FIFA and corruption go together like peanut butter and jelly. You don’t have to be a fan of soccer to be aware of the 2015 FIFA corruption scandal that involved top officials taking $150 million in bribes to influence the awarding of the World Cup.
FIFA has earned a reputation as one of the most corrupt organizations on earth, which is why it was no surprise that Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino were thick as thieves.
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Trump magically made the FIFA convictions disappear, and House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin has launched a corruption investigation.
Raskin wrote to Infantino and laid out what looks like a bribery scheme:
DOJ’s puzzling capitulation makes a lot more sense when we reflect on FIFA’s brazen campaign to curry favor with Donald Trump since his re-election—a campaign that has now paid rich dividends for FIFA just as North America hosted its first joint World Cup. Over the past 18 months, you invented a hilariously fake “FIFA Peace Prize” to award to President Trump, who has made no secret of the fact that he covets the Nobel Peace Prize. You leased an office space on the 17th floor of Trump Tower—a space that might retail for $600,000 a year—even though it; would only be used during the 39-day period of the World Cup. That comes to more than $15,000 a day.
These actions appear designed to induce President Trump and his Administration to make decisions in FIFA’s favor. Even your predecessor, Sepp Blatter (himself suspended from world soccer in the wake of the bribery scandal) noted that your “yearslong campaign to curry favor” was aimed at influencing the President, wryly noting that “Infantino thinks he’s the leader in the relationship.” This strategy of outright bribery is not new to your organization.