The World Cup’s Mysterious Path to Russia

[0] From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro.

[1] This is the Daily.

[2] Today, the 2018 World Cup is now underway in Russia.

[3] The story of how it came to be there is more relevant than you might think.

[4] It's Friday, June 22nd.

[5] The fight for the right to host football's World Cup sent at its final stage with candidate countries making their last presentations.

[6] Now, our big names have been arriving here in Zurich, and the media have the their stakeouts in front of hotels where the important people are staying.

[7] It was a cold, snowy morning in Zurich, Switzerland, where the headquarters of FIFA, the body that oversees world soccer is based.

[8] The first FIFA representatives arrived in Zurich, the ultimate decision -makers for which country hosts the World Cup.

[9] A fleet of sleek black Mercedes sedans drove into the bowels of the headquarters of FIFA, where 22 men who control world soccer were marched into a room to make the important decision, where of the 2018 World Cup would be held.

[10] Ken Bensinger wrote about this story for the Times.

[11] There was a clear favorite.

[12] Everyone knew that England, which was desperate to hold the World Cup, was the clear favorite.

[13] England favorite to host the World Cup in 2018.

[14] David Beckham has been at the forefront of lobbying for the votes of the 22 FIFA committee members.

[15] They had everything in their favor.

[16] They had stadiums and infrastructure and airports and hotels.

[17] The world's greatest soccer tradition.

[18] This was the country that had invented a sport after all.

[19] It was clear.

[20] England was going to win.

[21] One of the ways I think to sell it to the world is the world watches English football.

[22] Actually, the world comes and plays its football in England.

[23] And so bringing the World Cup to England is such a natural step.

[24] So England is the clear favorite.

[25] Is there anybody else in contention?

[26] Yeah, there's several other contenders.

[27] There's a bid between Portugal and Spain.

[28] There's one between Holland and Belgium.

[29] And there's another one, which no one thinks has any chance at all, Russia.

[30] And why does no one think that Russia has a chance?

[31] FIFA itself rated Russia's bid the worst of all the bids for 2018 with the worst infrastructure and the most problems.

[32] Russia didn't have good soccer at the time, so no one took them at that point in time seriously as a soccer nation.

[33] But how seriously was Russia taking its bid?

[34] at first it seemed like they weren't taking it at all they were barely making deadlines for filing their different paperwork they needed to turn in but it started to become apparent as time marched toward that December vote that Russia might be taking it a heck of a lot more seriously than people thought soccer is popular is very popular all over the world especially in Russia and here is a story to prove it.

[35] I was born in Leningrad.

[36] And as you know, during World War II, Leningrad went through 900 days of blockade.

[37] No electricity, no running water, no food, and no heat in a Russian winter.

[38] But football matches were held even at that tragic time.

[39] Football brings spark into the lives of people.

[40] young and old.

[41] By the time of the vote in FIFA, Vladimir Putin had applied himself full -time to the bid, even appearing in a video making a final plea to FIFA to choose Russia.

[42] So why do we think that Putin suddenly cares about the World Cup now?

[43] So remember, this is 2010.

[44] This is a time when Russia is trying really hard to change its relationship for the rest of the world.

[45] This is the time of the famous reset.

[46] There is no event in the world that draws more eyeballs than the World Cup.

[47] There's no opportunity for a leader sitting in the presidential box at the opening game to get more attention than to be in the World Cup.

[48] Warm welcome to you, live from our headquarters here in central Moscow.

[49] This is R .T. with me, Anisa Nowewe.

[50] It's 2 p .m. here in the Russian capital, 12 noon in Zurich, where in four hours time, football's governing body will make arguably the biggest decision in sport.

[51] FIFA will choose the host for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, which for the winners will spark a decade.

[52] of multi -billion dollar investment.

[53] So going into this vote in Zurich, England is the obvious choice.

[54] Russia is a long shot.

[55] What do we know about what happens in this underground bunker when it's time to vote?

[56] The thing about this underground bunker is no one's supposed to know what happens down there.

[57] It's one of the most secret places.

[58] It's the beating heart of FIFA.

[59] It's multiple stories underground.

[60] It's protected in such a way that no cell phone signals can penetrate this room.

[61] The walls are made of a polished metal material that gives a dull sheen over the entire room.

[62] Overhead is a giant chandelier above a big square table that looks like something out of Dr. Strange Love, like the war room.

[63] Adjoining this is a prayer room made out of glowing, internally lit alabaster.

[64] Wow.

[65] And these 22 members filed into this room that day.

[66] The door was closed, and now the peep was heard from them about what was happening in the vote.

[67] And this is the public notary of the city of Zurich.

[68] He gives me the answer.

[69] After the vote, everyone repairs to a different place where the press corps and many other people are waiting to hear the result.

[70] And the president of FIFA at the time stands in front of the podium, pulls open the envelope, and has his big reveal.

[71] 2018 FIFA World Cup, ladies and gentlemen, will be organized in Russia.

[72] Russia.

[73] So England does not win?

[74] No. In fact, when the dust settles, England found out it only got two votes out of the whole thing, and they were the first country eliminated.

[75] So, it turns out they really didn't stand a chance.

[76] Never had a chance.

[77] Terrible.

[78] I absolutely gutted.

[79] I thought we were robbed.

[80] I thought logistically, England is much better than Russia.

[81] The stadiums and the training facilities we are.

[82] We don't have a long way to go for seven and a half years.

[83] Russia had got a hell of a long way to go.

[84] I thought I'm going to cry.

[85] You're going to win it?

[86] Yeah, I did actually.

[87] Sorry, I didn't know why I'm upset.

[88] So what's actually going on here?

[89] How it is that Russia managed to beat out England and everyone else.

[90] At first seemed like a mystery.

[91] No one could understand it.

[92] But there was at least one person who had a pretty good idea of what had happened.

[93] That man was a retired British spy living in London by the name of Christopher Steele.

[94] The Christopher Steele.

[95] Yes, the Christopher Steele.

[96] The Christopher Steele who wrote the dossier making a series of allegations.

[97] against Don Trump involving his behavior in Russia?

[98] That's correct, the same one.

[99] This is Christopher Steele, who was a spy for England for many years and had contacts throughout Russia and knew perhaps as much as anybody about what was happening behind closed doors inside Russia.

[100] And how exactly does this Christopher Steele get involved in looking into FIFA and the World Cup and Russia winning the 2018 game?

[101] When Christopher Steele stopped being a spy, for Britain.

[102] He opened a corporate intelligence firm called Orbis.

[103] One of his first clients at Orbis was the English bid to win the 2018 World Cup.

[104] They hired him because of his expertise on Russia to provide them intelligence on what the Russian bid was up to.

[105] To essentially investigate rivals to England, try to better understand their pitches and their bids.

[106] Think of it as an insurance policy for their bid.

[107] They are trying to find out as much information as they can about everybody else because they think it'll help their chances of winning.

[108] And what does Christopher Steele find out as he's researching these other bids and what's happened?

[109] Well, Christopher Steele finds out in the spring of 2010, well before the vote, funny things are starting to happen with a bit.

[110] And his sources in Russia and elsewhere in the world are telling him that they're noticing untoward behavior on the behalf of Russia.

[111] Like what?

[112] There's allegations that FIFA.

[113] VATO voters are being bribed with paintings that potentially could have been taken from the hermitage.

[114] Museum quality paintings.

[115] Allegedly, yes, including one allegation, which has never been proved, that a Picasso might have been given to one of the FIFA voters.

[116] Yeah.

[117] And what else?

[118] There was a rumor of a vote -swapping deal involving Qatar and a gas pipeline that they wanted to construct, where top allies of Vladimir Putin were meeting with Qatari people to see about making a gas deal that seemed to be a mask for maybe a vote trade.

[119] And then there was the involvement of an oligarch very close to Vladimir Putin by the name of Romanovich, who is famous in soccer circles because he owns Chelsea, the very famous soccer club in London.

[120] Abramovich was a figure who, in general, stayed out of the public eye, didn't get involved in anything.

[121] And yet suddenly he became very active in supporting the Russian bid.

[122] So essentially, Steele's research suggests that Russia, has been more or less systematically trying to bribe and manipulate the FIFA officials who are going to vote on who to give the World Cup to.

[123] That's right, yeah.

[124] We'll be right back.

[125] Okay, so Christopher Steele compiles all these allegations, all these bits of information about how Russia seems to be bribing FIFA officials.

[126] And what does you do with that?

[127] He does two things.

[128] First, he tells his client, the English bid, that they're up against a much fiercer foe than they might have anticipated.

[129] But then he does something else, something a bit unexpected.

[130] He calls a new friend he has who lives in New York, who happens to be an agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

[131] He invites this agent, who is a specialist in Russian organized crime, to come to London and meet with him because he's got an important tip for him.

[132] And that's when he tells this man that FIFA is worth looking into and that Russia appears to be up to no good.

[133] And why would this be of interest to the Federal Bureau investigation in the United States.

[134] This seemingly has nothing to do with the FBI.

[135] It's a good question.

[136] The FBI at that time was very interested in what it called transnational crime.

[137] It was interested in different kinds of crime across borders.

[138] This was an initiative under the director at the time, a man by the name of Robert Mueller.

[139] Mueller wanted agents to look for cases that involve money laundering and movements of money across the borders.

[140] And this seemed a lot like an opportunity to do that.

[141] Since Christopher Steele knew that the FBI was looking for those kind of cases, and particularly that agent, when he got this information about FIFA, he thought it might fall into their wheelhouse.

[142] So Steele has given this information to his employer, the British government, and gives it to this FBI agent.

[143] What happens after that?

[144] Something you wouldn't expect necessarily.

[145] The English, who you would think would be the most interested in finding out that Russia was up to no good, apparently do nothing.

[146] Mainly, it seems, because they're so scared of offending the people in FIFA who are going to vote that they don't want to say a word for fear of ruffling.

[147] feathers.

[148] The FBI agent who had a background busing the Italian mafia in Brooklyn doesn't really know anything about FIFA is not interested in soccer, but he knows a good case when he smells one.

[149] So he finds a prosecutor in a federal court in Brooklyn and convinces him to open a case.

[150] And roughly around late summer of 2010 is when the criminal case against FIFA secretly begins.

[151] It turns out it's really hard to make a case against international soccer bandits.

[152] The U .S. investigation of soccer corruption labored on for over a year without a significant break.

[153] It wasn't until late 2011 when they finally were able to make a major step forward by flipping one of the 22 men who was in that room.

[154] In the bunker.

[155] That's right.

[156] And how does it flip him?

[157] This was the only American in the room, a guy by the name of Chuck Blazer, who, coincidence or not, lived in the Trump Tower.

[158] Chuck Blazer had skimmed millions of dollars from the game over the years and had huge income, had a nervous tick of never filing tax returns or paying taxes.

[159] And when the Internal Revenue Service, which had joined the case, became aware of this, they saw a golden opportunity.

[160] And in late November 2011, the FBI and the IRS approached Chuck Blazer and told him he had a choice, either go to jail or cooperate with the U .S. investigation.

[161] And Blazer immediately signed on.

[162] When Blazer flips and becomes a cooperator, they put him to work.

[163] They make him wear a wire.

[164] They make him make phone calls.

[165] They make him travel to different places.

[166] And he also provides him a tremendous amount of information about how FIFA operates.

[167] He told him that World Cup votes in that bunker were very frequently marred by bribery.

[168] He admitted himself to taking bribes for the allocation of the 2010 World Cup, which was held in South Africa.

[169] He made it clear to them that bribery was the rule of the day within FIFA.

[170] And so armed with this information from Blazer, these wiretaps, these confessions, where does this investigation go?

[171] This investigation was conducted in total secrecy.

[172] and no one knew anything about it, but the DOJ with IRS and the FBI were secretly rolling up one informant after another and building what turned out to be an enormously aggressive and ambitious case.

[173] That case finally bust into World View on May 27, 2015.

[174] It has been a dramatic day in Switzerland, and after the arrest of high -ranking officials from the headquarters of world footballs, the fallout is spreading across the world.

[175] The fastest growing sport in America got a swift kick today.

[176] Several top officials of Soccer's world governing body were arrested in a massive bribery scandal.

[177] Top FIFA officials arrested by police in a dawn raid in Zurich.

[178] They face extradition to the United States, where they're wanted for questioning about kickbacks involving $100 million.

[179] And what are they arrested for?

[180] They're arrested for wire fraud, for money laundering, and particularly for racketeering.

[181] Including an official alleged to have taken more than $10 million in broad.

[182] U .S. prosecutors say briefcases full of cash, decided media and marketing rights, even the site of the World Cup.

[183] They were being charged by the Department of Justice with being members of criminal conspiracy.

[184] And the Department of Justice was describing FIFA as essentially a mafia organization.

[185] Now, for today's announcement, I'm honored to be joined today by Director James Comey of the FBI.

[186] Within hours, Jim Comey, the FBI director, and Loretta Lynch, the Attorney General, held a press conference.

[187] in Brooklyn, where they announced to the world that they had undertaken this massive investigation focused at the very heart of FIFA.

[188] It's an honor to join the Attorney General and the U .S. Attorney to announce this important case.

[189] Soccer, football is an egalitarian sport.

[190] It is the beautiful game because the pitch is flat.

[191] It is available to anyone and everyone, no matter where you come from, rich or poor, boy or girl.

[192] You can enjoy the beautiful game.

[193] The game, according to the allegations in this indictment, was hijacked.

[194] That field that is so famously flat was made tilted in favor of those who were looking to gain at the expense of countries and kids who are enjoying the game of soccer.

[195] This is not the way things should be.

[196] And the work will continue until all of the corruption is uncovered and a message is sent around the world that this conduct will not be tolerated.

[197] I wonder if it had to be the United States.

[198] that did this, that investigated this case and made these arrests because our country's relationship to soccer is so different from the rest of the world than so much thinner.

[199] Did it take an outsider to treat FIFA as criminals?

[200] I think you've put your finger on it.

[201] Every other country in the world cares too much about soccer to ever do anything.

[202] In fact, the history of investigations in other countries of FIFA and of soccer corruption is incredibly minimal.

[203] In the end, the U .S. could do it because there is no political pressure on agents who want to build a case against soccer.

[204] They could operate with a lot of freedom in a way that I think would have been impossible in almost any other country in the world.

[205] Reminds me of the fact that England lost its bid in part because of this and did nothing.

[206] That's right.

[207] They did nothing.

[208] And in fact, they even tried to prevent journalists from publishing reports that would show FIFA corruption in the days leading up to the vote in December 2010.

[209] So a lot of these countries are just accepting the corruption in FIFA.

[210] That's right.

[211] They considered it a cost of doing business with the most popular sport in the world.

[212] And I guess from their perspective, FIFA officials are gods.

[213] They're sort of a higher order of being or to be treated with the highest level of respect and white glove service.

[214] And whatever they want, they're supposed to get.

[215] Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

[216] First of all, I would like to say thank you from bottom of my heart.

[217] But thank you.

[218] Ladies and gentlemen, each bid is very special and significant.

[219] Each bit is a challenge.

[220] And we are honored to win in this tough and fair fight.

[221] So all these high -level FIFA officials are ensnared in this corruption investigation.

[222] They are arrested.

[223] They're paying a cost.

[224] But I don't think I heard you mention any consequences for Russia.

[225] As far as we know, they've been.

[226] consequences for Russia.

[227] The U .S. criminal action has never mentioned Russia.

[228] It's a mystery what happened there.

[229] FIFA, for its part, opened an investigation of Russia.

[230] But when it went to Russia and asked them for their computers so they could review them, they were told that the computers had been destroyed and there was no evidence whatsoever.

[231] Just happened to have been destroyed.

[232] Just happened to have been destroyed.

[233] There was no records any more of their bid.

[234] I'm...

[235] I'm...

[236] I'm...