http://en.people.cn/.../c90000-8983042.html

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Thanks. Fixed

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http://www.TriScottsdale.org

I do not think it matters whose nephew he is. Most of us have zero business or ethical link to how our uncles operate. The good thing is he is a multiple time ironman finisher running the larger biz.

You really think this guy is above board? Not a chance! FIFA is and continues to be the ugliest of sports in terms of corruption. But ur right. I guess this is just coincidence.....

http://www.sunday-guardian.com/...her-deal-that-stinks

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http://www.TriScottsdale.org

While that may be, there are some strong links between Sepp's poor behavior, and our new fearless leader.

I don't know....I assume Sepp Blatter has many nephews and nieces. If one of my uncles was a swindler, does that make me automatically a corrupt loser? I don't know enough of his background yet to attach his actions in a triathlon related sports role to what his uncle does in FIFA football, so I guess I am giving the guy a pass for now. I certainly know about the track record of Sepp Blatter, but unsure how this guys plugs into that network. I'll go read the article.

OK, I read the article. Was not aware....let's continue with this thread now and disregard my initial "he's not linked to the senior Blatter" angle.

Hahahaha. Deal.

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http://www.TriScottsdale.org

it might be instructive to read about richard von weizsacker, and to contemplate that his father was a nazi war criminal. not that i am equating sepp blatter with a war criminal, just, the weizsackers were diplomats - it was the family business - and one enjoys a very different place in history than the other.

knowing all the parties, or substantially all the parties, i will stake what reputation i have that philippe blatter is the perfect person in the chair he's just been placed, if one considers the best interest of the ironman brand and of the consumers in our sport. he is a 15-time ironman finisher, most recently this year at ironman switzerland. soccer is a part of his business, but triathlon and multisport is his personal passion.

once you get above the level of andrew messick, the former custodian was whomever at providence equity partners andrew reported to. if andrew now reports to philippe (and i don't know if he will, i haven't spoken to the parties since this was announced), the ironman experience is in a much safer place.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

His participation in ironman negates the corruption outlined in his many business ties with FIFA outlined in that sunday guardian article? Why would we not expect triathlon to become as dirty as fifa and football in the coming years?

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
Instagram • Facebook

I think "technically" there is no corruption proof on his side of an FIFA dealings, so we can't immediately jump to the conclusion that because he dealt with FIFA there were corrupt practices involved. He may have had early visibility into FIFA tenders etc due to family connections, but this would be no different than any tender scenario where people on the inside get the early scoop on what to put in their bid in order to win. That's different than money trading hands outside of actual contract awards. I think we need to be careful on painting with too wide a brush. Not everyone who has done business with FIFA is dirty. We can still call him on his connection, but I am not sure there is any proof of any corruption up till now. From the article:

"...Said FIFA's director of television Niclas Ericson: "Infront offered the best package for this important and very complex project both in financial as well as marketing aspects.We believe that the team will deliver the best possible results for FIFA and help us achieve our distribution and financial objectives in Asia."

Someone will need to do some digging to see if there is any graft outside of the monies directly covered in the contract. If not, the junior Blatter is still clean. But I think we can watch from the sidelines with a critical eye to see where things go. Keep in mind, Wanda Sports will go from huge to huger and WTC will be a small tiny company in the portfolio, so I would assume that the junior Blatter's involvement in WTC direction would be to support Messick and his management team and provide some guidance and perhaps some opportunities via access to Wanda's available capital for investment/growth. It seems (not sure, just guessing) that Providence did not put any substantial capital into triathlon outside of the initial purchase of WTC and got WTC to grow by boot strapping off its own revenue. We do know that Providence took money out of triathlon earlier than their sale to Wanda.

What corruption are you talking about in regards to phillipe blattr? I read the article: the largest media company in Asia secured the television rights for world cups in Asia? How does that "stink?"

I am trying to think what dirty triathlon would look like? Automatic qualifying to the world championships for celebrities? I joke, I joke!

The people Messick previously reported to were private equity stake holders attempting to squeeze as much value out of Ironman as possible. At least this guy seems to have a real stake in the sport, as Dan says.

I remain optimistic that Wada will be good for the sport of triathlon.

"His participation in ironman negates the corruption outlined in his many business ties with FIFA outlined in that sunday guardian article?"

i read the guardian article and according to the author philippe blatter is guilty of having a disgraced uncle. i didn't read anything beyond that. did you?

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

The good thing is Wanda Sports is a sports company, not an equity company. They own the biggest company in triathlon (WTC) so they SHOULD inherently have a bias to grow the sport, given that they are the 500 lb gorilla of the sport.

you don't see anything of concern in his company receiving the Asian TV rights to the second biggest sporting event in the world which are organized by a corrupt team led by his disgraced uncle - with no transparency on how they were awarded?
Avoiding the appearance of a conflict of interest is important, and from the links this guy didn't manage that.

Still - he could still be good fro Tri in his wanda role.

do you realize what infront got? what the guardian reporter is objecting to? infront formerly had GLOBAL rights to FIFA broadcasts. in this case, it won the big and got awarded the broadcast rights in asia. that's what spurred this guardian article.

infront sold for $1.2 billion to the wanda group in february. if you research what and who the wanda group is in asia, and you research infront's background, what more likely company is there to land these rights?

did FIFA engage in a process that was opaque, versus the way these contracts generally get awarded? i don't know. was there a transparency when the ITU awarded its marketing and broadcasting rights to lagardere that we don't see with the FIFA award? were the FIFA broadcast rights awarded to Fox in the United States, SBS in Australia and Bell Media in Canada likewise opaque? if so, why isn't the guardian reporter asking about the PROCESS by which contracts are awarded, rather than simply throwing a tantrum because philippe blatter's company was awarded a contract.

why doesn't the guardian reporter just say what he wants to say: that all the relatives of sepp blatter should share in his ban?

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I think the Guardian article was simply lazy journalism. He basically wanted to say ban Sepp and all his family. In any case, I still put the younger Blatter in the category of non corrupt businessman. Businessmen the world over use their inside connection to get early access to contracts/tenders/bids. Just as a regular course of business, most companies will use your technical and business accumen to influence what is put in the tender spec and where legally feasible assist the contracting agency in how they frame their tender documents through the usual consulting etc....his background at McKinsey may have helped this vein.

In any case, I am not putting him in the category of corrupt businessmen. There is nothing to prove he is. My first post in this thread, I said, don't immediately paint him in the senior Blatter's ethical category and I said (not exact words) that there may be no link between the two guys. Well it turns out there is a link but one can be corrupt while the other plays clean. He likely still benefited from the family connection, just by knowing that the rights were going to be awarded at some point. It makes sense for Wanda to buy the company holding those rights.

I say we as a community need to give him a pass on any charges of corruption. There is a link to his uncle but that is it. As Slowman said, let other parties uncover how the FIFA Awards went to the various parties such as Fox, Bell, and InFront.

As a sport I think we SHOULD be in a better position. We have a guy who is a 15x IM finisher, he's got access to Wanda capital to help grow our sport and he has the access/ear of non endemic sponsor through his spectator sport biz CEO role to pull those type of financials into growing our sport globally.

Maybe there is an angle were starving professionals can even get a piece of that pie by somehow showcasing the value they bring in terms of growth on the global stage. When triathlon first took off in Kona, in Nice, at USTS it was on the backs of the marquis pros creating the show that everyone wanted to be at. They still do that at Phuket, they are doing that at Bahrain and when they kicked off IM 70.3 in Gloria Turkey, they had former Kona champ Fredrik Van Lierde as the marquis attraction. Look at what Belinda Granger did after her "fastest playing days" traveling around South East Asia to help grow/kick off new event. The pros need to befriend P. Blatter and be willing to travel to grow the sport in Asia and new markets and take their fair share of the pie. Right now, they will continue to be slave labour in US and Europe because races will tend to sell out without them. Blatter will get their value because he is in the business of selling professional competition in his "other role".

Yes, the article was nothing more than click bait...

The article may be a call to action to investigate further and that is fine. But it's not "standing proof" of anything. The article seems to be intended to create the effect of "guilty before proven innocent" which we can't say is the actual case.

I think his point was that being a relative of Sepp Blatter may be advantageous in winning lucrative contracts with FIFA. The contracts may have been won purely on business merit. But the relationship is worth noting.

However I believe that other parts of the world don't tend to share the U.S.' disdain for nepotism....so it might be nothing unusual. Of course other parts of the world also don't share the U.S. disdain for bribery....

You and others are correct that the article provides no *proof* of corruption. But - given that

1) so much of FIFA's business dealings include bribery, deception and self-dealing
2) When Blatter's nephew joined Mckinsey's sports practice he suddenly sees fit to provide them with $7 million in consulting contracts
3) When his nephew moves to InFront they get the broadcasting contract

While the articles presented here have no proof, It sure does look like there is likely to be corruption in all of this. What promises were made to InFront if they hired Phillipe? Did anyone at FIFA analyze whether the McKinsey contracts were in FIFA's best interests? Was Sepp Blatter required to recuse himself from making all of these decisions? If he was, is he able to influence the people who did make the decisions? I'm involved in a negotiation with a major global company right now and A LOT of attention is being paid to any potential for self-dealing or conflicts of interest and people are being required by compliance and ethics departments to recuse themselves from discussions and decisions even though they are some of the most knowledgeable on the subject. FIFA clearly does not operate in this way and in fact demonstrates that they operate in the exact opposite way.

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
Instagram • Facebook

infront also won the media rights to most of skiing, federation ice hockey, a lot of the UCI broadcast rights, rugby. does philippe have a lot of uncles?

but to your point, yes, i think it is not unlikely that infront hired philippe at least in part because it felt that it would be easier to gain FIFA's business. i think reason suggests that the fact that philippe was sepp's nephew played a part in his original hiring.

to me, though, it seems also seems reasonable that this relationship would have the opposite effect today. i would think for philippe to make this deal today would be that much harder.

unless these deals are made on their merits.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

As a German living in Switzerland I share every bit of your disdain, if not more, for Sepp Blatter

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Achim Traut