Tag: FIFA

• Friday, January 15th 2016 - 12:09 UTC

  FIFA fines federations for homophobic remarks from fans, including Argentina, Chile and Uruguay

  

  Anti-gay chants by fans have led to fines for six football associations. Match reports revealed that fans of Argentina, Chile, Honduras, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay yelled homophobic remarks during qualifying matches for the 2018 World Cup.

• Thursday, January 14th 2016 - 05:37 UTC

  Suspended FIFA secretary general Jérôme Valcke has been sacked

  

  “The FIFA Emergency Committee decided on 9 January 2016 to dismiss Jérôme Valcke from the position of FIFA secretary general with immediate effect. Jérôme Valcke is therefore no longer the secretary general of FIFA,” a FIFA statement said on Wednesday.

• Saturday, January 9th 2016 - 07:34 UTC

  Platini drops out of FIFA presidential race; Infantino and Ebrahim Al Khalifa, leading candidates

  

  Suspended UEFA chief Michel Platini has withdrawn from the FIFA presidential race as he fights to clear his name following an eight-year ban. Platini was banned by FIFA's ethics judge in December over a “disloyal” $2 million payment he received from Sepp Blatter in 2011. It virtually ended his dreams of succeeding Blatter at the helm of FIFA in the Feb. 26 election.

• Thursday, December 31st 2015 - 08:22 UTC

  Switzerland hands bank documents from FIFA corruption to US prosecutors

  

  Swiss authorities have handed over the first round of bank documents seized in their FIFA corruption investigation to U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday. The Federal Office of Justice in Switzerland says the documents relate to “bank accounts allegedly used for bribes connected with the grant of marketing rights to soccer tournaments in Latin America and the USA.”

• Tuesday, December 15th 2015 - 07:27 UTC

  FIFA signs first sponsorship deal (since corruption scandal) with China's Alibaba Group

  

  FIFA has signed its first sponsorship deal since the corruption scandal engulfed world football's governing body. The eight-year agreement with Chinese company Alibaba Group, the world’s largest online and mobile commerce company, is for the Club World Cup spanning 2015 through 2022.

• Saturday, December 12th 2015 - 04:09 UTC

  Infantino will lead UEFA's Euro 2016 draw in Paris; Platini's 90 day ban stands

  

  Michel Platini cannot take part in UEFA’s Euro 2016 draw in Paris on Saturday after losing his appeal against a 90-day FIFA ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The decision Friday means he also won’t be able to participate in the UEFA Executive Committee meeting before the draw.

• Friday, December 4th 2015 - 07:29 UTC

  FIFA corruption: new round of arrests of South American football officials

  

  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.

• Thursday, December 3rd 2015 - 11:26 UTC

  Amnesty presses FIFA on Qatar's 'rampant migrant labor abuse'

  

  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.

• Sunday, November 29th 2015 - 08:58 UTC

  FIFA ethics committee recovers 48 of 65 watches handed at Brazil's World Cup

  

  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.

• Monday, November 23rd 2015 - 08:31 UTC

  Most of FIFA's 209 member associations secretive about their finances says TI

  

  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.