With their little threats and their attacks on my computers, i was invited to the fbi special agent in london. The Business Card said organized crime. I was not alone anymore. The real people had arrived. I gave them financial and other documents that americas chuck blazer had hidden from the fans. You talked about not having mr. Flynn, chuck blazer was there in 1995. Look who represented you. Look to u. S. Soccer with happy to have representing american values. I hope you can come back to that. Check blazer had hidden all of this Financial Information from the fans and the public. My source had obtained them from the archives of concacaf. They were circulated privately to executive Committee Members of concacaf, including u. S. Soccer who suppressed them. U. S. Soccer had to note that blazer took Chuck Jack Warner from trinidad. And innovating rightful taxes but they looked away. Its time to go into now, the failings of u. S. Soccer with concacaf and with blatter, i be happy to present it to any of you and discuss it later. If americas soccer leaders had taken action when they should have done, blazer and warner would have been in jail. Blatter seeking asylum in zimbabwe, and the 2022 world cup being hosted by usa, not some graveyards in the gulf. It took the fbi and the irs to check a few weeks to check out the information that i gave them. They arrested check blazer and they he immediately gave them names. Fifa has imploded. It is a shell. It has no credibility. There would be a time when they would walk down the street with the fifa logo, im from fifa, im important. Who would do that now . Who would dare do that now. If blatter is determined to stay in power, dont believe this nonsense about, he is going. Ive put down my mandate, but ill put it up pick it up again. His hitmen are working to eliminate rivals. His Ethics Committee is working overtime to obey his instructions. His pr operation says he is innocent, but this is a National InternationalSports League that can only travel to russia and stay in switzerland. That is not international. What america can do is engage with clean, decent associations around the world create a new organization based in another land, and invite sponsored tv networks to go with them. I cant see cocacola, mcdonalds, and visa river preferring the remnants of blatters organized crime family. There is one crucial thing the u. S. Soccer should do. Some people may remember when the u. S. Committee was in disarray over the scandal 16 years ago. They called in a senator George Mitchell and Ken Dubin Stein to investigate where they had gone wrong. And make recommendations for external respected investigation. This committee helped u. S. Soccer set up a similar, independent committee to find out what on earth has gone so badly wrong and has been covered up. Also, u. S. Soccer could do what your government does would just put everything online. And then there is new reorganize, reinvigorated u. S. Soccer could really say to the world we can do it. Join with us. All 209 of the National Associations would come with you. Next month mr. Sunoco lassie who i think is treating with you sunil gulati who i think is treating you with contempt, he cant come here and defend u. S. Soccers activity in concacaf and in fifa, so he is going over to zurich next week for a private meeting with what is left of fifa. I would urge mr. Blatter sunil gulati to email ladder and say when you get to zurich i want all your payslips. Your bonuses, your per diems. If its not there, im coming home and im going to help u. S. Soccer. That is what youve got to do with the country to help regain credibility internationally. Thank you. Thank you. Let me start with mr. Flynn in asking a question. Youve heard this or jennings just say that u. S. Soccer had to know. So the question is, what did u. S. Soccer no, what should you have no known, and particularly with the indictments that allege racketeering bribery, wire fraud, money laundering, what is the reaction of the u. S. Soccer federation to that and the charges at fifa, the executives and Board Members. Also, what does the u. S. Soccer federation know about concacaf in similar circumstances . It is perceived as the most corrupt of the regional associations. What does the u. S. Soccer federation note . Thank you senator. I knew nothing about any corruption. Let me interrupt just one moment. When you say you knew nothing, you speak just for you personally . I will say i and anybody that i have worked with has not brought anything to my attention, cold hard fact regarding corruption within fisa or concacaf. That being said, there are a couple of things i would like to point out in terms of mr. Blazer had not been involved with u. S. Soccer since 1986. He has been involved a member of concacaf, and fever. But not since 1986. In terms of mr. Blatter and mr. Warners activities, i would like to point out that those were private individual secret transactions. With the full resources of the department of justice and the fbi, it took four years to bring to light. We are a Soccer Organization with our greatest focus on developing all aspects of our sport in this country. I wanted to point out that those private transactions also work for regional sponsorship and regional broadcast rights. That has nothing to do with u. S. Soccer and our rights, and our tv, and our sponsorship. I think that is an important part point of distinction i would like to make. Mr. Flynn, thank you. Let me ask a followup question. When the u. S. Department of justice and the u. S. Attorneys office announced indictments you and your colleagues at the u. S. Soccer federation would be surprised that there would be some activity occurring at fifa or concacaf that would result in indictments . That would surprise you . Senator, i was not aware of any part of that investigation of the department of justice. But the fact that someone was indicted surprises you . I just was not involved. My focus, and that of my daytoday focus is to stay focused on the domestic side of our business. So i just did not have any knowledge nor did anyone i work with have any knowledge. Let me try to tie something together because it may be confusing as to why we are having a hearing that involves mr. Bery . My question, we have heard mr. Bery s testimony about the conditions involving the preparation for the 2022 soccer world cup. What is the relationship between the testimony that we are hearing, mr. Bery about corruption, bribery activity criminal activity related to fifa, and the findings that your organization has made in regards to what is going on in preparation for that role cap . World cup . Are these two contrasting stories that do not belong together, or are they intimately tied together . Thank you chairman for the question. At the end of the day when fifa made the decision to grant the bid for the 2022 world cup to qatar, it took response ability for the human rights impact of the decision. How can you say that . Fifa with an International Organization with a billiondollar preserve had a responsibility under you and principles to ensure that its operations do not turn a blind eye to or directly involve serious human rights abuses. And it is pretty clear that human rights abuses and labor exploitation playstation explication is rampant in qatar today. It is pretty clear that the government has yet to do anything substantial about the blatant labor exploitation bear. Why was it that fees that did not go more deeply into these questions of labor explication exploitation in the process . Data has said that for the 2026 process they are going to incorporate human rights concerns. Why has it taken to the 2026 process for these questions to be raised . Mr. Jennings on me ask you, is there a relationship between what you describe in your testimony and the testimony that mr. Bery has described, how do they relate . Take a step back. U. S. Soccer has a tailings. So do the leaders of english soccer. They shouldve known better than to ever bid for that world cup in qatar. We all know the you have to pay to play. You dont get in a race where you are going to get rides off the planet. Lets get that in mind. It was a dirty decision to put the world cup on a strip of sand that was broiling. People would die if there was a summer tournaments there. Fifa new. You have to wonder why certain people, despite that, voted for the world cup to go there. Its gotten worse. What blatter calls stakeholders they are moving it to november, december of the world cup year. He wants to die young, if you want to die Young Country england and stand outside manchester united, liverpool and say hey, we are going to stop you having football for seven weeks because jack warner took the money. I hope it is a painful death. You cant walk into somebody elses sports culture and just take it away. But that is what blatter is doing now. It was questioning him . I dont see any of the officials from u. S. Soccer saying no, no, we are friends with the english and the german and the dutch and all the other western european federations who are going to have to stop their games because of the dirty slime bags at fifa. That is the background. The money went somewhere. It went in, and the lowlifes on the Fifa Executive Committee voted for something that will end up with the death of Migrant Workers. I just would say one other thing here we have a saying in european football when officials, administrators, Cancer Member what happened. I dont know, i wasnt there, i can remember. We say oh yeah, when they were younger they must have headed that big wet football too many times. The scandal of concacaf and jack warners ticket rackets are Public Knowledge back to 2002 again in 2006, again in 2010. It was ritually richly documented that racketeering was a way of life at concacaf. Let me turn to mr. Blumenthal. Thank you mr. Chairman. Mr. Flynn, i appreciate you being here today. I understand it is your testimony that you had no knowledge of this corruption before may of this year, when the department of justice issued its indictment. Is that correct . You had no knowledge . That is correct. Did you have suspicions . There were moments i would describe, if i had a level of discomfort i wish not participate and i would just get myself out of any situation that offered any level of discomfort to me. So there was evidence that caused you to remove yourself from discussion or meetings . I wouldnt say evidence, i would say it was a Comfort Level. Wended that lack of Comfort Level begin . I could not pinpoint any particular time. Years before the indictment correct . I would not necessarily so years, it would be hard to pinpoint the time. Months . I think it would be fair to say greater than months, but once again it would be hard to pinpoint exact time frames. Did you make any effort to investigate . If there was cold facts i would have brought that to the attention of the appropriate people. There was nothing in the way of any facts that i could take to anybody else, and obviously would consult our outside counsel, but that is as far as i would take it. It was something that like i said, it was a disComfort Level. That you made no effort to investigate and your outside counsel did not tell you to investigate . No, i just pass along my level of discomfort. Would you agree in retrospect that u. S. Soccer acted in adequately to investigate or prevent or stop the ongoing blatant criminal wrongdoing at fifa . I would not describe i wouldnt say we would do it differently. We really have two choices. We are one of 209 associate National Association. Really at the end of the day we have to find a way to participate in a manner consistent with our mission and our core values. We think one of the ways to do that is, and starting in 2013 we finally had some somebody on the fifa exco that was with u. S. Soccer. That was a start in getting a louder voice and a seat at the table. Let me just interrupt because i think what you are stating is fairly wellknown history. I want to ask about what officials at u. S. Soccer came to learn, and very bluntly why does officials did so little those officials did so little until the department of justice indicted chuck blazer and others who had longstanding ties to u. S. Soccer, particularly in the light of lack of Comfort Level that you had . In retrospect, what is the explanation . I didnt [indiscernible] i was aware of some level of this discomfort, but it was all i think in general, a general feeling. I had no hard evidence and we wanted to continue to participate and try to influence the organization as one of 209 members. The second choice we have is to opt out and to pullout. With that comes a series of ramifications. We no longer have a seat at the table. We no longer are involved in the competitions olympics, world cup, any competition for our youth teams, and it has farreaching ramifications for u. S. Soccer and the Business Model of soccer in our country. We have, through ownership of our professional leagues and all three divisions invested hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions of dollars building the sport over the last 20 years so we can continue to build and compete on the field in such a manner that we just accomplished on the womens side. I cap i understand those two models, but wasnt there to third, which is to begin asking questions, begin an inquiry begin shining light, begin blowing the whistle . Essentially begin Holding Accountable officials who might be guilty, and we now know they are, of wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering, bribery . That directly impacted the quality and integrity of the sport that you are responsible for upholding. We did support the 2011 Ethics Committee, as i mentioned in my opening remarks. We pushed for full disclosure of the full report. We said front and center, we are one of six nations that nominated prince aly to run prince ali to run against set latter blatter. Having the future executive committee seat, we continue to feel that that is a appropriate course of action to reform fifa. I wants to make clear that might i want to make clear that my comments are directed against the general you, not you personally. The organization, the Board Members of the u. S. Soccer federation. I wants to ask you as a matter of fact, why mr. Sunil gulati declined the invitation to be here today . When the notice of the invitation came, we anticipated rather broad and specific questions potentially. It was determined with outside counsel that i would appear before the Senate Subcommittee hearing. What is the reason that mr. Gulaiti didnt . I think it was the reason that i had more daytoday knowledge of the event. Dont you think he had an obligation to answer the questions that we have been directing to you . Senator, i would answer if you are not comfortable with my answers i would be more than happy to respond in writing to your staff. You submit that mr. Gulati will answer these questions . I will certainly do my best to do that. Just a couple more questions. What is saps what is Sepp Blatters continuing role in fifa . To my understanding there is a meeting the 20th and 21st, from there they would have to do a notice to move forward and there would be a new election for president. Will u. S. Soccer take it position that he should effectively be excluded from fifa . I think it was pretty clear when we in the last election nominated and supported prince aly. I dont know who anybody any of the candidates are, i dont think anybody knows yet, but rest assured we will look at all of their platforms from human rights to reform, before we make any decisions. One last question. Dont you believe now that u. S. Soccer has a responsibility to do more . Its silence in my view has been deafening in many respects to expose the wrongdoing and condemn it. In answer to your question, i think a real prime example of what we have done is the recent reform of concacaf. Those were sweeping reforms. From independent directors to greater transparency, we think that is something we would like to bring forward to feedback. Fifa. Recognizing that we are one on the executive committee, and one of 209 nations, we pride ourselves on our leadership. We also understand at times, the limited capacity we have for reform. My time has long expired, my time has long expired. I wants to defer to senator gains daines. Just to followup on some of the questions that senator blumenthal was asking, how many years have you served as ceo or secretarygeneral of u. S. Soccer . Roughly 15 years. 15 years. I understand mr. Blaser b lazer, the indictments were of mr. Blaser and 14 others . I couldnt tell you. It was more than 10. You mentioned the cold hard facts, not having the cold hard facts, and at times discomfort. I guess over a 15 year career, we are going to get to the happy part here about what happened with womens soccer congratulations on that truly. A tremendous a competent. But regarding the discomfort that you felt at times we would like you to step back. Perhaps there was a line crossed if we look at what these indictments read, the bribery racketeering and so forth. Can you tell me about a time when you experienced discomfort and you stepped back because of what you are seeing . The discomfort was kind of in generalities. I will tell you in terms of how mr. Warner, in one of 41 nations and comcast in concacaf, how he ran a meeting and went through an agenda and had hand votes versus seal the votes those are the kinds of discomforts that led me to some level of discomfort. In your distinguished 15 year career with the organization how long ago was it when you first started sensing, perhaps something is wrong. Perhaps a few bolts are loose here, perhaps theres discomfort. Youve been looking at the indictment here, these things dont just happen overnight. It was probably building. When did you start having some concerns . It would be hard to pinpoint. As i said, the generalities they are generalities, and they related to the manner in which jack warner and chuck blazer ran their meetings, and how i think u. S. Soccer would like to h