FIFA executive committee member Leoz resigns (Coincidence?)

[triniairman]

FIFA executive committee member Leoz resigns

GENEVA (AP) -- FIFA executive committee member Nicolas Leoz of Paraguay resigned Tuesday, citing health reasons, just days before expected rulings in a World Cup kickbacks investigation.
FIFA said the 84-year-old confirmed his departure by letter and also will step down as president of CONMEBOL, South America's governing body. As CONMEBOL leader, he also held the largely ceremonial position chairing FIFA's 2014 World Cup organizing committee.
"This is a strictly personal decision. My mental health is very good but physically I'm not able to travel five times a year to Switzerland and two other times to Japan,'' Leoz said. "I also don't have the needed energy to stay as head of the 2014 World Cup organizing committee. I will not be able to travel to 10 cities (in Brazil) to approve stadiums. But I will continue to support FIFA and Brazil.''
Leoz, who has undergone several rounds of heart surgery, has been CONMEBOL's president since 1986 and a member of FIFA's executive committee since 1998.
He was identified during a Swiss criminal trial in 2008 as having received payments from FIFA's former marketing partner ISL, which collapsed into bankruptcy in 2001 with debts of around $300 million. The resulting prosecution of agency executives revealed the widespread practice of buying influence from sports officials.
Five years ago, Leoz was named in court papers for receiving $130,000 from ISL. The British broadcaster BBC later reported that Leoz took payments totaling $730,000.
Last year, FIFA published a Swiss prosecutor's report that linked President Sepp Blatter's predecessor, Joao Havelange, and Ricardo Teixeira, then head of the Brazilian 2014 World Cup organizing committee, to improper payments from ISL totaling $22 million.
Havelange remains FIFA's honorary president. Teixeira, his former son-in-law, resigned from soccer citing health problems before Switzerland's supreme court ruled the report should no longer be kept secret.
FIFA never opened proceedings against Leoz. He still could face FIFA sanctions after it closed a loophole in its code of ethics last year that previously allowed soccer officials who resigned to evade disciplinary action.
Leoz joined former executive committee colleagues Teixeira, Jack Warner of Trinidad and Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar in walking away from soccer while facing corruption allegations.[/color]
 
Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/news/20130423/leoz-resigns.ap/#ixzz2RLjag4E6

[Observer]

Look at the ages of all these guys, they enjoy the money already, set up who they have to fix up and running to ride out the rest of their life in comfort.

[Mango Chow!]

Look at the ages of all these guys, they enjoy the money already, set up who they have to fix up and running to ride out the rest of their life in comfort.

...not to condone corruption, I think it's unavoidable...but you would really appreciate if these men would do whatever they do and do right by the sport, keep the sport itself clean. Wipe out the diving and cheating (as best it can be done) make sure the referees are competent and make the rules of the game be as straightforward as can be.....even jack....people wouldn'ta cared so much about the shit he did had he done right by TnT football, CFU and concacaf....I am sure these fellas could each find happy medium between playing their inside politics while still doing right by the people the sport represents but nnnnnno, they ALL have to be greedy about shit.....in the end, football and its credibility loses and the integrity of it gets taken to a lower standard.