I'm sure there is a difference in the degree of bribery that took place with FIFA to obtain World Cups in South Africa (2010), Russia (2018) and Qatar (2022), and that which took place with the NFL to obtain the 2018 Super Bowl for Minneapolis.
The difference might be wider than a thin line, maybe one of those lines you see in the Lowry Tunnel.
It is interesting that South Africa has denied giving away $10 million to FIFA parties, as charged in last week's indictment in the United States, and the Minneapolis host committee has been too sheepish to admit to the full cost of the giveaways to the NFL to obtain the Super Bowl.
The host committee did admit that so far it had raised $30 million in donations to "help'' offset public costs for the Super Bowl — i.e., to grease the NFL.
I'm guessing it becomes a "bribe'' when money goes directly into the pocket of a country's representative to get his vote on the location of a World Cup, and it can be jokingly called an "incentive'' when all the free stuff is channeled through a noble body such as the NFL.
What's amazing is the demand for silence from FIFA voters selling the World Cup was not as effective as has been the NFL's in selling the Super Bowl to Minneapolis.
Even the mayor, Betsy Hodges, told the Star Tribune in December that she had not been made privy to the giveaways promised to the NFL.
Arne Carlson, the former governor, was outraged at the secrecy: "This is wrong … It should be transparent.
"We should know how the NFL operates.''
We have the answer, Arne, when it comes to transparency: no different than if Sepp Blatter was in charge.
The host committee's response to Star Tribune reporters Mike Kaszuba and Rochelle Olson in December was it did not agree to all 153 pages of NFL demands, and that the "competitive bid remains private.''
Heck, if only Sepp had been able to enforce that type of privacy with FIFA, he wouldn't be sweating out the date for his indictment.
