c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org. c-span's road to the white house 2016. we take you there. >> the head of the u.s. soccer federation said he had suspicions about fifa, the sports international governing body, before federal prosecutors indicted nine soccer officials. that hearing is next on c-span3. then remarks from los angeles mayor eric garcetti. later we hear from gop presidential candidates ted cruz. and then a discussion on the u.s. patent system.

>> book tv is television for serious readers. and join us this saturday starting at 11:00 a.m. eastern for our all day live coverage of the harlem book fair. author talks and panel discussions featuring historian nell ervin painter and pamela new kirk. author and code pink medea benjamin on in depth. live from national book festival celebrating its 15th year. and on sunday, live in depth with second lady and senior fellow at the american enterprise institute lynn cheney on on c-span2's book tv. >> the senate panel was critical of the way soccer is run by international governing bodies and questioned what current soccer chiefs new about corruption in the global

organization fifa. we'll hear from the u.s. soccer federation president dan flynn and journalist andrew jennings at the senate commerce committee. the panel was asked about discrepancies in spending between men's and women's soccer. senator jerry moran chairs the hearing. >> this hearing of the subcommittee is now called to order. 3:00 is troublesome to our subcommittee. we'll see how this goes as far as how we handle that circumstance when it arises. i would like to first thank the witnesses today for participating in what i think is a very important hearing regarding international soccer governance. i'm not one who generally thinks congress should investigate every scandal in the world of professional sports. neuer do i believe that the

topics we are discussing today will lead to legislation that must be enacted. but i do believe this is a significant issue that deserves public attention. by shining light on the corruption bribery and other criminal activity that has been a part of international soccer for far too long my hope is that the american people, current and future sponsors, and media companies that support the games today will better understand the consequences of allowing the organizations governing soccer to continue without reform. including the tragic loss of life. according to some reports, as many as 4,000 my grant workers will die before the first ball is kicked in the 2022 world cup. that is appalling. soccer is by far the most popular sport in the world. it is truly a global institution

that connects humanity across language, culture and continent. soccer is attracting a wider audience by the day right here in the united states. one must look no farther than the women's world cup u.s. national team winning to see the impact soccer has on lives. along with this excitement comes billions of dollars of annual revenue from tv contracts, sponsorships and endorsements. that's why the revelations of bribery atrophy fifa and concacaf are more troubling. bribery, corruption within international soccer is so serious that may 27th 2015, the

u.s. department of justice unsealed a 47 count indictment against nine fifa officials and five corporate executives charging the defendants with racketeering, bribery, wire fraud, and money laundering. the culture of corruption must be addressed. with the announcement that fifa president blatter prepares to step down. now it is time for the united states and the soccer federation to engage and encourage meaningful reforms and elect a leader atrophy tpa who will spearhead long overdue changes within the organization. the goal is to have a serious

and meaningful conversation about how to address fifa's culture of corruption, united states participation in the organization, and the human rights violations stemming from the organization's lapses in integrity. without evidence that reforms are being implemented, we must examine our country's own participation in fifa and how it can restore integrity to the world of soccer. we cannot, should not, must not turn a blind eye to this issue any longer, especially when human lives are at stake. i now would like to turn to the ranking member, senator blumenthal for his opening statement. senator blumenthal? >> thank you mr. chairman. and i want to thank you for having this hearing and for our witnesses being here. i also want to thank the department of justice for its vigorous and profoundly significant investigation. and i want to note that soccer

is a growing and important sport in the united states. and we pride ourselves last month in our world champion team. i want to congratulate them and say very bluntly that the corruption uncovered in world soccer is a disservice to the game, it is a disrespect to them. it betrays countless men and women. many of them young people just beginning in this sport. who have a right to expect better. the fact of the matter is what has been so far is a mafia style

crime syndicate in charge of this sport. my only hesitation in using that term is that almost insulting to the mafia. because the mafia would never have been so blatant overt and arrogant in its corruption. the simple fact is that in this indictment more than 100 pages long, shows a crime organization a racketeering conspiracy. it has an organizational chart that shows how it was run. and the question is who knew about this criminal wrongdoing when did they know it and what did they know, why did they not act more quickly. and those are the questions that u.s. soccer federation has to answer today.

these are classic questions involved in any racketeering conspiracy investigation. that is why there is no fact an ongoing criminal investigation. we know some of the individuals who were responsible and should be held accountable. at least one of the principals has pleaded guilty already. and others may be cooperating. but the facts show that there had to be either willful ignorance or blatant incompetence on many of the members of this organization. and that's true of u.s. soccer as well. they either knew about it or they should have known about it. and i'm not sure which is worse. the recent success of our

professional women's soccer team should remind us and all americans that fifa, the international responsible for regulating and promoting soccer, has engaged in this willful and prolonged disgracefully corrupt conduct, including money laundering, fraud spanning two decades. many of these crimes were committed in the united states. which is especially troubling. i am saddened by the fact that these corrupt practices over many years have deprived american national teams, our youth leagues and millions of american soccer fans of the full value and integrity of the game they love. the actions of fifa's international and regional soccer officials have undermined the very sport this organization

was established to serve. and this hearing is an opportunity for us not only to ask these questions about who knew what when and why they didn't do anything about it but also to lay the groundwork for reform. just as sports scandals in the past have led to fundamental far-reaching overhauls in the way those sports are organized and conducted. i want to know what reforms the u.s. soccer federation is planning to introduce to instill greater transparency and accountability in the governance of soccer in america. not whether but what and when. because clearly there is an urgent and immediate need for such reforms. but i also believe that america's national soccer federation has those serious questions to answer.

and i think it has to answer them not only at this hearing but for its fans around this country. clearly we can no longer indulge the idea of fifa, a multibillion dollar nonprofit. only those who install greater transparency and accountability can shed the necessary sunlight to disinfect this corrupt organization. one proposal is in fact to reorganize it as a public corporation or some part of it as a public corporation. i'm proud that the united states has led the world in bringing these scandals to light and holding individuals responsible. but that job is far from over.

there needs to be additional action. and it should involve not only members of the public and public officials but also let me emphasize the private corporation that sponsor these events, corporate organizations that sponsor international soccer like mcdonald's, nike coca-cola and visa play their part by ensuring that they stand as guardians of good governance. they must do so rather than silent beneficiaries who benefit from opaque governance. and at least one of those corporations is mentioned without making it in the indictment.

as my colleague senator moran has just mentioned, these actions have real life consequences not only financially but in potential discrimination against women in the game and potential physical harm to the workers who may have been involved and may be involved in other countries where major physical construction involves human trafficking and human rights abuse and worse. the international community must collectively work to ensure human rights are upheld wherever our athletes compete. the betrayal of trust is no less when human trafficking is involved in building the stadiums where our athletes compete. it's a betrayal of trust on the part of those organizations that sponsor the game, and it implicates the entire sport. we should not tolerate the world's most preeminent sporting competitions being staged at the

expense of our most vulnerable citizens. today's hearing is a first step. and i want to thank all of you for being here today. i look forward to your testimony and to restoring the trust of american fans, trust which has been betrayed but which they certainly deserve. thank you, mr. chairman. >> i thank the ranking member. our panel today for this hearing is consists of four witnesses, mr. dan flynn, who's the ceo and secretary general of the u.s. soccer federation. that is the united states's representative at fifa and concacaf. mr. michael hershman. the president and ceo of the fairfax group, member of fifa's independent governance committee. mr. barry, advocacy director for the middle east north africa amnesty international. he will testify about findings of the may 15, 2015 amnesty report regarding working conditions.

and finally mr. andrew jennings who's traveled perhaps the furthest to join us. he's an investigative writer and filmmaker credited with blowing cover on fifa scandal. we will start with mr. flynn. mr. flynn, please testify. >> thank you, senator. on behalf of the united states soccer federation i would like to thank senator moran, senator blumenthal, senator from my home state of missouri and other members of this committee for giving soccer to appear today and answer questions you may have. on behalf of our womens national team, i would like to also thank president and mrs. obama, vice president and dr. biden, distinguished members of this subcommittee, your senate and house colleagues and the tens of millions of fans in the united states including the largest television audience ever to watch a soccer match in this country who supported and cheered this wonderful group of women to the women's world cup title just ten days ago. i am daniel flynn, and i have been u.s. soccer's chief

executive officer and secretary general for the last 15 years. and i'm ultimately responsible for the day-to-day operations of the federation. we are a nonprofit membership organization recognized by the u.s. olympic committee as a national governing body for soccer and by fifa, the world's governing body for the sport of soccer as national association member for the united states. as required by fifa we are also a member of concacaf, covers the north and central america and caribbean nations. for more than 100 years u.s. soccer's mission has been to make soccer a preeminent support in the united states and to continue the growth and development of the sport at all levels. u.s. soccer directly fields 17 national teams including the women's national team which has won three world cup titles and four olympic gold medals and the men's national team which is in the process of defending its 2013 concacaf gold cup title. we also field the national paralympics team and numerous

aged based boys and girls teams. u.s. soccer is made up of various organizations including among others our professional leagues, the adult amateur leagues, soccer organizations for disabled athletes and the youth amateur organizations. u.s. soccer is governed by a 15-person volunteer board of directors elected by its members which includes independent directors, athlete representatives and directors representing different segments of our membership. our annual tax returns audited financial statements, business plans, bylaws, policy and board of director meeting minutes are all publicly available on our website. in fifa, we are one of 209 national association members. fifa members must vote on any substantial changes to the organization. and a vote of every member, regardless of the size, number of players or the quality of their national teams, counts the same.

until two years ago when our president was elected to the fifa executive committee, the federation did not have a direct representative on that important policymaking body. although our role and influence in fifa has historically been limited, the federation has been a strong advocate for reforming the organization by among other things improving governance, increasing transparency and strengthening ethics rules. u.s. soccer supported fifa's decision in 2011 to engage experts to conduct a review of its governance structure and then urge the adoption of the reforms after the governance report was released. u.s. soccer supported the investigation by the fifa ethics committee into the bidding and award processes for the 2018 and 2022 world cups. and publicly advocated for the release of the full investigative report, not just the summary report released by fifa last fall. u.s. soccer was one of the national associations which nominated prince ali and then

publicly supported his challenge to fifa's long standing president mr. sepp blatter in a recent election. we did so including potential impact on our possible bid, the host the 2026 mens world cup. but u.s. soccer believes good governance and good leadership at fifa is paramount and more important to the sport than hosting any individual world cup. going forward we believe reform will have to start at the top beginning with the election of a new fifa president in light of mr. blatter's stated intention to resign. u.s. soccer will look to the new president to lead this reform. we understand many traditional soccer powers also believe it is time for a change. u.s. soccer will continue to work with like minded national associations and confederations to promote change and to alter the culture at fifa.

at concacaf, efforts proceeded more rapidly. concacaf appointed a three-person special committee which includes u.s. soccer's president to help guide through this period of turmoil. and over the july 4th weekend concacaf recommendation committee unanimously approved a series of sweeping reforms to discuss governance, and compliance and transparency. thank you for your time and i look forward to responding to specific questions you may have on this or other subjects. >> mr. flynn, thank you for your testimony. mr. hershman. >> good afternoon, chairman moran, ranking member blumenthal and members of the subcommittee. thank you for this opportunity to appear before you today alongside such esteemed colleagues in the field of transparency and integrity in the global world of sports. i'm honored to speak on an issue that has been a passion and driving force throughout my

career including having served on two years on the independence governing committee of fifa and as co-founder of transparency international, the world's leading ngo on issues relating to transparency and accountability. additionally i'm currently spearheading an integrity project in sports as an advisory board member for the international center for sports security. as senator moran has stated before, soccer is by far the most popular sport in the world, and it is attracting a wider audience by the day in the united states. however, the upper echelons of the sport's governing body have been notoriously corrupt for many years. until the laudable recent efforts of the u.s. justice department and the fbi, many allegations were mostly swept under the rug. now that fifa's lack of transparency and accountability has been brought into the global public attention, there's a tremendous opportunity to discuss the inherent autonomy in

sporting organizations. sports organizations have long maintained that autonomy is essential to the preservation of the values embedded in sport. this is a difficult concept to argue with. that is until the core values in sport are undermined by a lack of accountability and trust, which we've seen recently in one of the world's largest, most profitable sporting bodies, fifa. the growing commercial interests at play, the protection that many governments offer large sporting organizations and the rapidly growing sports gambling industry, both legal and illegal, are all converging to create a situation where self-regulation is increasingly challenging. the sports industry must put in place governance and compliance standards which demonstrate the best practices in transparency and accountability. fifa is a big business with revenue of about $5.6 billion

every four-year world cup cycle. and fifa had a chance to be a leader in reform when the scandals first began popping up about ten years ago. despite multiple chances to change after being presented with reform proposals by transparency international as well as our own independent governance committee, fifa held to the irresponsible notion that it was autonomous and did not have to adhere to outside oversight or interference. the u.s. public cannot assume fifa is the only sporting body with endemic structural problems. every single governing body in the sports world from the international olympic committee to the icc to the nfl, needs to agree to modern standards of transparency and accountability. while many people around the world hold sport as sacred, it has become an incredibly

profitable industry that needs to be regulated and treated for what it is, big business. these recent events are bigger than fifa. they require coordinated global action across all sporting bodies. and i believe there is a way we can achieve this reform with the cooperation and support from governments and sport industry leaders around the world. the international center for sports security, which is also a nonprofit organization, has bourn the idea of the sports industry transparency initiative. i serve on their board of advisers and we have established a set of global standards which would be voluntarily adopted by sports organizations. this collective action agreement would form a governing group that would work with the sports community to promote transparency and accountability while strengthening a higher standard of ethics and values in sports. the standards would finally create a benchmark to evaluate

the effectiveness and efficiency of sports governance and compliance programs. the standards would include but not be limited to professionalizing boards of directors in sports, managing conflicts of interest, building a democratic foundation, embracing transparency and accountability, leveling the playing field for athletes, men and women, motivating ethical behavior for staff and volunteers, engaging with key stakeholders, showcasing sport event integrity, considering the positive role of sport in society and establishing effective risk controls. this approach will be comprehensive and far reaching while every principle does not apply to all sports organizations, there is enough common ground to ensure that sports groups understand what is expected of them in terms of integrity and transparency. as attorney general loretta lynch so rightly pointed out in

her speech after announcing the fifa charges, many of the individuals and organizations we will describe today were entrusted with keeping soccer open and accessible to all. they held important responsibilities at every level, from building soccer fields for children in developing countries to organizing the world cup. they were expected to uphold the rules that keep soccer honest and protect the integrity of the game. instead they corrupted the business of worldwide soccer to serve their interesting and rich themselves. mr. chairman, thank you. i look forward to answering your questions and those of the committee members. >> mr. hershman, thank you. mr. barry, welcome. and we welcome your testimony. >> thank you. chairman -- >> you need to turn on your microphone please. >> there we go. chairman moran, ranking member blumenthal, and distinguished guests, on behalf of amnesty international thank you for the opportunity

to address the issue of human rights in the 2022 fifa world cup. the 2022 fifa world cup brought in global focus the foreign my grant workers cannot leave without permission of their current employer. even if an employer is not paying the employee the employer can still block the employee from changing jobs or leaving the country. in 2012 the qatar national research fund funded a survey is of some 1,000 low income labor migrants. 90% of migrants said their employers possess their passports. a violation of qatar law. as documented by amnesty international researchers in the most extreme examples, foreign

my grant workers have become suicidal after trapped without pay by employers. they have been forced to depend on charity from others simply to eat. family members in poor communities in their countries of origin can face eviction and other serious challenges because a family member is trapped in qatar and not being paid for work they have done. there are an astounding more than 1.5 million foreign nationals working in qatar today. these numbers have increased at a dramatic rate with the population growing staggering 43% since they awarded the world cup in december of 2010. this is due to a massive construction boom in the country. the government is spending hundreds of billions ever dollars into a massive infrastructure program. this goes well beyond stadiums. many of the construction projects aren't solely for the world cup but remain central to the success of the sporting event and the overlapping effort to make qatar a global

destination for tourism and commerce. the problems faced by qatar go beyond the restrictions by the employer sponsorship system. foreign my grant workers are forbidden from joining trade unions. which qatar does offer labor laws they are not enforced effectively. to make matters even worse, thousands of foreign migrant workers in domestic roles are excluded from the protections set out under the qatar poorly enforced labor law. these my grant workers who are mainly women working in households are exposed greater exploitation and abuse, including sexual violence. despite repeated announcement to the contrary, the government has failed to address the problem of labor exploitation. in may of 2014 the qatar government promised limited reforms to address the widespread exploitation of migrant workers in the country but one year later none of the reforms have been implemented. in 2014 amnesty international

identified nine key issues to address urgently and one year later nothing has changed in the four most critical areas of abuse. only limited actions have been taken in the remaining five areas. they do not address the structural factors of the abuse in qatar. the responsibility for the rights of the workers in qatar rest with the authorities but when fifa awarded the world cup it assumed the responsibility for the human rights impact of that decision. unfortunately fifa efforts have fallen far short of the concrete action needed to make sure the world cup in qatar is not based on labor exploitation. i've outlined specific problems with the exploitation. these solutions should be implemented by the government fifa and countries that my grant workers are from. the united states government can help in specific ways.

for the government of qatar the solution is to fix the deeply flaws sponsorship system and address the many other problems i've highlighted today. for fifa it is not enough for the organization officials so simply accept the verbal commitments of the government of qatar. fifa must send a strong message to the authorities and the construction sector that human rights must be respected in all world cup related projects and fifa must put in place effective systems to monitor and report on this. this includes not only training and stadium facilities and hotels and transportation projects and other infrastructure. if reforms are not put in place, the facilities for the 2022 cup will carry the permanent stain of forced labor and human suffering. on behalf of amnesty international, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. >> mr. berry, thank you for testifying.

mr. jennings, thank you for joining us. >> thank you, chairman and ranking member, i don't know the proper way to do this. >> you've come a long way, we want to hear you. >> i testified to john mccain back in 1999 on the olympic scandals but it has all changed since then. i would you like to join with everybody else in honoring america's soccer players and the gracious way they and the only 23 teams conduct themselves in the women's world cup. and this contrasts sadly with the massive, massive deficiency of the u.s. soccer federation, frightened to upset blatter and fifa and enjoying the elite lifestyle he provides. we're here to discuss how american soccer relates to fifa. i note the absence of mr. slaty. that is one crucial question today. where is sunil? where is he? he's the man who takes american values, supposedly, to fifa and

to konica concacaf and not here to talk bit. i've worked with cbs's "60 minutes" and hbo's real sport. i have reported from war zones in beirut check nia. chechnya and central america. i'm not a sports reporter. sent me to the match and i might get the score wrong. it is not what i do. i'm proud of being the only reporter in the world banned by mr. blatter because of my disclosures of his corruption over the last 13 years. before stumbling on the fifa low lives, i had experience of organized crime filming nose to nose with the mafia in palermo. but as fifa ticks all of the boxes for a organized crime and compromising and outwitnessing the public authorities and hiding criminality behind the

world's most popular game. after seven years of probing the sleaze bags and putting up with the legal threats and the attacks on my computers, i was invited to the fbi special agents in london. the business cards said organized crime. i wasn't alone any more. the real people had arrived. in august of 2011 i gave them financial and other documents about american -- that america had hid from the fans and the public. by the way, you talked about not having mr. flynn. chuck blaze was there since 1995. look at who represents. u.s. soccer was happy to represent american values. i hope you can come back to that. chuck blaze had hidden the financial information from the fans and the public. my source obtained them from the archives of concacaf.

as you know, 35 footballing nations, including the usa. they were circulated privately to all executive committee members of concacaf including u.s. soccer, who also suppressed them. u.s. soccer had to know that blazer and his fellow crook jack warner from trinidad, fighting extradition at the moment, with the approval of blatter, were looting regional football and evading rightful taxes. but they looked away. i have a long list, no time to go into now, of the failings of u.s. soccer with concacaf and with blatter. i'd be happy to present it to any of you and discuss it later. now, if america's soccer leaders had taken action when they should have done, blaze and warner would have been in jail, blatter seeking asylum in jim bob way and the 2022 world cup

being hosted by the usa. not some graveyards in the gulf. it only took the fbi and the irs to check out the information i gave them. they arrested blazer and he immediately turned informant and fifa has imploded. fifa is now a smelly shell. that is all. it has no credible. credibility. we don't want to know it. nobody wants to know it. once upon a time fifa officials would walk down the street with the logo, i'm from fifa, i'm important, and who would do that now? who would dare do that now? none of them. and that is how we sum up fifa now. it is about determined to stay in power, don't believe this nonsense about his going. watch his words carefully, i've put down my mandate but i'll pick it up again. his hitman are working to get rid of rivals and his ethics committee -- i'm running over time, to obey his instructions. his p.r. operation briefs the wires services that he's innocent.

but this is a national sports leader that can only travel to bojar, russia and switzerland. what america can do is engage with clean decent football associations around the world and create a new organization based in another land and invite sponsors and tv networks to go with them. i can't see coca-cola and mcdonald's and visa preferring the remnants of blatter's organized crime family. and there is one other crucial thing that u.s. soccer should do. some of you -- some of you may remember when the u.s. olympic committee was in disarray over the salt lake scandal 16 years ago they called in senator mitchell and ken dubestein to investigate where they had gone wrong with the ioc and make recommendations. external, respected, nonpartisan investigation. this committee to help u.s. soccer set up a similar independent committee to find out what on earth has gone so

badly wrong and it being covered up. also u.s. soccer could do what your government does, which is put everything online. the forms are inadequate. and then renew, reorganize and reinvigorated soccer could say to the world, this is how it does. we are not in america pushing around but we can do it. it is all wide open. join with us and the 209 national associations would come with you, finishing. next monday, the absent mr. gillaspie, who i think is treating you with contempt and the u.s. people of soccer, the men and women and the whole sport with context when he can't come here and defend the u.s. soccer activities in concacaf and fifa. so he's going over to zurich next week with a private meeting of what is left of the leaders of fifa who aren't in jail. i urge and i hope everyone else would urge mr. glady to e-mail

blatter and say when i get to zurich i want all of your pay slips and everything you paid yourself, your perks your bonuses, your per diems. i want it on the desk. because it is not there and i'm going to come home and help america, to kick start the reform. that is what you've got to do as a country to get credibility back internationally. thank you. >> thank you mr. jennings. let me start with mr. flynn and ask a question. you heard mr. jennings just say that u.s. soccer had to know. so the question is what did u.s. soccer know, what should you have known, and in particular, with the indictments that allege racketeering, bribery, fraud, money laundering, what is the reaction of the u.s. soccer federation to that, the charges at fifa, the executives and the board members, and also what does u.s. soccer federation know

about concacaf in similar circumstances. it is perceived as the most corrupt of the very regional associations. what does u.s. soccer federation know? >> thank you, senator. i knew nothing about any corruption -- let me interrupt one moment. when you say you knew nothing, you speak just for you personally? >> i will say i or anybody that i've worked with has not brought anything to my attention, cold hard facts, regarding corruption within fifa or concacaf. that being said, there is a couple of things i'd like to point out -- in terms of, mr. blazer has not been involved with u.s. soccer since 1986. he has been a member of concacaf and fifa but not u.s. soccer since 1986.

in terms of mr. blatter and mr. warner's activities, i would like to point out that those were private, individual, secret transactions that with the full resources of the department of justice and the fbi 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. so i wanted to point out that those private transactions also 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. so i think that is an important point of distinction i would like to make. >> mr. flynn, thank you.

let me ask a follow-up question to that. when the u.s. department of justice and the u.s. attorney's office announced indictments, you and your colleagues at the soccer federation would be surprised there could be some activity occurring at fifa or concacaf that would result in indictments? that would be a surprise to you? >> senator, i was not aware of any part of that investigation in the department of justice. >> but the fact that someone was indicted, surprised you? >> i just wasn't involved. in my focus, and that of my day-to-day focus is to stay focused on the domestic side of the business so i just didn't have any knowledge nor anybody that i worked with had any knowledge of it. >> let me try to tie something together because it may be confusing as to why we're having a hearing that involved mr. bery for example. by question to you, mr. berry and mr. hershman and mr. jennings and even mr. flynn, we've heard mr. berry's testimony about the conditions

involving the preparation for the 2022 -- excuse me, 2022 soccer world cup. what is the relationship between the testimony that we're hearing, mr. berry, about corruption, bribery, racketeering, criminal activity, related to fifa and the findings that your organization has made in regard to what is going on in preparation for that world cup. how -- is our hearing, are these two contrasting type of stories that don't belong together or are they intimately tied to each other? >> thank you for the question. at the end of the day when fifa made the decision to grant the bid for the 2022 world cup to occur in qatar, it took responsibility for the human rights impacts of that decision. >> how can you say that? why is that true. >> because fifa as an international organization with a billion dollars plus in

reserves has a responsibility under u.n. principals 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 explanation are rampant in qatar today. not only that but the amnesty international shows that the government has yet to do anything serious or substantial about the basic labor exploitation so the question remains as to why was that fifa provided -- why was it fifa did not go more deeply into these questions of labor exploitation in the process. now fifa has said at this point in time that 2026, for the 2026 process, they are going to incorporate human rights concerns but why has it taken until the 2026 process for these questions to be raised. >> mr. jennings, let me ask you, is there a relationship between what you describe in your testimony and the testimony that mr. berry has described leading

up to the preparations for 2022. how do they relate? >> take a step back. u.s. soccer has failures, so do the leaders of english soccer, they should know better than to bid for that world cup because we all know in the business that you have to pay to play. and i don't think the u.s. pay bribes and i'm sure the english don't. you don't get in a race where you will get bears off the planet. it was firsty decision to put it on there. it is wrong to put a tournament there on a strip of land that is boiling. and you have to wonder why certain people despite that at fifa voted for the world cup to go there. and it is worse, they have another meeting now, knowing that can't happen, what blatter calls stakeholders, which are all members, and no fans and now moving it from november to december to the world cup year.

now if you want to die young, come to england, come to stand outside of manchester united and liverpool, everton all of the clubs we're going to stop you having football for seven weeks because jack warner took the money. i hope it is a painless death. you can't walk into somebody else's sports culture and just take it away. but that is what blatter is doing now. and who is questioning him? i don't see any of the officials from u.s. soccer saying, no, no. we're friends with the english and the german and the dutch and the western european federations that will have to stop their game because of the dirty slime bags at fifa. that is the background to it. the money went in from somewhere. i'm not saying where it went in. as long as the investigation is still going on. but it went in. and the low life of the executive committee voted for something which is ending up with the death of migrant workers.

it is -- and i just would say -- well the -- one other thing here, we have a saying in european football, when officials or administrators can't remember what happened, i don't know, i wasn't there, i can't remember, we say oh, yeah, well when they were younger they must have headed that big wet football too many times. because the ticket rackets go back to public knowledge back to 2002, again in 2006 again in 2010. richly documented that racketeering was a way of life for concacaf. but that never reached the chicago offices of the u.s. soccer federation. >> let me turn to senator blumenthal. >> i appreciate you being here today. it is my understanding you had no knowledge about this corruption before may of this year when the department of justice issued its indictment? is that correct? you had no knowledge?

>> that's correct. that is correct. >> did you have suspicions? >> there were moments i would describe if i had a level of discomfort, i would not participate and i what just get myself out of any -- any situation that offered any level of discomfort to me. >> so there was evidence that caused you to remove yourself from discussions or meetings? >> i wouldn't say evidence. i would say i think it was the comfort level. >> when did that lack of comfort level begin? >> i couldn't pinpoint any particular time. >> years before the indictment, correct? >> i wouldn't necessarily say years. it would be hard to pinpoint the time. >> months? >> i think it would be fair to say greater than months but once again hard to pinpoint exact time frames. >> did you make any effort to investigate?

>> there is -- if there was cold facts, i would have brought that to the attention of the effort to investigate? >> if there was cold facts i would have brought that to the attention of people. there was nothing in the way of any facts that i could take to anybody else and obviously would consult our outside consult but that's as far as i would take it because it was something that was a discomfort level. >> but you made no effort to investigate and your outside counsel didn't tell you to investigate? >> no, i just passed along my discomfort. >> would you agree that u.s. soccer acted inadequately to investigate or prevent or stop the on going criminal wrong

doing at fifa? >> i wouldn't say we would do it differently. what our focus has been is trying to -- we have two choices. we're one of 209 national association and at the end of the day we find a way to participate in a manner consistent with our core values. one of the ways to do that and starting in 2013 we finally had somebody that was with u.s. soccer soccer. that was a start at getting a louder voice and a seat at the table. >> i think what you're stating is fairly well-known history and i want to ask about what officials at u.s. soccer came to

learn. the department of justice indicted chuck blazer and had long standing ties to u.s. soccer and particularly in the lack of comfort level that you had had. what's the explanation? >> i didn't -- i was aware of some level of discomfort but it was all -- i think, in general a general feeling so i had no hard evidence and we wanted to continue to participate and try

to influence the organization for 209 members. the second choice we had is to opt out and pull out and with that comes a series of ramifications. we no longer have a seat at the table no longer involved in world cups or competitions for our olympic teams and it has far ranging ramifications for u.s. soccer in the business model of soccer in our country which we have through ownership developed 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

accomplished on the women's side for the men. >> but wasn't there a third to begin asking questions? begin an inquiry? begin shining a light? begin blowing the whistle? begin essentially holding accountable officials who might be guilty and we now know they are of wire fraud, conspiracy bribery, money laundering. that would impact the quality of the sport you're responsible for upholding. >> we did support the ethics committee. we pushed for full disclosure of the full report. and the -- having the fifa

executive committee seat we continue to feel that that is a proper course of action to reform fifa. >> and i want to make clear my comments are directed against the collective you. not you personally. the executive offices, the board members, the organization of the u.s. soccer federation and i want to ask you as a matter of fact why he declined the invitation to be here today. >> when the notice came to of the hearing, we anticipated rather broad and specific questions potentially and it was determined with outside council that i would appear before the senate subcommittee hearing. >> what's the reason that he

didn't? >> i think it was a comfort level that i had more knowledge of the day-to-day operations and the event. there were questions related to that. >> don't you think he has an obligation to answer the questions that we have been directing to you? >> senator i would answer if you're not comfortable with my answers we would be more than happy to respond in writing to your staff anything directly related. >> well, do you commit that he will answer these questions? >> i will do my best to do that, wrers. >> thank you. just a couple more questions. what is sepp blatters continuing role in fifa? >> there's a special meeting the 20th and 21st. next monday and tuesday. they have to do a four month notice and move forward and there would be a new election

for a president. >> will u.s. soccer take the position that he should be excluded from fifa? >> our position was pretty clear when we in the last election nominated and supported prince ali. i don't know who the candidates are. i don't think anybody does yet but rest assured we will look at all the candidates and their platform from human rights to corruption to reform before we make our decision. >> one last question, don't you believe now that u.s. soccer has a responsibility to do more? it's silence has been deafening in many respects to expose the wrong doing. >> i'd like to answer your question, a real prime example of what we have done is the reform of concacaf.

those are sweeping reforms. we think that's a footprint that we'd like to bring forward to fifa recognizing that we're 1 of 25 on the fifa expo -- executive committee, excuse me. and one of 209 nations within the fifa organization itself. so we pride ourselves on our leadership and we also understand at tiles the limited capacity that we have for reform. >> my time has long expired and i am hopeful that we may have another round of questioning but i want to defer at this point. >> thank you, senator. >> let's follow up on some of the questions that he was asking. how many years have you served as either ceo or security general of u.s. soccer? >> roughly 15 years. >> 15 years. and i understand mr. blazer the

indictments -- it was mr. blazer and 14 others; is that correct? >> i couldn't tell you the exact number. >> it was more than 10. yeah. and you mentioned the cold hard facts. not having cold hard facts and at times having discomfort. and i guess over a 15 year career and we're going to get to the happier part of this here. truly a tremendous accomplishment. >> thank you. >> but as -- regarding the discomfort that you felt at times, where you felt like you needed to step back because perhaps there was a line crossed, if we look at what this indictments read the bribery and racketeering and so forth can you tell me about a time you experienced discomfort and you stepped back because of what you were seeing? >> the discomfort was in generalities. i will tell you in terming of

how mr. warner, how he ran the meeting and went through an agenda and had hand votes, sealed votes. those are the kinds of discomforts that i would -- that lead me to some level of discomfort. >> and in your distinguished 15 year career leading the organization, how long ago was it when you first started sensing perhaps something is wrong? perhaps a few bolts are loose here. perhaps there's discomfort. looking at what the indictments here -- these things typically don't happen overnight. this is probably building. when did you start having some concerns concerns. >> it would be hard to pinpoint. there's generalities and they're

related to the point in which they ran their meetings and how i think u. s. soccer would be -- like to have a greater influence but being one of 35 voting nations and mind you mr. warner came from the caribbean and 25 of those 35 votes are from the caribbean. it gave me a level of discomfort that we weren't going to make progress in terms of transparency and some things i would have preferred as to how u.s. soccer operates. >> did you express those concerns to mr. blazer? >> i did not. >> any reason you might not have confronted him or asked why he's doing what he's doing? >> generally speak