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Re:FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extra... by sschueller on Wednesday May 27, 2015 @03:02AM (#9609771)
I'm disgusted that the Swiss let this thing go on for so long and still give FIFA non-profit status.
Re:FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extra... by algo_cheese on Wednesday May 27, 2015 @03:07AM (#9609797)
Well the FIFA is not a league of amateur in this field. They know that they must accept their gifts in other countries and follow the law at it's strictest in Switzerland so that they risk next to nothing.
Re:FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extra... by oliyoung on Wednesday May 27, 2015 @03:03AM (#9609777)
Not just FIFA, the IOC aren't exactly squeaky clean either
Re:FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extra... by sjwright on Wednesday May 27, 2015 @08:41AM (#9610903)
Certainly, but the Olympics is something of a 20th century anachronism, celebrating a bunch of sports that few people have any genuine interest in. It is slowly becoming little more than a sports-themed fireworks roadshow.

FIFA controls the most popular and most profitable sport in the world. Period.

Re:FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extra... by stefantalpalaru on Wednesday May 27, 2015 @08:07AM (#9610741)
What would the Swiss do without the shady business brought by corrupt foreigners? The extremely high standard of living is directly related to money laundering and "asset protection" schemes.
Re:FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extra... by mike_hearn on Wednesday May 27, 2015 @02:29PM (#9613381)
They would do fine. The idea that Switzerland is only successful because of banking privacy is a common myth. The entire financial sector including things like pensions, insurance and corporate banking is only somewhere between 6-10% of the Swiss GDP, depending on how you precisely account for the risk premium. The construction industry alone is about 6% of the GDP. Switzerland does a lot of things beyond finance.

Also, though Switzerland has a big financial sector it's not massively larger than other countries. If you use the "output method" then 10% of the Swiss GDP is finance. The next biggest is Ireland with 7%. So that's a 3% difference, yet I don't see anyone claiming that Ireland would be hosed without finance.

If you actually spend any time in Switzerland you'll rapidly figure out why it does well - things are just remarkably well run there, and Swiss people are rather industrious and skilled. Their government stays out of expensive foreign wars and other boondoggles. Unemployment is extremely low. The regions compete on tax rates, which keeps them low, and that in turn attracts wealthy people (who are then taxed on their global wealth, not just assets in Switzerland). It's very democratic.