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Pressure piles on Fifa as sponsors threaten to pull out

Coca-Cola, Adidas, McDonald’s and Visa have all told Fifa to clean up its act.

TOP FOOTBALL SPONSORS Coca-Cola, Adidas, McDonald’s and Visa have pressed Fifa to clean itself up as the newest corruption scandal threatens efforts to market their products through the world’s most popular sport.

Soccer - FIFA World Youth Championship - Final - Argentina v Ghana Sepp Blatter EMPICS Sports Photo Agency EMPICS Sports Photo Agency

The companies that pay hundreds of millions of dollars to place their ads around World Cup and other global football venues said Fifa needed stronger ethical standards, after seven of its officials were arrested in Switzerland for bribery.

The arrests came as part of a US Justice Department case that named nine officials of football’s governing body, and five sports marketing officials, in a number of instances of bribes and kickbacks involving sponsorships over the past two decades.

Visa said that if Fifa’s ethical problems aren’t addressed it may pull its sponsorship.

WCup Marketing Ambush Soccer Associated Press Associated Press

“Our disappointment and concern with FIFA in light of today’s developments is profound,” the company said in a strongly-worded statement, adding that it expects the football organisation to rebuild with “strong ethical practices”:

Should FIFA fail to do so, we have informed them that we will reassess our sponsorship.

Coca-Cola, which pays an estimated $30 million (€27 million) a year to be one of five official Fifa partners, issued a stern rebuke to the organisation.

South Korea Soccer World Cup Ahn Young-joon / AP Ahn Young-joon / AP / AP

“This lengthy controversy has tarnished the mission and ideals of the FIFA World Cup and we have repeatedly expressed our concerns about these serious allegations. We expect FIFA to continue to address these issues thoroughly,” the company said.

“McDonald’s takes matters of ethics and corruption very seriously,” the US fast-food company, an official sponsor of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, said.

We are in contact with FIFA on this matter. We will continue to monitor the situation very closely.

Also speaking out were Adidas and Budweiser.

The German sportswear group said it would encourage football’s global governing body “to establish and follow transparent compliance standards in everything they do.”

And Budweiser, the US beer unit of Belgian brewing giant AB InBev, said:

We expect all of our partners to maintain strong ethical standards and operate with transparency.

Money pressure

Complaints against Fifa from global consumer-goods giants that pump hundreds of millions of dollars annually into the world’s leading sport have mounted over the past two years.

None of the official sponsors has been implicated in the scandals. But all clearly worry that the cloud over the organisation could stain their own reputations and hurt sales.

They have been especially worried over corruption allegations behind Fifa’s award of the World Cup to Qatar in 2022.

Mideast Qatar FIFA Sponsors Two Nepalese men working on stadiums in Qatar Associated Press Associated Press

Last year five top sponsors — Coca-Cola, Hyundai, Adidas, Sony and Visa — called for a proper investigation of the 2022 bid process.

And last week Coke and Visa expressed worries over the treatment of hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers in Qatar who are building the facilities for the tournament, after human rights groups and journalists exposed dire work conditions.

None of the sponsors, whose funding is essential to Fifa, has gone so far as to withdraw its sponsorship of the sport.

Mideast Qatar FIFA Sponsors A worker at the Al-Wakra stadium in Qatar. Associated Press Associated Press

But amid likely pressure from the public and shareholders to avoid being tainted by the Fifa investigation, sports marketing expert David Carter of the Sports Business Group said they “have to look as though they are part of the solution.”

The scandal is a risk for their brands, he said, and that could lead to pressure “to reallocate their dollars” for advertising.

“They need to be proactive in calling for a complete cleansing or threaten, if not actually pull, their sponsorship over time,” he told AFP.

“The large majority of sponsors will hang in there,” said Andrew Zimbalist, an economist and sports business expert at Smith College.

Most sponsors who were putting money into FIFA knew about FIFA’s problems, so this was not new for them.

- © AFP, 2015

Explainer: What on earth is going on at FIFA? > 

Read: FIFA presidential election to go ahead – despite overnight arrests of officials > 

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    Mute Pius Flynn
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    May 28th 2015, 8:02 AM

    If they know that things are that bad and they stay then they are part of the problem.

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    Mute IrishGravyTrain
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    May 28th 2015, 8:26 AM

    This is free advertising for them. They will flog the shite out of this. Can’t see them going anywhere

    82
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    Mute Rocky Raccoon
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    May 28th 2015, 9:10 AM

    Before the world cup in Brazil, Fifa forced the government to change the law to allow alcohol be served in stadiums just because Budweiser were ‘official sponsors’. The reason it was banned in the first place was due to the carnage it caused with their over passionate football fans. All of these companies are as bad as each other. They act as if they’re best bud’s in their adverts but they’d stab each other in the back if there was a chance anything would negatively impact the image of their company.

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    Mute Anthony Ryan
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    May 28th 2015, 9:24 AM

    When you see that $100million was spent on bribes for next year’s centennial Copa America in the USA and that 2/3s of the cost of this year’s Gold Cup in the USA was spent on bribes then the sponsors must be thinking “what the hell are we paying for?”!

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    Mute Dave Hammond
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    May 28th 2015, 9:39 AM

    I’m lovin it…

    16
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    Mute Garrett Mc Keon
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    May 28th 2015, 10:26 AM

    Not only did Budweiser get the law changed not one penny of the millions they made during the World Cup went back into the community .

    27
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    Mute fiachra29
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    May 28th 2015, 8:19 AM

    It’s a sad state of affairs when the arrest of prominent FIFA officials has sponsors contemplating pulling out, but the reports of scores of Nepalese workers dying on building sites in Qatar didn’t elicit the same response.

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    Mute Paul Furey
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    May 28th 2015, 8:38 AM

    1200 dead so far – I think. I guess the world thinks this is OK as the killings continue with not too many looking for it to stop. Btw how many died building the Olympic stadium in London – none!

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    Mute Friendo Friendo
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    May 28th 2015, 11:16 AM

    Liberals always cherry pick outrage.

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    Mute fiachra29
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    May 28th 2015, 11:42 AM

    I don’t see how this story proves liberals cherry pick outrage, this is a case of large multi-national corporations cherry picking outrage and companies like these tend to be much more heavily supported by conservatives than liberals.

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    Mute weeya
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    May 28th 2015, 2:34 PM

    Actually it was 1 death in London, but unsurprisingly Beijing and Sochi had a much higher death count.

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    Mute Noel Falkhall
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    May 28th 2015, 4:08 PM

    They’ll never pull out for any reason….if Visa pull out Mastercard waiting to replace…..if McDonald’s pull out in comes BurgerKing….Coke replaced by Pepsi…..it’s like being up front at a gig, there’s no way you’re movin’ and losin’ your spot…no matter what happens. They won’t give it up that easy. It’s about the mighty dollar and as long as it’s not happening in the US they’re usually fine with it.

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    Mute Shane Hickey
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    May 28th 2015, 8:04 AM

    The sponsors have no intention of taking action. If they had they’d have done it two years ago

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    Mute Fifty Shades of Sé
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    May 28th 2015, 8:18 AM

    When Coca-Cola are taking the moral high ground with you, you know you’ve done something wrong.

    106
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    Mute HRH The Brummie
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    May 28th 2015, 8:10 AM

    Now is a good time to disband the whole corrupt system. Get rid of the Qatar world cup, it is probably to late to cancel Russia, if it’s not, and anotyer country can stage it it in 2018 let that happen too. UEFA should pull out of all games and have their own competition at the same time as FIFA see what happens then the sponsorship would fall apart. Time for change from top Dow. It’s not today or yesterday we knew Seth & Co were as bent as a nine bob note.

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    Mute Richard Cynical
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    May 28th 2015, 8:20 AM

    why does everyone want the Russia one cancelled Russia is a perfect place for a world Cup they already have the stadia. bar a few upgrades they are as fit to hold a world Cup as England. they may have bribed a few people but by the look of things so has every other country that got a world Cup, it seems that’s how you get one thanks to me blatter

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    Mute Bob Beaman
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    May 28th 2015, 9:21 AM

    Not the point Richard. It’s how they were awarded the WC in the first place. If it was via corruption then it should be pulled from under them.

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    Mute Bob Beaman
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    May 28th 2015, 9:23 AM

    UK, France, Germany, Italy even Spain, USA. Many countries could get their shit together in 3 years.

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    Mute Jason Culligan
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    May 28th 2015, 9:30 AM

    “why does everyone want the Russia one cancelled Russia is a perfect place for a world Cup…”

    Yes, a corrupt country filled with drunken mercenaries on a trip home from the Donbass is a fantastic place to hold a World Cup.

    21
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    Mute VinHeffer89
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    May 28th 2015, 9:37 AM

    I’ll put it to you this way;
    If you were a gay football fan would you go to the Russian World Cup?

    34
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    Mute Richard
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    May 28th 2015, 9:52 AM

    If you leave out the homophobic legislation, racism, fans rioting at Euro 2012, rampant corruption, state totalitarianism and domestic terrorism – Russia doesn’t sound that bad. And that’s not even getting into the fact that they bribed their way to being hosts.

    Australia, England, France, Spain, Germany and Italy (among others) could all host the tournament tomorrow if necessary.

    28
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    Mute HRH The Brummie
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    May 28th 2015, 8:31 AM

    Brasil 2014 had to change their alcohol laws to allow people to drink alcohol in the football stadiums after pressure from an American sponsor, I wonder would the Arab world allow drinking of alcohol in their stadiums ? Or females in bikini tops and shorts walking around the streets. It will be interesting if it goes ahead in Qatar, especially if Israel qualify!!!!!!!

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    Mute Lar Cooney
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    May 28th 2015, 9:26 AM

    Israel will have a settlement close to there stadium by the time the World Cup kicks off in Qatar..

    54
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    Mute Pat O'Dwyer
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    May 28th 2015, 10:44 AM

    Coincidence ?
    FIFA vote to kick Israel out of world football conveniently blocked by US intervention.
    The FIFA corruption crisis came just as its annual congress was due to debate a motion calling for Israel to be suspended from world football.
    http://stopwar.org.uk/news/fifa-vote-to-kick-israel-out-of-world-football-conveniently-blocked-by-us-intervention

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    Mute Ian イアン [STGオタク]
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    May 28th 2015, 7:56 AM

    Sepprise! Sepprise!

    Weekly entertainment show. Disgraced FIFA starlet Sepp Blatter surprises unsuspecting wrongdoers in tantalising real-life situations.

    #LifeAfterFIFA

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    Mute Richard Cynical
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    May 28th 2015, 8:14 AM

    all I see is lots of free advertising for the brands, all they did was issue statements and if they did pull out Pepsi burger King and master card would just take their place. sepp blatter needs to step down or at the very least not run for a 5th term, he is clearly power hungry and I’m sure he fears prosecution that at the moment holding all the cards and as soon as he doesn’t he will be the no1 target.

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    Mute Walt Jabsco
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    May 28th 2015, 8:38 AM

    If coke pulled out due to corruption, there’s no way in the world pepsi would step in – what message would that send out? Not even the dumbest PR consultant in the world would recommend that!

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    Mute Dave Hammond
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    May 28th 2015, 9:49 AM

    Yes but the demand from sponsors is because if the Global audience is a billion viewers or whatever and there are no shortage of global brands that would be interested – they don’t see it as a corrupt FIFA they see it for the global reach they can get – and if Samsung , Red Bull ,Snickers or who ever are sponsors when the games come around the public won’t be outraged at all so that’s why Coke Mc Donalds etc threaten but are reluctant to cancel those sponsorships.

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    Mute Robert Allen
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    May 28th 2015, 8:04 AM

    Do yourself and everybody a favor and resign your cushy number blatter.

    59
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    Mute Brian Antoniotti
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    May 28th 2015, 8:27 AM

    Coca Cola so outraged to learn of fifa corruption that they are asking for the return of all the brown envelopes they handed over to secure major sponsor status for the last two world cups

    38
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    Mute Brian Antoniotti
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    May 28th 2015, 8:29 AM

    Surely arrests need to be made on both sides of this scandal

    18
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    Mute Oliver
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    May 28th 2015, 9:16 AM

    Reminds me a bit of this:

    Hans Blix ‘I’m sorry,but the UN must be firm with you. Let me see your WHOLE palace, or else…’

    Kim Jong-il ‘ Or erse what?’

    Hans Blix ‘Or else we will be very,very angry with you… And we will write you a letter, telling you how angry we are with you’

    31
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    Mute Nollaig Kelly
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    May 28th 2015, 12:22 PM

    Oh No not Hans Blix!

    oh hello Hans

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    Mute stephen
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    May 28th 2015, 8:43 AM

    Countrys should refuse to play.

    31
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    Mute Frank Garrett
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    May 28th 2015, 9:57 AM

    Countries is the plural form of country.

    4
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    Mute stephen
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    May 28th 2015, 10:14 AM

    Please forgive my auto correct on my phone oh wise one

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    Mute J.Rudd
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    May 28th 2015, 8:35 AM

    Sepp Blatter will make a token effort – then carry on as normal like a dictator ignoring real change needed.

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    Mute Reg Gordon
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    May 28th 2015, 8:50 AM

    You know you’re in trouble when companies like coke, McDonald’s and Adidas, who aren’t exactly known for ethical practices are running away….

    20
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    Mute Joseph Siddall
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    May 28th 2015, 9:01 AM

    Ah yes, these guys have just realised there is something iffy about FIFA. Now, this very minute, didn’t even have an inkling before this. Corruption only works if both sides are prepared to allow it to.

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    Mute Murray Porteous
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    May 28th 2015, 8:10 AM

    Put a puppet in charge and help yourself. Explains why he kept being re-elected.

    19
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    Mute cosmological
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    May 28th 2015, 9:22 AM

    Just another example of corporate ethics, run a mile if propriety is in question and your product might suffer harm.

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    Mute Red Marauder
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    May 28th 2015, 8:02 AM

    A good start would be to make that worldcup throphy out of carbon fiber. Why is not Interpol or any other EU institution involved besides the Swiss authorities I wonder. It is like Bin Laden was living in Zurich and the Americans came to get him while nobody else knew.

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    Mute Jason Culligan
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    May 28th 2015, 9:33 AM

    Why would the EU be involved in an investigation that involves Switzerland, Russia, Qatar and the US? Not one of those countries involved in this bribery scandal are in the EU.

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    Mute Friendo Friendo
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    May 28th 2015, 11:19 AM

    It all began when they crossed Bill Clinton. A blind eye was turned before this.

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    Mute Friendo Friendo
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    May 28th 2015, 11:57 AM

    The Clinton foundation will not be touched well at least thats what he is betting on.

    1
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    Mute Neil Corcoran
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    May 28th 2015, 2:17 PM

    Swiss Police have confirmed that when arrested all 14 FIFA officials threw themselves to the ground and pretended to be injured.

    6
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    Mute Andrew Maher
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    May 28th 2015, 10:03 AM

    Blatter the new Teflon Don . Won’t be a gangsters paradise .

    5
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    Mute Darragh Flynn
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    May 28th 2015, 12:06 PM

    Its all hitting the fan now. In fairness these sponsors are cowards and possibly abusers of human rights themselves. I’m no human rights activist, but its a bit rich coming from the likes of Coca Cola certainly.

    They knew that people are dying on site in Qatar and that the whole operation is a sham, but it took the FBI and the PR nightmare that faces FIFA for them to put pressure on FIFA.

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    Mute Eddie Geraghty
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    May 28th 2015, 11:54 AM

    Blatter should resign: if he knew there was corruption and did nothing he is complicit; if he didn’t know then he is not in control any longer and is unfit to be in charge; either way he needs to go.

    3
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    Mute Stephen
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    May 28th 2015, 2:42 PM

    It’s time for e.u.f.a.to break away from f.i.f.a

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    Mute Randle P McMurphy
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    May 28th 2015, 5:34 PM

    On the subject of Corruption, where has the ‘Catherine Murphy tells us all about what Denis didn’t want RTE to tell us’ story gone to Journal?????

    1
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