this country changes venues and locations for their biggest event every time it happens?" asked Beetle.
"That would be the Super Bowl," Zolak responded. "The National Football League."
"What organization has been criticized by fans and media for a lack of credibility, a lack of integrity, a lack of transparency, for just arbitrarily deciding how to do things -- which organization has been criticized for those things?" asked Beetle.
"The National Football League," Zolak responded again.
"I'm not accusing the NFL of doing anything wrong. All I'm saying is FIFA got to this point because they had a really bad reputation to start. And as much as we can say that FIFA is a corrupt, fraudulent organization, could any of us prove it before today before a federal investigation happened into the sport? No. We could all think it, but does it really mean anything? No. But when you have a reputation for those things, maybe one day the government could decide to look into it," Bertrand concluded.
Listen below for the full discussion:
