According to a NYT article released this morning, 14 people, including 10 current and former FIFA officials, have been arrested in Zurich, Switzerland, and extradited to the United States to face those charges. Some bad news out of the gate: Sepp Blatter is not one of those charged, and Aaron Davidson, one of the heads of Traffic Sports, and, consequently, of the Carolina Railhawks of the NASL, is one of those charged. Firstly, this is not the FBI's jurisdiction, this would be the CIA's jurisdiction as this is a foreign investigation (but those lines have been blurred so many times I don't even know where to begin). Secondly, the FBI has really messed up here by not getting Blatter when they had the chance to do so with these investigations. I'm not going to sit here and say that Traffic is completely 100% ethical (they are not), but they haven't done what another famous soccer marketing company has done with US soccer. What I will say is that organization is very important to the growth of the NASL, and taking out one of their most important players smells like a conspiracy to me. For the world, this is a good day as many people have been charged with racketeering, money laundering, and various other corruption-like charges, but this is a bad day for those of us that want the NASL to be in a position to challenge MLS at some point. Hopefully, the NASL can find someone to replace Davidson with as much clout in the sports marketing world as him, and I hope they do it quickly and wipe their hands of him ASAP.
I am also saddened to report this morning that former Everton player Andy King has passed away. In 2 stints with the Blues, he made 195 appearances and scored 49 goals.
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