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Quest Means Business
Blatter Vows to Lead FIFA Through Crisis; Football World Divided Over Blatter's Future; Sponsors Turn Up Heat on FIFA; US Markets Edge Lower; Avago, Broadcom Agree to $37 Billion Deal; Greek Uncertainty Holds Back European Stocks; Sharp Drop in Chinese Markets; Exclusive: China's Space Program; Tomorrow Transformed: Faster Shipping for Online Orders
Aired May 28, 2015 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:59:57] (NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE CLOSING BELL)
RICHARD QUEST, HOST: The bells are ringing, the Dow is off just a smidgen as trading comes to an end, about 36 points or so, relatively quiet
day on Wall Street.
(GAVEL POUNDS)
QUEST: Well, it was wimpy-ish, but trading is over on Thursday, the 28th of May.
He's not over. He won't resign or accept responsibility. Sepp Blatter insists he's still the man to lead FIFA.
Meanwhile, Visa is threatening to drop its sponsorship. It's a case of corruption versus capitalism.
And China says they United States and Russia may have a head start on its space program, but China is catching up.
I'm Richard Quest. We have an hour together, and I mean business.
Good evening. We begin tonight with a simple statement: damaged but defiant. FIFA's president, Sepp Blatter, is vowing to ride out the twin
corruption scandals and says he will clean up the organization himself.
At the same time, sponsors, colleagues, and world leaders have rounded on Mr. Blatter, on his leadership, after the arrest of several top
executives. Today, Sepp Blatter opened the FIFA congress in Zurich by declaring it was his responsibility to fix an unprecedented corruption
crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEPP BLATTER, PRESIDENT, FIFA: There can be no place for corruption of any kind. The next few months will not be easy for FIFA. I am sure
more bad news may follow. But it is necessary to begin to restore trust in our organization. Let this be the turning point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Another turning point some might well argue. But Blatter admitting that clearly trust had disappeared in FIFA. Well, now all eyes
are on Friday's vote to elect the next FIFA president, which Blatter insists that vote will go ahead.
There is a complete disconnect between what is happening on the field and the actual politics of the football world, which is now very clearly
divided into two camps, and you'll see that as you join me in the locker room. Let's do it as the coaches would do it, with the old-fashioned way.
Now, we -- as a master tactician, Blatter is going to try to manage his team to victory, and he has some strong players on his side,
particularly in defense. Take Vladimir Putin, who's emerged as a vocal defender, along with Russia, of Sepp Blatter. Putin says the corruption
scandal and the investigation is a US attempt to undermine Blatter's reelection plans.
And then, at the forward attacking side, you have the Asian Football Confederation, which is also standing by, along with the Caribbeans. Both
say in their attacks that the vote should go ahead, and they will support their captain, Blatter.
The head of Nigeria's football association has told us that Blatter makes the smaller countries feel like big players.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMAJU PINNICK, PRESIDENT, NIGERIAN FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION: He makes all the countries look very important, make them feel equal, like big nations.
It also makes them to benefit, equal benefits. So, that was very -- see, most countries naturally just love this guy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: "Just love this guy." That's the team leader that they're talking about. But not all are behind Blatter. So, let's look at Team
Change. Now, Team Change has Prince Ali of Jordan as the candidate, David Cameron, the UK prime minister and defense and attack at the same time,
says that change is urgently needed. And Cameron has thrown his support behind Prince Ali of Jordan.
The French foreign minister says the election should be delayed. In the attacking position, right at the front, you have UEFA, the European
Football Confederation, and the Europeans, with Michel Platini, has asked Blatter to step down. Blatter has declined.
This is the situation that faces FIFA tonight. Our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson has more on the tactical
advantages and the battle that's taking place for Team Blatter.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLATTER: Folks, don't fight, don't fight. I'm not going, so --
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chaos as FIFA shaming takes on epic proportions. We and the other media
are fighting for sound bites.
[16:05:03] MICHAEL VAN PRAAG, CHAIRMAN, ROYAL DUTCH FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION: You can be sure that Mr. Blatter will be reelected. We want
to try to avoid that.
ROBERTSON: And in the middle of this, feels like a revolution in the making. Leading the charge for change, the boss of Europe's footballing
body, UEFA.
MICHEL PLATINI, PRESIDENT, UEFA (through translator): I'm disappointed. I'm disgusted and fed up. (in English) Enough is enough.
ROBERTSON: Michel Platini said he told his long-time friend, the embattled FIFA leader, to step down.
PLATINI: He's a friend who has a problem, and he's not good for the rest. It's my duty to tell that.
ROBERTSON (on camera): The reality is when the delegates inside here on Friday vote for the new president, it's going to take a lot more than
Platini and UEFA to get Blatter and FIFA to shift course.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Plenty of delegations here. Africa, Asia, South America, shrugging off the allegations of corruption.
PINNICK: We have yet to be convinced 100 percent that Blatter himself is corrupt. If he is indicted, if he's convicted, then certainly we're not
going to -- Africa, we're not going to give him his vote. But if he's not --
ROBERTSON (on camera): So, you will still be voting for Sepp Blatter.
PINNICK: -- 100 percent, Nigeria will vote for Blatter.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): At the opening ceremony, Blatter, not sounding like he's beaten yet.
BLATTER: It -- or I -- cannot monitor everyone all of the time. If people want to do wrong, they will also try to hide it. But it must fall
to me to build the responsibility for the reputation and well-being of our organization and to find a way forward to fix things.
ROBERTSON: FIFA congress, now underway. You'd never guess they're in crisis.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Nic Robertson's with us from Zurich. You summed it up, there, Nic. You'd never guess they were in crisis. There is a 185-page
indictment with excoriating details against major members of FIFA, and the president of FIFA says he couldn't be expected to know all the details of
what everybody was doing. What do you make of it?
ROBERTSON: I was standing here listening to some African delegates a few minutes ago. A gentleman from South Africa, a gentleman from South
Sudan. And they said, look, we can't fault Sepp Blatter. He helps us in our country. The guy from South Sudan was saying, look, if kids don't play
soccer, they'll pick up weapons, they'll turn to fighting.
On the African continent, Asia, South America, there is a feeling that Blatter had delivered for them what they need on their continent. And he
is bolstered and buoyed by that, and he know as they outnumber the others, and therefore, he can bluster though, if you will, which is what appears to
be happening. And he's very good at doing that and presenting an image that he can't see everything all the time, but he does want the right thing
for FIFA.
And these delegates are looking at what and who has helped them the best and the most so far. So they will say -- and this is what I was
hearing them say before -- until these charges --
QUEST: Right.
ROBERTSON: -- are proven against others, against him --
QUEST: All right.
ROBERTSON: -- then they back him.
QUEST: Right but Nic, here in my studio, I have the various charts showing who's doing what. Now, we -- you've just nicely told us what Team
Blatter is doing. But then, Team Change, with UEFA, with Cameron, with the French, all these people going for Ali. But if what you're saying is
right, Ali stands no chance.
ROBERTSON: You know, and that question was put to Michel Platini today. He said, well, look, from UEFA, the 54 votes -- max 53, because
somebody won't actually be there -- maybe we can get 46, 47, maybe all 53, he said, because he's directed UEFA to support Prince Ali.
When you get Cameron, when you get Hollande, when you get Laurent Fabius also, what you get them saying that the support should go against
Blatter and behind Prince Ali, then the hope is that they can create a momentum to create a space --
QUEST: Right.
ROBERTSON: -- and bring others across to realize that perhaps -- perhaps -- perhaps -- and I say it three times -- Blatter is on the way
out, and therefore people might change their position. But they don't have that momentum, or they don't appear to have that momentum right now.
But Platini still said, Richard, he still said that he thought perhaps Prince Ali can win. But really, that does seem to be flying in the face of
all the other indicators here right now.
[16:09:55] QUEST: Nic Robertson, who is in Zurich. Now, perhaps -- perhaps -- perhaps -- to follow Nic Robertson's line, the biggest danger to
Team Blatter comes not from UEFA, but from the commercial side.
Because in the past 24 hours, the disapproval from some of FIFA's main sponsors has grown ever louder. For the first time, they are threatening
to drop FIFA altogether. These are the major partner sponsors.
Visa, who had initially got no commented when we asked them Wednesday, now says, if you look at what they say, "We will reassess our sponsorship
if FIFA does not take swift and immediate steps to clean itself up." Swift and immediate steps. We may reassess our sponsorship.
Hyundai, who also had no comment on Wednesday, now coming out of the woodwork and says it's "extremely concerned -- extremely concerned -- about
the legal proceedings against FIFA executives, and we'll be monitoring the situation carefully."
The only exception -- and bearing in mind what you heard me say about President Putin of Russia, is his Gazprom, the Russian energy company,
which said -- spokesman told CNN its sponsorship is not affected by the FIFA situation, and that the whole affair is unrelated to Gazprom.
This is politics pure and simple. Michael Payne was the first marketing director for the International Olympic Committee, joins me now in
our locker room. He's in Zurich. Sir, this is fascinating, because by any standards of Western corporate responsibility and transparency -- and
you're familiar, of course, with the IOC -- this is breathtaking, what we're seeing.
MICHAEL PAYNE, FORMER MARKETING DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: It is the worst crisis FIFA has ever seen. People are
comparing it to what we went through at the IOC some 15 years ago with Salt Lake.
This is probably much more serious, and it's certainly got the business community's attention as to the nature of their partnership with
FIFA and the World Cup.
QUEST: What did the IOC learn back then with Salt Lake and, indeed, with Juan Samaranch, then president, what did they learn that they had to
do that you can't see FIFA doing now?
PAYNE: Well, I think that the problem FIFA's facing is that they've been faced with problems, now, for two or three years. There's been
ongoing rumors, ongoing issues. When at the IOC we faced the crisis, we realized that it really was -- if it wasn't solved, it could be the end of
the road for the Olympics.
And so, you use the opportunity as a catalyst for reform. And you probably put in the course of some six months maybe 30 years of reform.
This is perhaps what FIFA's failed to do, and maybe this will be the last opportunity to once and for all reform the process or there will be a
risk of sponsors and other partners pulling out.
QUEST: Does the key to this rest with the sponsors? Because clearly -- I mean, look, when you've got Hollande, you've got Cameron, you've got
world leaders saying at least delay the vote, and they choose not to, is it the power of the sponsor that will have the final say here?
PAYNE: I don't think so, Richard. Just to put the finances in context, the sponsors only represent about 20 percent of FIFA's revenue,
some billion dollars out of a total of $5 billion. It's actually your fellow colleagues in the media who represent the lion's share, and nobody's
talking or challenging --
QUEST: Right.
PAYNE: -- the broadcast rights holders, who pay three to four times more than the sponsors. The other thing which is interesting to see how
all the politicians are jumping on the bandwagon, and yet, they trade billion-dollar deals for votes. Sarkozy was doing it for Qatar on military
deals shortly before the election.
So, I think if there's going to be a debate, it needs to be much broader than just the focus on where sponsors stand, but also where
governments stand and how they try to influence the voting process.
QUEST: And finally, on this point of broadcasting rights, the broadcast -- you see, the problem is you'll hear -- we'll discuss later in
the program, one of the big problems is, and the IOC faced it, is divorcing the corruption from the event.
People still love the World Cup, they still love football. They can divorce what the miscreant behavior from those who may be responsible from
the event itself. And that's fundamental.
PAYNE: I -- Richard, you're totally correct. There's a complete separation between the event, the World Cup -- and that's what the sponsors
are supporting. They're not supporting the suits and FIFA, they're supporting the beautiful game. And that separation is always there.
[16:15:09] QUEST: Sir, thank you for joining us from Zurich. We appreciate it. You've given us excellent insight into the greater sport or
political arena that it's all taking place. We appreciate it.
When we come back, China is aiming for the stars, quite literally. In a CNN exclusive report, David McKenzie has been to Space City and gets a
rare look into China's Space Program. It's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Wall Street's fears of an interest rate hike have pushed the market lower across the United States. Now, this is not as grim as it
looks. There's an enormous amount of red on that screen, but actually, if you look at the closing numbers, it's just off a fifth of a percent, down
36 points. And it was even off the low points of the session.
The president of the San Francisco Fed said rates are likely to go up sometime this year -- tell us something we don't know. Echoes of what Fed
Chief Yellen said last week when she basically said some point this year, rates are going up. This sort of was mirrored in the NASDAQ and the S&P
500.
There was a major tech merger that we do need to discuss. Broadcom -- now, look, this is Broadcom, and it's a company we haven't heard of, or
many haven't heard of. But if you own an iPhone or a BlackBerry, Broadcom chips are inside it, and it just sold for nearly $40 billion. A company
you've never heard of being sold for an amount of money that's almost obscene.
Paul La Monica is with me. And Paul, I have -- because I'm relatively old-fashioned in both ways --
PAUL LA MONICA, CNN MONEY DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: There we go.
QUEST: I have my iPhone and I have my BlackBerry.
LA MONICA: So, Broadcom chips are probably in both those devices. What's fascinating about this is that Avago and Broadcom both are mobile
chip leaders. They now get bigger. Apple is a big customer of theirs, so they are huge suppliers and beneficiaries of the iPhone craze.
QUEST: Now, this is interesting, because we often thing, when we think of chips, we think of AMD, we think of Intel, Micro and all the big
global players. What you're saying is, these companies we've never heard of, they are the big players for smarts.
LA MONICA: The big players for mobile are increasingly these companies. Intel is clearly trying to get more into mobile, but has not
been as successful.
QUEST: So what do you -- how do you rate this deal. What --
LA MONICA: I think what's fascinating about it is that even though Broadcom may not be something that many average investors know, it went
public in 1998, so it's been around for a while, and it -- there's that chart. It surged during the bubble period.
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: Hang on. Hang on. Look at this! Look at this!
LA MONICA: Yes.
QUEST: It goes up to here.
LA MONICA: Exactly
QUEST: Now, of course, we've got to give a bit of -- but it comes down here. It doesn't really collapse during the dot-com -- sorry, during
the great financial crisis. It hovers.
LA MONICA: Yes, it --
QUEST: But it's not grown.
LA MONICA: It has -- well, it's grown from 98 if you look -- if you bough it and held on during the craziness of the dot-com bubble days in
2000, you would still be making money. The problem with that company was that 2000 was just insane for most technology companies.
QUEST: Dot-com boom, dot-com bust.
LA MONICA: Dot-com bust, exactly.
QUEST: Good to see you, sir. Uncertainty ruled the day on the stock markets in Europe, and it was Greece that was once again the culprit.
[16:20:03] Remember, over the last few days, we've had the Athens General up, then down sharply, and today was another down day. There are
mixed messages which are coming out of Greece.
There's optimism that there may be a staff-level agreement, as it's known, between Greece and the international institutions. That might be
being drafted. But German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said there hadn't been much progress. Time is running out.
China's main markets saw very heavy losses in trading on Thursday. The Shanghai Composite -- look at that. Bearing in mind it's up at record
levels, but even so, a fall at the second-worst session this year of some 6.5 percent, the Shanghai Composite down 6.5, the Shenzhen down 5.5.
All very sharp drops. A change from recent winning streaks. The Shenzhen had more doubled its value to become the world's top-performing
stock market.
So, it's the most ambitious and expensive project that China's ever undertaken. The country's hoping to put a space station in orbit around
the Earth. It's an exclusive report that we have for you tonight. CNN's David McKenzie has had rare access to Space City. It's the home of China's
space program, and there, he spoke to three of its most celebrated astronauts.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're heading to the far northwest of Beijing to try to get access to a story we've been working
on for more than a year. Because we've been dealing ultimately with the People's Liberation Army.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Going inside Space City, where foreign journalists are almost never let in. It's the heart of China's most
expensive and ambitious project yet, the manned space program. We're meeting three of China's best-known astronauts. It's their first-ever
interview with a foreign reporter.
MCKENZIE (on camera): Is it very difficult to dock the two spacecraft together?
NIE HAISHENG, CHINESE ASTRONAUT (through translator): It is very difficult to dock the two spacecraft together. That is why we had to do
the simulation many, many times.
MCKENZIE: And how many hours did you have to practice?
NIE (through translator): We trained for the docking for two years.
MCKENZIE: Two years?
NIE (in English): Two years.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): CNN has obtained this exclusive footage of their rigorous training. Thousands of hours of simulations hone technique
so it's perfect in space. Physical, psychological, and team testing always undergo.
MCKENZIE (on camera): And it seems like you have to be a certain height, you have to be -- have a degree. You need to pass all these
physical, psychological, team tests. Do you have to be superhuman to be an astronaut?
NIE (through translator): Though the training process of astronauts is very difficult, we are just ordinary people. But certain
characteristics make us more suitable to fly space missions.
MCKENZIE: So, this is a model, and in fact, a simulator, of what the Chinese astronauts do in space. This over here is the space lab that went
into orbit some years ago, the Tiangong-1. And over here is the spaceship that attaches to it, the Shenzou. Now, the Shenzou was originally modeled
on the Soyuz Russian or Soviet Union spacecraft.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): China borrowed heavily from the Russians when it launched its space program in the early 90s. Since then, it's steadily
checked off the milestones: first man in space, first spacewalk, first multi-day mission. But it comes decades after the Cold War race to space.
NIE (through translator): The United States and Russia started their space programs early. They are the pioneers.
MCKENZIE (on camera): Presumably, you want it to be the best.
NIE (through translator): Of course. I hope our space program will be better and better.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): The Chinese space program cooperates with the European Union and others, but the entire program is locked out of NASA by
US Congress, and it's banned from the International Space Station, where 15 nations operate.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Every time this ever gets mentioned at all anywhere near Congress, it gets shut down immediately.
There's tremendous skepticism there about China, it's viewed as a foe, it's viewed as a government that seeks to take our intellectual property, our
national secrets and treasure.
MCKENZIE (on camera): Is it disappointing that you cannot directly cooperate with NASA or do joint exercises with the International Space
Station?
NIE (through translator): As an astronaut, I have a very strong desire to fly space missions with astronauts from other countries.
[16:25:00] MCKENZIE (voice-over): For now, their manned space program goes it alone. China plans to put its own space station in orbit
within a decade. But their ultimate aim is perhaps the moon and Mars.
David McKenzie, CNN, Beijing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: More of David McKenzie's superb story, Inside Space City. You can see more of his reporting, including exclusive video from inside the
program. His 30-minute special, it's called "Inside Space City," on Saturday, 12:30 London, 1:30 Central European.
Google is very keen that when you go googling, you actually buy. And there's a buy button that's going to show Tomorrow Transformed to Google.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Google says it wants to remove the friction for users when they buy things online. Friction? More like the wallet. And the simple
solution: adding a buy button to ads mixed in with Google search results. It will take just a few seconds and even fewer clicks to make a purchase.
The next hurdle will be cutting down shipping times. What once took days or weeks to arrive at your doorstep will take just hours in the
future, as I found out in this edition of Tomorrow Transformed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST (voice-over): Remember the days when the only way to shop from your living room was with a catalog and a mail-order form? That is until
digital arrived.
QUEST (on camera): We may still leaf through the catalogs, but today, when it comes to making the purchase, we probably use our smartphones or we
go online, where seemingly everything is available.
QUEST (voice-over): In China, where there are more internet users than anywhere in the world, not surprisingly, e-commerce is booming.
SHEN HAOYU, CEO, JO.COM: One in two online citizens in China are now buying online. And that penetration is going up.
QUEST: They're buying everything. Digital shopping carts are stuffed with computers, clothing, and even fresh seafood.
YU GANG, FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN, YIHAODIAN: In the future, e-commerce, the main battlefield will be on mobile devices. The overall smartphone
users will exceed that of PC users. So you can see that mobile commerce definitely is the number one thing.
QUEST: If today is online, the future is about the race the speed of delivery. How to get that instant gratification even quicker. Forget next
day. What about within the hour? That's the hope as companies like Amazon and DHL experiment with deliveries by drone. It's all bringing us one
brick closer to the demise of the brick and mortar stores.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: And that's what Tomorrow Transformed looks like. What does FIFA transformed look like? It'll probably still have Sepp Blatter at the
helm. He seems to be able to hang on after the scandals, and we will ask what is the rest of the world seeing that many in Europe do not? QUEST
MEANS BUSINESS.
(RINGS BELL)
[16:30:05] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:32:22] QUEST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest. There's more "Quest Means Business" in just a moment when the former F.A. chief executive Mark
Palios tells me how the FIFA scandal may speed up Sepp Blatter's exit.
And Taco Bell chief exec tells me why he's throwing out artificial ingredients. Before all that, this is CNN and on this network, the news
always comes first.
FIFA's president Sepp Blatter says he's not responsible for everything that's happened on his watch. The long-time FIFA boss says he is
responsible for finding a way forward to fix the organization. He's expected to secure a fifth term in Friday's election in Switzerland.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
SEPP BLATTER, FIFA PRESIDENT: We - or I - cannot monitor everyone all of the time. If people want to do wrong, they will also try to hide it.
But it must fall to me to bear the responsibility for the reputation and well-being of our organization and to find a way forward to fix things.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
QUEST: Temperatures are expected to start cooling India following the deadly heatwave where more than 1,400 people have already died in three
Indian states because of the extreme conditions. The highest scalding (ph) temperature on Wednesday was 47 degrees Celsius.
The French President Francois Hollande says he wants Britain to remain in the European Union. Speaking after meeting the British Prime Minister
David Cameron who's insisting the status quo in Europe is not good enough.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: My priorities are reform the European Union to make it more competitive and to address the concerns of
the British people about our membership. The status quo is not good enough, and I believe there are changes we can make that will not just
benefit Britain but the rest of Europe too.
Of course the priority for Francois is to strengthen the Eurozone to ensure successful single currency, and Britain Supports that. We want to
help the Eurozone work better and we do not want to stand in the way of closer integration.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
QUEST: As many as 26 people in the United States and South Korea are undergoing treatment for possible exposure to anthrax. The U.S. military
says it mistakenly shipped live samples of anthrax to nine states last month. The Pentagon says a sample was also sent to South Korea where the
sample was destroyed.
The Dalai Lama is urging Myanmar's democracy come to do something to help persecuted Muslims in her country. Aung San Suu Kyi has remained
silent on the treatment of Rohingya even as a migration crisis deepens.
[16:35:07]The Dalai Lama told the Australian newspaper that his fellow Nobel Peace Prize Laureate should take a stand. Thousands of Rohingyas
have been fleeing Myanmar on dangerous sea journeys hoping for a better life in Malaysia or nearby countries.
Thailand is hosting a regional meeting on the crisis tomorrow.
Sepp Blatter has been at the top of FIFA since 1998. He's 79 years old and he's serving is fifth - his fourth - term and is widely expected to
get fifth after Friday's vote
It's not difficult to see why he's been able to hang on. Under his tenure, FIFA's enjoyed enormous financial success. Between `11 and '14,
FIFA's total revenues was $5.7 billion. Overall though, reports of dodgy dealings have dogged FIFA, and Blatter's effort to clean house have been
criticized.
CNN's Don Riddell is with me from the CNN Center. Don, I keep asking this to anybody and everybody who'll listen to me - what it is that these
other parts of the world - the Asian confederations, the Caribbeans, the Latin Americans - what is it that they see that allows them to, if you
like, ignore the transparency issues that UEFA and the West go for?
DON RIDDELL, CNN "WORLD SPORT": Well Richard, essentially he's been very good to them throughout his long time as FIFA president. You know, if
you were to compare this to a political party like the Labour Party in Britain or the Democrats or the Republicans here in the U.S., they're not
trying to elect a leader who will then be electable by the electorate.
They're basically putting a leader in place for the next four or five years who's going to run the world game and look after their best interests
to put it bluntly. And, you know, you've got a lot of -
QUEST: Right.
RIDDELL: -- countries around the world who are never going to amount to anything at the World Cup, but if you've got someone promising to give
you money to help grow and develop the game in your small corner of the world, you're going to go for it.
Now, regardless of what actually then happens to the money, that is a completely separate conversation. You could see why that would be
attractive and that is how Blatter has been able to build this very, very loyal power base over the last 17 years.
QUEST: Prince Ali of Jordan is his only competitor tomorrow. Who is Prince Ali and does he - does he - does he stand the proverbial snowball's
chance of getting it?
RIDDELL: Well the bookies seem to think he might have a chance. He's a vice president of FIFA, he's been around a while. He's actually
from Jordan - Prince Ali of Jordan - very good connections. But he doesn't have supports in the part of the world you might expect.
It's the European confederation, UEFA, which is backing him. They are absolutely desperate for a change in the world game, and so they have been
right behind him throughout this campaign.
But it's going to take more than the European federations to get him in. He is going to need one of the other major blocks - -be it Africa or
Asia - to turn and vote for him and -
QUEST: Right.
RIDDELL: -- that so far has been unlikely. But when you look at what the bookies said at the start of the week, they were giving you odds -
William Hill for example - 8 to 1 on Monday for an Ali win. Now it's 6 to 4.
And they're telling me that that's partly because there are a lot of hopeful votes going on, but since it's been such a mess in Zurich this
week, there is a chance that finally a vote will come for change. But it's still so hard to see that, Richard.
QUEST: Don Riddell at the CNN Center. Don, thank you.
Mark Palios is the former chief executive of the Football Association - the F.A. - in England. He says Sepp Blatter has outstayed his welcome at
FIFA and thinks these investigations could speed up his exit. Via Skype I asked him why this doesn't automatically spell the end for Sepp Blatter
now.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
MARK PALIOS, FORMER F.A. CHIEF EXECUTIVE: You wouldn't ever bet against Sepp Blatter. He actually is the consummate politician - or should
I say mathematician. There's 209 nations and you can see he just goes around, he knows what votes he would have in his pocket and he therefore
basically says to people, `Well I'm going to continue because the conference wants me' and, you know, this is democracy in action.
It's not going to happen - well this is the closest it's been certainly in my watching and knowledge of FIFA to it ever happening because
he has - first of all, he has the block at the Europeans which will vote against him.
If not all of them then as Platini says, then many of them. So that takes him to the thick end of 50 - 47 I think it is. And some of those may
well vote for Blatter.
[16:40:01]You have an Ali bin Al-Hussein, a man who is young, who is of course not European which is potentially a positive to the other people
who will vote. And the rumor is that he may well be also approaching some of the 50 outside of UEFA.
And of course the events of yesterday haven't helped Mr. Blatter's reputation.
QUEST: Do you think UEFA - do you think of making a mistake - working on the same principle that you have just said - the mathematics - if they
know Blatter has the votes, are they better off voting for Ali even though it may be quixotic and a failure or just refusing to take part?
PALIOS: My personal view is that pass out voting for Ali because it will encourage people if you see many who gets a very large vote and
certainly - you know - you've got something to build up - build on -- in the next sort of four years. And I think you would help to build a power
base that would counteract where Sepp Blatter is within the organization.
So, but that's just, you know, a guess by me to be quite honest.
QUEST: Right.
PALIOS: But I think they should vote. They shouldn't stand aside from this and I've always believed that you should be part of it, rather
than outside of the tent.
QUEST: And if we look at the depth of the crisis, for a man like yourself who's lived, breathed, et and sleeped football for so long, how
grave is the situation for FIFA?
PALIOS: Football is separate to FIFA. FIFA is - and football continues in spite of FIFA. We've just gone through a very successful
World Cup, and in that World Cup everybody said, you know, it was a fantastic World Cup and I would say in spite of FIFA.
FIFA at the time were mired in corruption, scandals and actually hid from the populous in Brazil. I - and I - think that that said it all to
me. They're almost an irrelevance to the pointer (ph) and I absolutely believe the big commercial guys.
And that's been a strength at FIFA and a strength of Blatter inasmuch - to some extent - I believe that these organizations while they may have
pious words to say actually merely understand that the reality is that they're responding (ph) to the brand of the football, not the brand of
FIFA.
QUEST: That's the dangerous part though. Your point is well taken, but that's the dangerous part. Because as long as FIFA and the World Cup
can't be divorced from the footballing point of view, then the incentive - if you like, the grass roots, the punters, the real movement for change -
just doesn't exist.
PALIOS: I think this is why yesterday was a seminal point for me and also it was a good day for football. Because we now see law enforcement
agencies trying to find out what's the problem with all sports interviews and investigations that I've ever seen is the one of evidence. It's
evidential. How do you get that evidence? You can't subpoena it, you can't go into bank accounts. So, you know, it really requires something
like the proper law enforcement agencies that we see. Now we've got serious people like the attorney general saying that there's more to come,
we've got the FBI with the ability to get the evidence - it's never been there before. And I think that that make - that is - that is a seismic
change from what we've had in the past.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
QUEST: That's the former head of the F.A. Now changes are coming to a nearby Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. We're going to talk to the CEO about the
decision to cut out artificial ingredients in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:45:44] QUEST: Taco Bell and Pizza Hut are the latest food chains to jump on the healthy food bandwagon. Take a bite out of that and another
one.
The two chains, both owned by the parent company Yum! Brands announced they will eliminate artificial flavors and colors from their food.
This is the menu that you could choose from whether it be the tacos or the burritos - an entire range of food which all has to now be manufactured
and put together without additives and it's going to take some time. They're the latest to announce healthier practices.
Fast food is finding more customers are demanding healthy options instead. For instance, Dunkin Donuts is no longer using titanium dioxide
on its powdered-sugared doughnuts. Would you like some titanium dioxide with that donut?
The chemical helped the sugar look brighter and is also used in sunscreen and paints. (RINGS BELL).
McDonald's recently announced it's stopping serving chicken that's treated with certain antibiotics. (RINGS BELL).
Chipotle says it will eventually eliminate all genetically-modified food from its burritos.
CNN's Alison Kosik spoke to the Taco Bell chief exec Brian Niccol and asked him how the switch to natural ingredients is going to affect the
company's bottom line.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
BRIAN NICCOL, CEO, TACO BELL: One of the things that is very important to Taco Bell is we never want to have to go backwards on the
craveability of our food.
You know, the reason why people love Taco Bell is because they love the food, they love the, you know, the unique Mexican-inspired flavors and
tastes that we provide.
The other reason why they love Taco Bell is it's affordable. And, you know, one of our commitments is we always want to have food for all.
And so while we're making these changes, we've been trying to figure out how do we either find savings elsewhere in the business to offset the
costs or we work really closely with the supplier on understanding what is the right timetable to implement these things so that, you know, they have
some advancements on their end that allow us to do this as well.
But our main goal, frankly, is to continue to evolve our food with our consumers' lifestyles and have zero tradeoff on the craveability and
affordability of our brand.
And I'm sure you probably saw our results in, you know, the prior - Q1. You know, we continue to have terrific margins while we've been doing
all these things over the past couple of years - literally last decade.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The irony that I've seen with natural ingredients is that they organically cost more. How do you -
how do you not pass that along to the consumer at some point? Like maybe not now but -
NICCOL: Yes.
KOSIK: -- perhaps in the future?
NICCOL: Well, you know, the way we look at it is there's always inflationary pressures on the business and, you know, we're always trying
to find productivity within the restaurant whether it's through technology, you know, being able to go faster with our throughput and getting more
efficient in the restaurant.
You know, there's a lot of great things that have happened over the last couple of years. You know, LED lightbulbs ten years ago were really
expensive. Now, you know, you can get a return on switching the restaurant to LED lightbulbs.
So we really look at the whole picture across our organization to find, you know, cost reduction as well as we have to grow our business, you
know?
And one thing that we've continually done is I think balanced growth with cost measures, cost control measures so that we can invest in the
right places that we know are meaningful to our customers.
But, you know, Taco Bell has to be craveable, it has to be affordable. So it just can't be one of these things that we just go out there and say,
you know, we're going to pass on these costs. It just - that's not who we are, that's not what we do.
KOSIK: Does that mean that Doritos Loco Tacos are going all natural?
NICCOL: No, they are not. You know, that is one of those, you know, products that is uniquely Dorito, and when we work with our partners, we
have to work with them on that. But that's not part of the initiative that's going on right now.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
[16:50:03] QUEST: I'll take a bite.
Now when any multi-billion-dollar company faces a crisis at the scale of FIFA, the focus is going to fall on the corporate culture.
One of the men who's tasked with trying to reform FIFA we're talking to next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Now even before Wednesday's arrests, Sepp Blatter's push for a fifth term as FIFA's president was unprecedented. As the corruption
scandal just got worse, you might expect the man would be at least showing some contrition in terms of standing for a fifth term.
Not a bit of it. At the start of the FIFA congress in Zurich, it was quite clear it may be having to clean up the mess. But it was a case of
`I'm not at fault.'
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
BLATTER: There can be no place for corruption of any kind. The next few months will not be easy for FIFA. I'm sure more bad news may follow
but it is necessary to begin to restore trust in our organization. Let this be the turning point.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
QUEST: Michael Hershman is the president of the Fairfax Group. He sat on FIFA's independent governance committee. It was designed to oversee
FIFA's reforms. Michael Hershman joins us now from the South - Southern Caribbean. Can you hear me, Mr. Hershman?
MICHAEL HERSHMAN, FORMER FIFA INDEPENDENT GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE, PRESIDENT OF FAIRFAX GROUP AND FOUNDER OF TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL:
Richard, I can hear you fine and it's good to be back with you.
QUEST: Sir, we're glad to have you with us, Transparency International. I mean, by any definition of your own organization - by
your own organization Transparency International - the man should go.
HERSHMAN: The man should have gone a long time ago. I did listen to his opening remarks today and frankly I find him to be delusional. When he
says in his opening remarks that FIFA should police itself, it excelled in doing that. And it's failed now for years in doing that.
When he says that FIFA must work to restore its reputation, it's far too late.
QUEST: Right. But relate -
HERSHMAN: The only thing -
QUEST: Related - sorry. Related to that is this - and since you're from transparency, you know, this is - it's this idea of not taking
responsibility for something that happens on your watch - what they're calling cabinet life ministerial responsibility - `I may not be at fault
but it happened on my watch.' How do you justify that, do you think?
HERSHMAN: Well you can't justify it. Look, all of these scandals happened under his leadership. I think it's important to remember he has
had a leadership role in this organization for over 30 years. That means he has set the tone of the organization, he has established the culture of
the organization.
And while he personally hasn't been charged, those that have been charged operated in an organization, the tone of which was set by Sepp
Blatter and he allowed this to happen.
[16:55:00] QUEST: What does this tell us - finally and briefly - about the state, the difficulty, the corrupt nature of many organizations
do you believe?
HERSHMAN: Well, what it tells me is that these organizations that are designated as non-profit in sports industries - these large businesses
cannot operate without appropriate government regulation and oversight. The days are over for us to allow them to think that they can self-regulate
in the area of ethics and compliance.
QUEST: Michael Hershman, we'll talk more and we're very grateful that you've helped us understand what's happening. Thank you, sir, for joining
us. We'll have a "Profitable Moment" after the break. (RINGS BELL).
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Tonight's "Profitable Moment." It was a most stunning performance by Sepp Blatter. The core of it comes down to this - `I could
not be responsible for everything that has happened, the organization is too big, but I am responsible for cleaning up the mess.'
It ignores one point that Michael Hershman has just made on this program. All the events happened on Sepp Blatter's watch. There is
something known as ministerial responsibility, cabinet responsibility. It's the responsibility that Truman had on his desk - "The buck stops
here."
And if I've heard one thing over the last 48 hours, is there's no question where Sepp Blatter's concerned of "The buck stops here." Whatever
he may or may not have known, whoever did anything or did not do, read the 185-page indictment from the U.S. authorities and you will realize that
when it comes to Sepp Blatter, the buck stops here.
He may not be responsible, but he is the man who has to carry the can. And that's "Quest Means Business" for tonight. I'm "Richard Quest" in New
York. Whatever you're up to in the hours ahead, I' hope it's profitable.
END
