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Sunday Ticker: Scandal rocks England WC bid, Chelsea wins FA Cup and more

LordTriesman (Reuters)

So much for England being a shoe-in to host the 2018 World Cup.

Another scandal has hit English soccer, but this one could prove to be the most costly aftera Daily Mail investigative report uncovered disparaging comments made by the head of the England 2018 World Cup bid, who accused Russia and Spain of conspiring to fix this summer's World Cup.

Lord Triesman, head of the English FA and English 2018 World Cup bid committee was recorded making shocking remarks about a variety of subjects, sparking a scandal that led to his resignation just a day after the details of the recording emerged.

While England is still considered a strong contender to host the 2018 World Cup, this scandal could wind up hurting the bid considerably.

Here are some other stories from the weekend to get you through Sunday:

Chelsea wins FA Cup, securing second trophy

After hitting the woodwork multiple times and even giving up a penalty, Chelsea still stood scoreless against pesky Portsmouth, but Didier Drogba helped end the Pompey Cinderella story with a beautiful free kick goal to give Chelsea a 1-0 victory in the FA Cup final on Saturday.

Pachuca falls as Toluca, Santos reach Mexican final

Jose Francisco Torres saw his Mexican season come to an end on Saturday as Pachuca lost their semifinal to Toluca, 1-0, in Toluca. The teams tied in the first leg at Pachuca, but poor finishing against a short-handed Toluca side doomed 'Los Tuzos' to semifinal elimination.

Toluca will take on Santos Laguna, which demolished Morelia, 7-1, in their semifinal second leg.

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What did you think of these stories? Think England's World Cup bid is in trouble? Impressed with Chelsea's double? Disappointed to see Pachuca eliminated, or happy to know Torres will be in national team camp?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. > and Russia is crawling with crime (yes, I’ve >been there).

    Ive been to the US and guess what?
    There is crime too.
    (I work for a construction company so we know all about the construction, cement, garbage mafias on top of the regular criminals, gangs and the rest.

    Pot meet kettle.

    Yes, Spain with the most complete team in the WC so full at midfield that Fabregas will again be on the bench NEEDS help to win the WC.
    That makes sense.

    England on the other hand with no keepers, no forwards past the injured Rooney, a shaky, old or untested defence and a so-so midfield on the other hand dont need help.
    That make sense too right?

    Of course Spain-Portugal and Russia are going up against England for the 2018 WC so Id first believe that to be a motivation rather than the euro2008 winner and WC 2010 favorite feel that they cant win without paying someone off.

    Eff the english.

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  2. This is the important part. England had a great shot at getting a WC and he may have single-handedly ruined their chances by pissing off half the world with his comments. He offended a lot of different people in there.

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  3. Bottom line, in this day and age, you have to be extremely careful about what you say both publicly and privately. You just never know when somebody is going to have their mp3 player or cell phone in their pocket on “record.”

    Having said that, I agree that FIFA seems to be a very close knit network at the top, with no real checks and balances to their administration. There have been so many incidents over the years, both on and off the pitch, that make you wonder just who’s pulling the strings sometimes:

    1. Most recently, the Thierry Henry handball no-call versus Ireland in seemingly plain view of the Swiss official.

    2. In the 2002 WC, the no-call INTENTIONAL German handball on the goal line versus the U.S. in seemingly plain view of Scottish official Hugh Dallas.

    3. As mentioned above, the very soft call against Oneywu versus Ghana in the 2006 WC that resulted in a PK.

    4. The 1978 WC, when Argentina needed a 4+ goal margin against Peru to advance ahead of Brazil, and somehow Peru collapses 6-0 with very questionable defending and goalkeeping. Just so happens an Argentinian general visited the Peruvian locer room pre-match and gave them a speech about “Latin American unity.”

    5. Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal versus England in the 1986 WC.

    Oddities abound with FIFA…

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  4. No one’s commenting on the best part of this story. Triesman had an affair with a coworker, proceeds to badmouth Terry for doing something similar, and then gets totally screwed (no pun intended) by the woman he was having the affair with… Absolutely classic. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!

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  5. yeah i totally agree with you guys. that made no sense to me.

    and ive never read any article that used that as a good reason to give usa the ’18 bid.

    i feel USSF isnt campaigning that injustice to FIFA enough. maybe they do, though, cant be sure.

    it was only 1 stop from being completed, then you can continue with your shenanigans, instead of screwing us and only us. I would even take Canada or Mexico before any other place on another continent. just seems like an injustice to me

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  6. i agree with all of you that what you say in private shouldnt be held against you but the fact that what he said was heard by other organizations that could influence where the WC bid lands it is no surprise that HE himself has resigned and that he wasnt outright sacked… now i also bet that he was pressured to resign

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  7. Hmmmm…m not in England.
    Strange how no one mentioned or found it odd that United won by a score of 4-0 and Chelsea won by a score of 8-0 on the last day of the season. A hell of a coincidence that the two teams fighting it out for the title won by such margins and no one found it odd.

    Nah,,, they wouldn’t do such a thing in the EPL…

    Whistles and looks away

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  8. I was in line with several who have posted: what the heck is that big a deal with Triesman . . . then it hit me . . . it is politics. Pissing off Russia and Spain can take away votes. That’s what the deal is. It is not FIFA as a whole, but FIFA as a collection of hacks (or at least hacked off voters) that could hurt England.

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  9. you’d be a shew inn for the dictionary police. (but I agree with you, lol. That is a pacific problem that needs addressed. Really flustrates me. . . )

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  10. That has annoyed me to no end. They didn’t even make a complete rotation before scrapping the NA option. It really really pisses me off. But what can you do? 🙂

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  11. The Lord Triesman conversation speaks to the smarmy side of world football, no doubt. Whenever you have huge amounts of money involved you are going to have pay-outs, favors, etc.

    I would hate to be a referee at the World Cup in light of this, especially the guy working Spain’s games.

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  12. I kind of agree with you.

    This was a private conversation that anyone of us could have.

    There is probably some truth in his accusations. You have to love the English press. They will do anything to screw themselves to sell papers.

    This is good for the US. It will be interesting to see how the other publications react to this and cause distractions to their preparations.

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  13. This whole scandal is crazy, I mean why would the conversation be secretly taped? And why does what he said matter? This was a private conversation he could have told that chick anything, I think the english media has nothing better to do than to sabatoge itself. He shouldn’t have resigned, he did nothing wrong, if anyone needs to explain anything it should be the daily mail, for violating this guys civil liberties, if they have those over there.

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  14. You do realize how politically correct our society has become don’t you?

    Spain is famous for briefcases full of money on the final day of the league (a story that has shown up over and over before this weekends games) and Russia is crawling with crime (yes, I’ve been there).

    I’m still convinced that the penalty against Onyewu during the Ghana game in ’06 had something behind it. Namely, making sure an African team made the knockout stages. I believe Ghana was the only one with a chance and we all know how soft that call was.

    FIFA is a corrupt organization and it would be best if they looked into the accusations. And the guy shouldn’t have to step down based on a private conversation – however, there are billions of dollars at stake…

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  15. You’re right. As long as its not an official statement, he shouldn’t be held accountable.

    Signed,

    Jimmy the Greek

    Eric Wynalda

    Jerry Jones

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  16. Nope, but it should have been in NA anyway. There was suppose to be a continent rotation (2010: Africa, 2014: South America, and 2018: North America), but FIFA “Europe” didn’t want to wait 3 cycles without it on European soil. FIFA said they wanted competition for the bid and not an internal continental choice (ie Brazil). It would have been between US and Mexico, and perhaps another random CONCACAF nation/s thrown in there.

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  17. It’s hard to win at Toluca. Only Cruz Azul has been able to win there recently. Pachuca still goes to the World Cup of Teams.

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  18. I still don’t understand what Lord T did wrong. You can say anything you want in a private conversation. He didn’t make any official accusation.

    And what if he’s right? I highly doubt he just completely conjured that story out of thin air. So much shady stuff goes on in FIFA that it wouldn’t surprise me for a second if it was true.

    Reply

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