Russian Collusion & Meddling @ FIFA2018

Russian Collusion & Meddling @ FIFA2018

By MIKOspace

It was a historic and memorable Sunday.  On 17 June 2018, the world witnessed France’s 4-2 win over Croatia in the FIFA World Cup Final in Moscow; marking the second time in 20 years that France won the World Cup.  An early 18^th minute own-goal by Croatian star player Mario Mandzukic set the stage for a new generation of French soccer players in Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Paul Pogba to steal the hearts of everyone with their spectacular footwork and 3 more goals in the newly renovated Luzhniki Stadium, the largest stadium in Russia and Eastern Europe as well as the 8^th largest in Europe.  Mario redeemed himself before full-time by scoring the last goal of the night to add to his team-mate Ivan Perisic’s goal in the first half.  French President Emmanuel Macron, sitting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the VIP Section, was photographed leaping in jubilant joy when the final whistle blew.

As celebrations exploded in Paris’ Champs-Elysee Avenue as well as in the Croatian Bana Jelacica Square at the centre of Zagreb, none of their passionate and enthusiastic supporters knew about the gathering storm coming from the greatest football and FIFA scandal of all times!

Did the French collude with the Russians to win the 2018 FIFA World Cup?  

And did the Russians meddle in the fixtures, logistics, play books and conduct of the 64 matches or in any other manner or shape to assure France of her long-awaited historic victory?

Days before the Opening Ceremony on 14 June 2018, FIFA had received an 18-page complaint consisting, among other documents, sworn affidavits detailing meetings and emails between certain senior French and Russian politicians, as well as FIFA and national sports officials concerning the outcome of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.  Since they contained no specific direct evidence of any kind relating to the 2018 World Cup, FIFA alerted Interpol who then authorized secret surveillance as well as wire-tapping, emails and mobile communications monitoring of the Russian and French officials named in the complaint and affidavits, together with several unnamed others whom they were in contact with.  In an unusual departure from protocol, Interpol did not inform either the French or Russian enforcement authorities of the open criminal investigations.     

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The investigators studied the Moscow World Cup schedule and fixture which was announced by FIFA on 1 December 2017.  Prima facie, the 2018 World Cup fixture was not particularly unusual.  On hindsight, one is drawn to the fact that Russia (Group A), France (Group C) and Croatia (Group D) are in separate Groupings.  However, in the actual match fixture, France would meet EITHER Russia or Croatia as the latter progress (successfully) in their respective games. 

Croatia beat Russia 4-3 on penalty kicks on 7 July 2018, after a 2-2 draw that included goals by both sides in the 30 minutes of extra time.  Croatia thus created her own path to meet France (after beating Belgium) in the Cup Finale.  Did Russia deliberately let Croatia win?  Russian interference and collusion would of course be too obvious if she were to meet France and resulted in a French victory.    

In any case, the Croatian Team was not getting any easy co-operation from the Russian hosts at their training base at the St Petersburg’s Lesnaya Rapsodiya Resort on the shores of Bolshoye Semaginskoye Lake, Leningrad Region, which has a modern stadium built specially for the 2018 World Cup.  The Croatian Team was personally supervised by a senior FSB Officer.  The FSB is Russia’s principal national security agency and the successor to the former KGB. 

  

The Croatian Team had requested for 30 bicycles for their training, but was disallowed.  They were instead directed to the exclusive use of the 25-meter long panoramic swimming pool and the gym room.  According to the Report, the Croatians were extremely agitated and anxious by the refusal.  Was this a Russian ploy calculated to unbalance the Croatian players in order to impact their World Cup game, especially in the Final against the French?  Further investigations are certainly needed.

Compared to the Croatian Team, the French Team stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn, New Rifa, located at a tranquil location in the beautiful forested area of Moscow Oblast.  It offers a peaceful oasis in the countryside with easy access to Moscow city center and all of Moscow’s airports via the New Riga highway.

The French victory was an unexpected surprise to most soccer buffs, but not to the Interpol investigators.  By the end of the Final Game on 17 June 2018, the French victory answered many questions which they had developed during the investigations and incidental indirect questioning of several hundred people, among whom were several unsuspecting persons of interest. 

In the evening of 17 June 2018 into the night and the next day, before departure of the various team, Interpol also secured the active co-operation of Russian enforcement authorities as well as the British Scotland Yard after a quick briefing of their investigations status.  An Interpol Team also headed to Zagreb ahead of the returning Croatian Team to continue the investigations in Croatia.  Another Interpol Team similarly headed to Paris.  All players, and particularly the goal-scorers, are expected to be vigorously questioned by Interpol and FIFA officials.

 

One can expect Croatian player Mario Mandzukic to be questioned in details, together with the match video, on his own-goal which gave France her early lead in the Final Game.  

Mario has already signed a US$9million book deal with a French publisher for a “tell-all” book on how Croatia got into, and lost, the FIFA2018 World Cup Finals, which would be titled “What Happened”.

In “What Happened”, Mario promised to lay out how the 2018 World Cup was marked by an unprecedented assault on his beloved soccer game by foreign adversarial forces. He would analyse the evidence of Russian collusion and meddling by connecting the dots to show just how dangerous the forces are that shaped the final outcome of FIFA2018 World Cup, and why all soccer lovers need to understand them to protect the integrity of the game in the future.

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By midnight, Interpol had managed to seize and uploaded the messages and social media accounts from the mobile phones, and obtained the email accounts, of all the players and officials of the Russian, French and Croatian Teams.

The British Scotland Yard investigators also wanted to know of any unusual interference which resulted in England’s devastating 2-1 defeat by a less experienced Croatian Team in the Semi-Finals.  The demoralized English Team subsequently lost their will to prevail against a better Belgium Team to lose 2-0 and be denied even the 3^rd position.  And Belgium’s odd to win the World Cup was 12-1 compared to England’s 20-1.

Interestingly, there were some “love-bird” chats between several pairs of Croatian and French players, and Russian-French officials.  Consistent references to Russian sources regarding “France will win” and “Croatia would lose” appeared frequently and alarming enough to pursue these conversations further.  There was also a reference to some kind of “insurance policy” to guarantee a French FIFA2018 victory. 

What is the alleged “insurance policy” to guarantee a French victory?

This had led investigators to examine the FIFA drug tests protocols and actual practice in the 2018 Games.  Extra urine samples were taken from all the other Teams in the Finals.  Drug retesting was also ordered, again, after the end of the Final whistle, and samples taken in the respective Teams’ locker rooms. 

Investigators wondered whether “positive” drug test results would be used to discredit a Croatian cup victory, so as to assure a French victory no matter whatever the outcome may be.  If true, this would never be known.

It was rumored that the Russians had a video showing the Croatian Team partying wildly with Russian prostitutes, showing sex orgies as well as the players being urinating upon by the prostitutes.  Together with “fake” drug test results, the video would also discredit any Finals victory by the Croatians, which would hand the FIFA Cup to France.   Is this also part of the “insurance policy” to guarantee a French victory?  

Again, the investigators wanted to know whether and how the France-Australia match could have been interfered with to produce a French victory which led her eventually to the Finals to meet Croatia.

The key unknown questions to be unraveled by the investigators relate to motives.  Why do the Russians want France to win the FIFA World Cup 2018?

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I think the answer is energy. Russia is rich in energy resources. Russia has the world’s largest known natural gas reserves, with the second largest coal reserves, and has the world’s 8th largest oil reserves.  In contrast, France derives about 75% of its electricity from nuclear energy, due to her policy on energy security. This share is likely to be reduced to 50% by 2025.  Currently, France is the world's largest net exporter of electricity due to very low cost of generation, and receives over 3 billion Euros annually.

Russian strategic desire is a pipeline through France and Spain to the Atlantic and the Northern Mediterranean.  Most of Europe is dependent on Russia for energy already, especially Germany, except the United Kingdom (UK), France and Spain.  Post-Brexit, Russia expects UK to be hungry for energy since her power imports from Europe has increased by 52% over the past 3 years.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron met for the first time on 30 May 2017.  At that time, President Macron had chastised Russian media and parties for attempting to meddle and interfere in the French General Elections.  They met again on the 24 May 2018, this time discussing Russian-European relations, the Iran nuclear deal as well as Ukraine and trade issues.

By their 2^nd meeting, they have discovered substantial areas of strong mutual interest in power and energy.  They agreed for French energy giant Total to take a 10% stake in a Russian Novatek-led Arctic LNG-2 project which would produce liquefied natural gas from beneath the Artic ice-cap.  Through Total, France now partners with the world 2^nd largest natural gas producer, Russia, after the USA.    

At the same time, Russia’s Rosatom, the supplier of uranium enrichment services and owns 20% of US uranium through UraniumOne, have also strengthened its client partnership with French companies Electricite de France (EDF), Schneider Electric, Assystem and others, for joint nuclear power plant projects in 3^rd countries.  Russia nuclear energy deals with Egypt already exceed US$60 billion.

Without any doubt, France’s FIFA 2018 World Cup victory has both short and long-term priceless value to President Emmanual Macron in political, social and economic terms.  This fact is not lost on President Vladimir Putin. Perhaps, and maybe, the FSB also has “something” on Macron, as they seem to have on other world leaders, so as to guarantee Macron’s continuous co-operation? 

The investigations into Russian collusion and meddling will continue until the next FIFA 2022.  This could very well be a political “witch-hunt” where nothing really matters would be found.  Would FIFA2018 World Cup Champion France be disqualified as a result of the investigations, a first in FIFA history?!  Imagine FIFA Qatar 2022 World Cup without France? 

BTW, isn’t Qatar also the world largest producer of LNG (Liquefied nitrogen gas)?   Just coincidence?  Maybe.  Time will tell.

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