Comparing FIFA to the mafia is almost insulting to the mafia, a US senator said, turning up the heat on football's corruption-tainted world governing body to reform. Richard Blumenthal made the remark at a Senate subcommittee hearing scrutinizing FIFA, after US authorities in May indicted 14 people - including top football officials over tens of millions of dollars of alleged bribes for media rights contracts.
The official chosen by FIFA to inspect 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting candidates was banned from football for seven years for breaking ethics rules. FIFA’s ethics committee gave no reason for its decision to suspend Harold Mayne-Nicholls, a former president of Chile’s soccer federation who is disputing the sanction.
Falklands competitors took home 2 silvers and 1 bronze medal which they won at the 16th International Island Games which were held on the Channel Island of Jersey. The Falklands football team also retained the ‘Small Islands Cup’ which they won in Bermuda 2 years ago, beating the Norwegian island of Hitra 2-1.
The ITUC has called on FC Barcelona “socios” (voting members) and fans to end the club’s Qatar Airways sponsorship, saying that the airline is the very worst sponsor for a club with a 100-year tradition of democracy and universality.
The United States asked Switzerland on Thursday to extradite seven FIFA officials arrested in an investigation into a global bribery scandal at soccer's governing body, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) announced.
Sepp Blatter, president of the world soccer governing body FIFA that is embroiled in corruption investigations, has told a German magazine he has a 'clean and clear' conscience and believes he will “go to heaven one day”.
Chile defender Gonzalo Jara will miss the rest of the current Copa America after being suspended for three matches for sticking his finger up an opponent's backside and feigning injury during a match.
An Argentine newspaper has claimed that Irish players received bribes not to injure Lionel Messi at the opening game in the Aviva Stadium in 2010, but the story has been dismissed in the strongest possible terms by the Irish football association, FAI. According to La Nacion, a Fifa official was forced to go to extraordinary lengths to bring the Barcelona superstar and his team mates to Dublin.
The current edition of the Americas Cup, the main football competition of South America organized every four years by the South American Football Confederation, Conmebol, and which this year is being hosted by Chile, apparently does not have the funds to pay for prizes and for the lodging of the twelve national teams involved.
Argentine football legend Diego Maradona has thrown his hat into the ring for the FIFA presidency, according to reports. Reuters quoted Uruguayan journalist and author Victor Hugo Morales saying that Maradona, 54, had revealed his plan on Sunday.