Longtime soccer fan John Oliver let loose on the international governing body of soccer FIFA on Sunday after an American indictment charged several officials with soliciting illegal bribes over the last 24 years.
He called for the ouster of the FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, whom he labeled a “Swiss demon.”
“The problem is all the arrests in the world are going to change nothing if Blatter’s still there, because to truly kill a snake you must cut off its head—or in this case, its asshole,” he said.
But the host was most stunned by the fact that America was the country to bust the corruption.
In the middle of Oliver’s rant against the non-profit organization’s rampant corruption, he took time to note a joke within a joke.
Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, who has been indicted by the FBI, posted a video defending himself and governing body.
“If FIFA is so bad, why is it the U.S. still wants to keep the FIFA World Cup?” Warner asked aloud, citing a print-out of an article he held in one hand.
“And let’s be fair, he’s right, FIFA giving the U.S. an extra World Cup is comically ridiculous,” Oliver said. “It’s the sort of thing you’d usually see in an Onion article — which, it turns out, is exactly what he was holding up there!”
“It says something about how corrupt FIFA is that one of their ex-vice presidents could look at that story and say, that’s something they might do,” he added.
Watch the clip, courtesy of HBO:
Not one “serious” news commentator can even come close to how informative Oliver is. So entertaining on every level.
As Roger Bennett said, soccer fans here in the US are so proud to be here in the US at this time, a country that gave the world the greatest contribution since the Marshall Plan with these FIFA indictments.