Sixteen more top football officials were charged in a dramatic widening of the FIFA corruption scandal on Thursday, as US prosecutors vowed to leave no stone unturned in their quest to root out graft. Several senior FIFA officials from the past or present were named in a 92-count US Justice Department indictment which came after a series of dawn raids at a luxury hotel in Zurich hosting FIFA officials.
Five years to the day since Qatar secured 2022 World Cup hosting rights, Amnesty International says the Gulf nation has done little to “address rampant migrant labor abuse”. Qatar has made pledges for labor reforms and the 2022 World Cup committee has introduced a workers’ charter. But the kafala system of tied employment has yet to be overhauled to ease restrictions on workers’ rights.
The head of Brazilian football, Marco Polo del Nero, has finally bowed to the pressure and agreed to resign from FIFA's Executive Committee after being a no-show for the last six months amid fears he could be caught up in the burgeoning corruption scandal.
FIFA’s ethics committee has recovered 48 of 65 watches handed out to football officials last summer in a breach of the federation’s rules. Parmigiani watches worth $26,600 each were left in gift bags for the 28 FIFA ExCo members by the Brazilian football federation (CBF) during the World Cup.
A new report from Transparency International says most of FIFA’s 209 member associations publish little or no information about how they spend millions of dollars from world football’s governing body. Highlighting the potential for corruption, the study into the governance structures of the federations questions what the FAs do with the more than $1m they each received from FIFA in 2014.
The one-off Copa America Centenario will be played in 10 cities across the United States next summer. On Thursday, U.S. Soccer and CONCACAF, soccer's regional governing body, announced the final venues winnowed down from the list of two dozen interested markets released in January.
The president of Chile's ANFP national football association Sergio Jadue has gone to the United States to talk to the FBI as part of its ongoing probe into corruption at soccer governing body FIFA, Santiago media reported.
The World Anti-Doping Agency’s Foundation Board has unanimously voted to declare the national anti-doping agency for Russia, Andorra, Israel, Argentina, Bolivia and Ukraine non-compliant with its code.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said even when the country is far from the targets of the Islamic State (IS) militant group, it is not completely safe, local media reported. Rousseff commented on the recent terrorist attacks in Paris while attending the G20 Summit held in Turkey, saying that it seems that terrorist groups are more concentrated in the United States and Europe at this time.
Euro 2016 will remain in France, UEFA has announced. The country’s hosting of the tournament has come under scrutiny since Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris, which killed 129 people with many more seriously injured. France’s 1958 World Cup star Just Fontaine was one prominent figure to call on the country to give up hosting rights, claiming: “It is simply too dangerous”.