No red-blooded American should pretend to care about soccer, and for God’s sake don’t you dare call it football!

If that sounds a bit harsh, I have proof for you: the siting of the World Cup in Qatar is literally causing the biggest scandal in European Parliament history. If the Europeans were smart and simply let American Football colonize the continent none of this would have happened.

Lost amid the hoopla of the final rounds of the soccer tournament was the news that a series of arrests were made in Europe tied to the growing scandal regarding the choice to site the contest in Qatar.

Surprising nobody, the competition for setting the location was as rigged as a professional wrestling match, with the difference that everybody knows that professional wrestling is theater.

Watchdogs say it could be the “most serious,” “most shocking,” “most egregious” corruption scandal to hit Brussels in years.

A series of at least 16 raids by the Belgian federal police Friday netted five people they said had committed “alleged offenses of criminal organization, corruption and money laundering.” The morning searches yielded €600,000 in cash, plus phones and computers.

Initially, the culprits weren’t major names by Brussels standards: A former member of the European Parliament, a few parliamentary assistants, and a trade union boss, all allegedly on the take for World Cup host Qatar. But to what end, really? Some questioned whether ­— if the charges were true — Doha had really made a smart investment.

By the evening, however, it was clear this wasn’t just a story of some has-beens and wannabes lining their pockets. Eva Kaili, a vice president of the European Parliament and vocal defender of Doha, landed in police custody, according to the Belgian federal police. The case also centers around an NGO that, until recently, counted some of the biggest luminaries in left-wing politics among its board members.

On the one hand, I am tempted to say that no red-blooded American should care about the EU parliament any more than we should care about soccer. Paying attention to either is about as exciting as watching paint dry, without the satisfaction of having a nicely painted room at the end of the process.

But I would be wrong to argue that. The EU parliament is a model of the sort of transnational governance that the Elite are trying to foist on us, and the World Cup siting scandal is a microcosm of the self-dealing and propaganda-spewing that characterizes modern Elite politics. Lots of money at stake, lots of BS about human rights that is the opposite of the truth, and almost no accountability for anybody.

The only surprise is that some arrests are being made. Somebody high up the food chain must have had their ox gored along the way. Usually the powers-that-be sweep everything under the rug.

You get a nice peek inside the scam that high-minded activism turns out to be; the latest round of arrests are linked to “human rights” activists and politicians who were paid off to promote Qatar as a paragon of virtue. This is much the same scam as environmental activist groups who shake down corporations for large donations in exchange for greenwashing.

Neither human rights nor the environment are the point: follow the money.

One of the apparent ringleaders in this part of the Qatari scandal is an EU Vice President Eva Kaili.

As one of Parliament’s 14 vice presidents, Kaili is one of the institution’s most powerful players — and as a former news presenter with celebrity status in her native Greece, one of Brussels’ most glamorous figures.

But Kaili has also emerged as one of the most vocal defenders of Qatar. She recently called the country a “frontrunner in labor rights” after meeting with the country’s labor minister, despite deep international concerns about conditions for stadium construction workers. A member of the center-left Socialist & Democrat (S&D) party, her portfolio includes special responsibilities related to the Middle East.

Kaili’s partner and co-parent, Francesco Giorgi, has also been detained, according to police and people with direct knowledge. He’s an adviser on the Middle East and North Africa region in the European Parliament — and a founder of an NGO called Fight Impunity, which aims to promote “accountability as a central pillar of the architecture of international justice.”

Crucially, Fight Impunity’s president is Pier Antonio Panzeri, a central figure in the case.

Q: Who else is involved?

Panzeri, an Italian ex-MEP also from the S&D, was among those arrested Friday morning. By the evening, his wife and daughter were also nabbed by Italian police. A warrant for their arrest, seen by POLITICO, accused Panzeri of “intervening politically with members working at the European Parliament for the benefit of Qatar and Morocco.”

Former parliamentary aides, especially those with ties to Fight Impunity, are also falling under scrutiny. In addition to arresting Giorgi, police also sealed the office of another parliamentary assistant who used to work for Fight Impunity, currently serving as an aide to Belgian S&D MEP Marie Arena.

Arena, who inherited the chairmanship of the human rights subcommittee from Panzeri and works closely with Fight Impunity, confirmed that her aide’s office was under seal. Arena said she herself has not been questioned by police. …

Emma Bonino, a former liberal MEP and foreign affairs minister for Italy, founded No Peace Without Justice. She is listed as an honorary board member of Fight Impunity. She and Figà-Talamanca did not immediately respond to requests for comment through Peace Without Justice.

In a sign of Panzeri’s connections, former French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, former European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, former EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and former MEP Cecilia Wikström are also listed as honorary board members. 

“Fight Impunity” is a great name for a non-profit dedicated to committing a massive fraud on the world. As always, the stated purpose of a massive nonprofit is never what they exist to do. In 95 out of a 100 cases the goal is to funnel money and power around in the least accountable way possible.

That’s why large nonprofits in the US almost always have politically connected people at the top–it is a place to park people, pay them well, and give an altruistic gloss to graft. So far most of the people arrested are avowed socialists. Make of that what you will.

I wrote about many of the other scandals tied to the World Cup last month, but I guarantee that we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg, and only the bit players are going to pay any serious price. Even an EU Vice President, of which there are 14, isn’t anywhere near the top of the food chain. That is more like the Butler in a manor’s staff: bossing around the chambermaids and cooks, but still a servant to the Lord.

It is easy to dismiss all this because graft and politics go together like hot dogs and baseball, and that is a good point.

But that fact is why the Founders tried to make sure that in America government power would be severely limited. Since graft and self-dealing are endemic to politics because greed is inherent in human nature, best to keep power from concentrating too much. But as the European and recent American experience has shown, the power-mongers have been winning the battle to concentrate power.

Their argument is that the more powerful and distant the government, the more a well-intentioned technocracy can help us. Follow the science!

We need to remind our fellows that “well-intentioned” and “technocracy” do not go together in any way, shape, or form. As we have seen time and again during the pandemic, all those bureaucrats claiming to be experts looking out for us were doing little more than accumulating power and money.

The COVID lockdowns created the largest shift of wealth in human history, flowing from the bottom to the top. It was a boon for our political class, and that’s why they want to keep the scam going.

That’s why it’s useful to pay attention to the EU and soccer: this is a microcosm of “democratic” governance in a transnational world.

Pretty sure the World Cup could never be played in Canada. By the end of the tournament every player would get Medical Assistance in Dying. pic.twitter.com/0aNwgpITtK

— David Strom (@DavidStrom) December 19, 2022