he put his country into terrible debt and invaded crimea. putin and now the economy in russia is terrible so putin for spending all that money, smiles aside, in a time and place in his nation that needs so many other things. $51 billion, the most ever spent on an olympic games. so vladimir putin is also one of my losers for the year. that s certainly a unique one in the sports department for sure. mike, you give thumbs down to team commissioner and organization as well. yes. i chose some autocrats, too, maybe not as bad as putin. look at fifa. seth bladder never invaded crimea but, man, he runs a corrupt organization and they re pompous and greedy and a top investigator for fifa left because he could not stand by. michael garcia could not stand by the report that they issues on whether there was corruption in awarding the games to qatar and russia. of course there was corruption
team, but it can t possibly hope to fill that stadium. but that s the ransom demanded by fifa, which is widely and probably correctly viewed as a corrupt racket. it s run by seth bladder, an organization run awash in bribery. fifa runs rough shod over the countries that host the world cup, exempting itself from taxes and changing laws it does not like. fifa seems anxious to protect budweiser from a law designed to protect people. which is why they went to brazil with a simple message. i m sorry to say, and maybe i look a bit arrogant, but that s something we re not negotiating. there must be a spot in the law,
bureaucracy. fewer guns are coming off the street. the police commissioner is pretending this has nothing to do with the fact the city stopped using proactive police policies like stop and frisk. it s ridiculous. the bad guys know the cops hands are tied and the bullets are flying. all right. matthew. paul, every four years, americans get a lesson in something called soccer. a popular sport in other countries, the world cup. your favorite sport. not my favorite. also every four years, see the fifa, the group that runs the world cup, set a new low standard for mismanagement and as one former british member said, mafia family, decades-long tradition of bribes and corruption, seth bladder gets this week s miss from me for running for a fifth term and denying anything wrong here. all right, matt. and remember, if you have your own hit or miss.
forest, the author of the big fix: the hunt for match fixers bringing down soccer. that s really a fantastic figure that he is pointing out there about the tax-free gift that s being given to fifa to have the world cup in brazil. amazing. so are they really this ominous group that people don t know about? they are. you know about it if you re a fan of the game, especially in europe and asia and elsewhere, outside of the united states, where the game is number one. fifa is an organization that is beholden to no one, to no government, and certainly not to its constituency, its fans. hey, brett, can you explain how it s rigged. joe scarborough here, and the way fifa rigs it is, they tell any foreign governments that if they investigate fifa, their country will not be allowed to play in world cup-type tournaments. can you talk about seth bladder
seth bladder i know is apologizing to england and mexico for the blown calls in this weekend s world cup matches. both teams went on to lose after the big referee mistakes. he also says people will talk about adding instant replay finally when the board meets next monday. stay out of this, chris. back on the field, brazil had no problem against chile. brazil won 3-0. i don t know if you heard this. brazil seems very good at soccer and they re passionate. brazil will meet the netherlands. basketball now, two days into the most anticipated free agency period in nba history, we re getting word that three of the top catches met over the weekend together. you got a broadcast otter that lebron james, dwayne wade and chris botch met in miami to discuss joining the heat together. sources say james is not committed to leaving cleveland for south beach. chicago bulls are considered a big player in the james sweepstakes. dallas mavericks are starting to gain some traction as well. and bottom line