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Offline gawd on pitch

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #660 on: January 10, 2017, 07:04:18 PM »
Just heard from a coworker that CONCACAF will get 6.5 places for the 48 team world cup.

This is what I thinking

Concacaf 7 or 8. (So an extra 3 or 4)

I cant see Conmebol getting more than 8. (So an extra 3)

UEFA will probably get 17 (So an extra 4)

CAF will probably get 8 (So an extra 3)

AFC & OCF - 7 (So an extra 3)

But dont count on T&T to make that. As I said previously, Suriname get that law passed in Netherlands. So Suriname will get their Dutch born for 2022. And Martinique and Guadelope lobbying for membership in FIFA.

Online soccerman

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #661 on: January 10, 2017, 07:13:22 PM »
If the federation has any vision, they should start on a 10 yr plan for this starting with U12's-U14's.

Offline gawd on pitch

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #662 on: January 10, 2017, 07:25:51 PM »
If the federation has any vision, they should start on a 10 yr plan for this starting with U12's-U14's.

Well said Soccer..

Offline 100% Barataria

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #663 on: January 10, 2017, 07:29:13 PM »
If the federation has any vision, they should start on a 10 yr plan for this starting with U12's-U14's.

 ???  1824 or 1919?  Certainly not 2026.  Recite with me: http://www.beliefnet.com/prayers/protestant/addiction/serenity-prayer.aspx
Education is our passport for the future for the future belongs to those who prepare for it today

Online soccerman

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #664 on: January 10, 2017, 08:10:35 PM »
If the federation has any vision, they should start on a 10 yr plan for this starting with U12's-U14's.

 ???  1824 or 1919?  Certainly not 2026.  Recite with me: http://www.beliefnet.com/prayers/protestant/addiction/serenity-prayer.aspx
Lol true wtf was I thinking, I forget is T&T football so I'll join you and recite :praying:

Offline FF

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #665 on: January 10, 2017, 08:23:58 PM »
Guys 7 or 8 spots out of 10 for Conmebol will be a joke.

They will merge concacaf and conmebol and grant 14-16 spots. Guaranteed.
Euro style qualifications which the way we looking will be the end of that for we.
THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES

Offline gawd on pitch

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #666 on: January 10, 2017, 08:35:39 PM »
Guys 7 or 8 spots out of 10 for Conmebol will be a joke.

They will merge concacaf and conmebol and grant 14-16 spots. Guaranteed.
Euro style qualifications which the way we looking will be the end of that for we.

Dont know about that. The travelling will be too much. Even if they were to split the groups to make the travelling lighter, I'm sure concacaf will fight that till they last breath.

Offline Deeks

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #667 on: January 10, 2017, 08:35:50 PM »
But dont count on T&T to make that. As I said previously, Suriname get that law passed in Netherlands. So Suriname will get their Dutch born for 2022. And Martinique and Guadelope lobbying for membership in FIFA.

We can use foreign born players also, can we?

Offline gawd on pitch

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #668 on: January 10, 2017, 08:53:19 PM »
But dont count on T&T to make that. As I said previously, Suriname get that law passed in Netherlands. So Suriname will get their Dutch born for 2022. And Martinique and Guadelope lobbying for membership in FIFA.

We can use foreign born players also, can we?

Those countries have a huge pool of foreign born that were exposed to the professional academy systems in Europe. Why yuh think Curacao, French Guyana and Martinique in the Caribbean cup? Who yuh think they calling on now to buss we ass? Their foreign born.

Where you think the parents of all them black players with French and Dutch names in the EPL and other leagues come from? In fact Martinique and Suriname have so much depth, they can probably challenge some European national teams.. Dont forget they training in Europe and they will get more opportunities for games against UEFA opposition by virtue of location. Whereas us...

Offline Controversial

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #669 on: January 10, 2017, 09:10:35 PM »
Suriname is getting their ship in order, my uncle started football clinics a few years ago and pretty soon when the law takes effect, it will be a plethora of players vying for selection... I believe Frank will be up for head coach as well from what I've heard...

So TT needs to get rid of this admin and get Hart and like minded people to restructure the program home and right the wrong and have things ready because teams like Suriname will not be a walk over in 4 years, I can tell you that for certain

Offline asylumseeker

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #670 on: May 17, 2017, 03:37:38 PM »
More FIFA Watchdogs Quit in Protest, Sparking New Soccer Crisis
By Tariq Panja, Bloomberg.



The latest ethics crisis shaking global soccer intensified Wednesday as two members of FIFA’s governance committee resigned over the firing of their chairman. Between the ethics committee and the governance committee, six officials have now been ousted or quit in protest in the last week.

Navi Pillay and Ron Popper, both high level international human rights advocates, quit after Miguel Maduro, a former advocate general of the European Court of Justice, was replaced after just eight months leading FIFA’s governance and review committee. Maduro told Bloomberg last week he resisted internal pressure from senior officials before he was fired.

Another member of the committee, New York University School of Law professor Joseph Weiler, also quit last week. FIFA’s independent ethics officers were also fired last week.

“We accept their decision,” a FIFA spokeswoman said of Pillay and Popper.

The departures are a challenge to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who rose to power after many of soccer’s senior leaders were caught in a global corruption scandal. Infantino has pledged he will restore the organization’s credibility, but his efforts to present a new FIFA at last week’s annual congress were overshadowed by his moves to replace the organization’s ethics leaders.

The governance committee had been working to improve corporate governance at FIFA, which has been unable to attract any new major sponsors from Europe or the U.S. since the corruption scandal broke. The only partners it’s signed since then have come from aspiring World Cup host China and 2022 tournament host Qatar.

Maduro learned he was being removed a day before he was due to fly to Bahrain for FIFA’s meeting. A year earlier Infantino had cited the hiring of the former Portuguese government minister as a sign of his commitment to good governance; last week, he said Maduro had to go to make room for greater international diversity on its committees.

Several of Maduro’s recent decisions had been unpopular within FIFA’s establishment. He blocked Russia’s deputy prime minister, Vitaly Mutko, from retaining his seat on FIFA’s governing council because his role as Russia’s deputy prime minister conflicted with FIFA’s rules on political neutrality. High-ranking FIFA officials told Maduro that his decision to block Mutko’s re-selection bid would lead to serious difficulties with Russia, Bloomberg reported.

Maduro also asked influential Kuwaiti sheikh Ahmad al-Sabah to resubmit for an integrity check after being identified as a co-conspirator in a separate U.S. soccer corruption case, Bloomberg News reported.


Two more members leave FIFA governance panel
The Associated Press



In a further blow to FIFA's image under President Gianni Infantino, two more respected members of its governance oversight panel have left following the removal of their chairman last week.

Navi Pillay, the former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and corporate human rights expert Ron Popper, have resigned, FIFA said on Wednesday.

Their move follows the exit of Miguel Maduro, a Portuguese lawyer and former government minister.

"The world of football still hasn't realized what is required if they really want to act under the rule of law and in a manner that is subject to effective, independent scrutiny," Maduro told The Associated Press on Wednesday in a telephone interview.

Maduro's duties in less than a year with FIFA included vetting candidates for senior positions, and led to Russia's deputy prime minister Vitaly Mutko being barred from an election last month to retain his FIFA Council seat. Mutko was judged to be compromised by his political duties at home, where he remains head of the 2018 World Cup organizing committee.

FIFA's head ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert and lead prosecutor Cornel Borbely were also replaced against their wishes. Most of their teams also were not retained, despite there being no clear transition plan for hundreds of ongoing cases.

Maduro told The AP it was a "dramatic and drastic decision" for FIFA under Infantino to push through such upheaval without "strong justification."

FIFA's appointment of Pillay in January gave credibility to Infantino's pledged commitment to anti-corruption reforms after years of financial scandals and criminal investigations of FIFA in the United States, Switzerland and elsewhere.

Pillay, a South African judge, led the U.N.'s human rights office in Geneva from 2008-14.

Pillay and Popper joined another governance panel colleague, New York University law professor Joseph Weiler who also resigned as an independent overseer hours after Maduro's exit was announced.

Offline asylumseeker

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #671 on: May 18, 2017, 03:43:39 AM »
Infantino channels Blatter rather than marking clean break
By Rob Harris, The Seattle Times.


The FIFA ethics prosecutor ousted by Infantino this week was explicit when asked how the past and present presidents differ: Only their Swiss birthplaces.

“One comes from Brig,” investigator Cornel Borbely said. “The other from Visp.”

There is a clear difference. Infantino is not accused of financial wrongdoing like Blatter, who ruled the game for 17 years before being banished from power in disgrace after it became clear how he enriched himself through leading FIFA.

Their thirst for power seems comparable at times, though, in the clandestine way decisions are made.

The manner in which Infantino has accumulated power is at odds with the recommendations of the reforms he helped to craft after the 2015 scandal. The presidency, crafted into an executive position by Blatter, was intended to become more ambassadorial in the new era with the secretary general gaining the authority of a CEO. At the FIFA Congress in Bahrain, Fatma Samoura marked her first year as secretary general by being relegated to a bit-part role.

The executive committee, so discredited under Blatter as members were led away in handcuffs and toppled on FIFA ethics violations, morphed into the council last year with a membership swelling to almost 40.

And far from the body becoming more transparent, members were warned about speaking publicly about the decisions immediately after Tuesday’s meeting in Manama. The need for clarity was heightened by the uncertainty over why Borbely was jettisoned along with ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert. FIFA’s hierarchy sidestepped requests for detail, taking almost 24 hours to formulate a partial response.

“(FIFA) has already lost the battle of public opinion, we had a good chance to rebuild that and we need to,” former presidential candidate Prince Ali said. “Things cannot be conducted behind closed doors. Everyone wants to know what is going on.”

The void gave Eckert and Borbely a clear run for a day to elevate their own importance to the ethics process and issue hyperbolic — but unchallenged — warnings about the fate of soccer.

The credentials of their replacements as head of the ethics chambers — a Colombian lawyer and Greek judge — have not been disputed. What remains a mystery is exactly why Eckert and Borbely were not only deemed inadequate but discovered their fates only as they flew to Bahrain where they were up for re-election.

After Borbely said his removal will stall the progress of hundreds of ethics cases, Infantino turned on his investigator by asking why the backlog was so big.

FIFA officials evaded questions for weeks about whether rumors Eckert and Borbely were being ditched were accurate, with the German council member indicating that he was misled by Samoura on the eve of Tuesday’s meeting. Reinhard Grindel demanded a “more transparent” process.

The need for more gender equality and geographic diversity was the reason eventually delivered by Infantino on Thursday. Although Borbely was replaced by a Colombian woman, Maria Claudia Rojas, the judge’s role passed from a 69-year-old white German to a 69-year-old white Greek in Vassilios Skouris.

Then there’s the curious case of Miguel Maduro, who was removed as head of the governance committee less than a year after being appointed at a time when Infantino was already on a mission to bring a wider geographic spread.

The 211 soccer federations have the final say approving committee members in the congress and could have rebuffed Infantino. It’s rare, however, to find any debate in the open parliament of soccer. Dissent isn’t encouraged.

“Bear in mind the majority of the congress are totally dependent on FIFA,” Prince Ali said, “so it is very hard to take an opposing view to a president.”

When there was an open clash of views on Thursday — between the Israelis and Palestinians — Infantino engineered a way to prevent the motion being voted on. The president, however, introduced a new proposal that handed power to his council to resolve the matter over settlement teams in the West Bank. Once again, Infantino secured the overwhelming backing of congress in a move Prince Ali branded undemocratic.

“The way business is conducted is the same,” Prince Ali, the Jordanian federation president, said as he compared the Blatter and Infantino administrations. “I don’t see the refreshing change, the openness, the transparency that everybody talks about really taking effect on the ground.”

Infantino counters that the “new FIFA is a democracy, it is not a dictatorship.” And there was refreshing messaging from Infantino — notably embracing corruption investigations publicly in a manner often deficient within the International Olympic Committee leadership.

But a strident warning to corrupt officials to leave soccer was eclipsed by the off-the-cuff attack on “fake news” and “FIFA bashing” he blamed for undermining his presidency

In blaming the messenger — before later backtracking in genial exchanges with reporters — Infantino was channeling the divisionary rhetoric of Blatter. And Blatter is the last person Infantino should be trying to emulate.

After a second congress was overshadowed by criticism of his use of presidential power, Infantino has two years remaining of his mandate to truly lead FIFA into the new, open era promised.





Offline Deeks

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #672 on: May 18, 2017, 04:39:58 AM »
So friggin sad. Like nothing eh change.

Offline Mad Scorpion a/k/a Big Bo$$

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #673 on: May 18, 2017, 08:50:43 AM »
So friggin sad. Like nothing eh change.

Surprised?

Offline asylumseeker

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #674 on: May 18, 2017, 09:09:26 AM »
Russia in de mix on all fronts. No escaping de Kremlin.

Offline Sando prince

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #675 on: August 12, 2017, 01:35:05 PM »


I heard FIFA wants to extend to 40 teams by 2026 WC. Not sure if that is a good idea, because it would make the WC qualification period less competitive as more teams can now qualify for each region, which means there will be a decrease in desire around the world to follow WC qualification games and the level of competition among teams will be of less quality and lower standard of play. Also how does that work in South America? Now you will have a situation where 6 out of 10 teams would qualify?

The WC tournament itself in 2026 will also lose some significance with possibly more games and more injuries as players will be coming off long club seasons. I know we in CONCACAF will say it may be good for us because we may now have four automatic spots. But I'm sure the standard of the WC will take a hit with this new move. I say if it's not broke don't fix it

Offline asylumseeker

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #676 on: September 12, 2017, 06:06:32 AM »
Former FIFA Official’s Testimony Could Raise New Ethics Questions
By Tariq Panja, The New York Times.


A former chairman of FIFA’s governance committee who accused top FIFA officials of pressuring him to ignore regulations said Saturday that if asked, he would provide specifics at a British parliamentary hearing this week.

The testimony, to be given under a grant of immunity, could raise troubling new ethics questions for FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, whose critics remain skeptical of his commitment to leading the organization, world soccer’s governing body, into a new era of transparency and good governance.

The former FIFA official, Miguel Maduro, was appointed by Infantino in 2016 to be the body’s independent head of governance. Maduro’s committee acted as FIFA’s gatekeepers, responsible for conducting eligibility checks on soccer officials before they could win coveted and lucrative places on top committees, including positions on the governing FIFA Council.

But Maduro, a former Portuguese government minister, was fired by Infantino in May after eight months in the job, and after his departure he said his board had come under pressure from senior officials to ignore FIFA rules when it came to the eligibility of certain powerful executives.

Maduro will be questioned by a panel of British lawmakers on Tuesday. Appearing in the House of Commons grants Maduro so-called privileged status, a type of immunity from legal action in Britain on libel claims, allowing him to speak freely — and perhaps provide names and details about events that he would not normally be able to discuss without fear of legal action.

“I have always said that if I was asked to testify in front of a national parliament, then my obligation to cooperate would take precedence,” Maduro said in a telephone interview, his first public comments on Tuesday’s hearing.

Damian Collins, the chairman of Parliament’s culture, media and sport committee, which invited Maduro, described the appearance in London as “really something unique.”

“The level of public interest is so great that he’s decided to cooperate with a parliamentary inquiry and answer questions freely about what he knows from working inside FIFA, something which FIFA has actively restricted anyone from doing,” Collins said.

FIFA’s ethics committee has been made aware of Maduro’s appearance, and it is that body that would be required to scrutinize any claims of wrongdoing that he may make. FIFA declined to comment on Maduro’s planned appearance or his potential testimony.

For Infantino and FIFA, the stakes are high. Infantino won the FIFA presidency in February 2016, less than a year after the United States Department of Justice conducted a series of raids and arrests that toppled the organization’s previous leadership. Infantino has endured a bumpy ride as president, however, with his promises of steering FIFA into an era of transparency frequently undermined by continuing claims of wrongdoing against top soccer officials, as well as the sudden removal of officials hired to ensure that lofty promises of good governance were carried out.

Maduro’s independent review committee, with its responsibility for vetting candidates for FIFA committees, made several decisions that proved internally unpopular, including one to block Russia’s powerful deputy prime minister, Vitaly Mutko, from running for re-election to the FIFA Council. The governance committee also demanded that a well-connected Kuwaiti sheikh, Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah, resubmit to an integrity check after he was identified as a co-conspirator in a separate United States soccer corruption case. Al-Sabah quit soccer rather than submit to an ethics check, though he remains a senior figure in the International Olympic Committee. He has denied all accusations of wrongdoing.

Maduro declined to say what he was likely to reveal at Tuesday’s meeting with British lawmakers, but he said he would provide only information about which he had direct knowledge.

When Infantino hired Maduro, who also served as the advocate general of the European Court of Justice, the FIFA president said the appointment highlighted FIFA’s commitment to good governance and its efforts to steer a path beyond its scandal-scarred past. Maduro’s removal, less than a year later, prompted several other independent members of FIFA’s governance panel to quit. They included the New York University professor Joseph Weiler; Navi Pillay, a former United Nations high commissioner for human rights; and the corporate human rights expert Ron Popper.

FIFA’s prosecution of ethics violations remains under a cloud after Infantino also removed the heads of its judicial bodies at the same meeting at which Maduro was replaced. That came amid news media reports that a second ethics probe had started into Infantino’s conduct. He was cleared in an earlier investigation related to complaints about his expenses and his use of private jets.

More revelations could come later in the week when one of those ousted ethics committee officials, the former chief investigator, Cornel Borbély, is scheduled to speak at a G-20 anticorruption meeting. But first Maduro will have his say.
« Last Edit: September 12, 2017, 06:16:42 AM by asylumseeker »

Offline asylumseeker

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #677 on: September 12, 2017, 06:16:11 AM »
England’s Soccer Federation Asks FIFA to Address Cybersecurity Ahead of World Cup
By Tariq Panja, The New York Times.


England’s soccer federation has written to FIFA to express concerns about the leak of confidential antidoping correspondence by a hacking group believed to based in Russia, and to request assurances about the soccer governing body’s cybersecurity preparations ahead of next year’s World Cup there.

Since last year, leaks by the hacking group, known as Fancy Bears, have revealed confidential medical information of scores of top athletes, including tennis champions, track stars and an Olympic gymnast, who had received exemptions to take medication usually be banned under doping regulations. In August, the group turned its attention to soccer, naming 25 players granted similar waivers, known as therapeutic use exemptions, to take otherwise prohibited substances at the 2010 World Cup.

Even before that hack, though, which also included an email from England’s Football Association’s integrity chief to FIFA, the English had been bolstering their cybersecurity to counter the growing threat from hackers worldwide, according to two people familiar with the organization’s plans. Among the precautions expected to be in place in Russia next year — England can qualify with a win or draw in its next match — England’s players and staff will be told to avoid public Wi-Fi networks as well as those in their team hotels, according to people familiar with the F.A.’s plans.

The Football Association declined to comment on the letter, though FIFA confirmed its existence.

“We can confirm that The F.A. has sent a letter to FIFA related to the Fancy Bears attack,” a FIFA spokesman said. “In its reply, FIFA has informed The F.A. in such context that FIFA remains committed to preventing security attacks in general, and that with respect to the Fancy Bears attack in particular it is presently investigating the incident to ascertain whether FIFA’s infrastructure was compromised.”

In mocking messages revealing the 25 players’ names last month, the hackers also claimed there had been hundreds of positive doping tests in soccer in 2015 and 2016, including four in Britain linked to the use of the recreational drugs cocaine and ecstasy.

WADA said its servers had not been compromised in the soccer case, suggesting the information had been acquired from FIFA’s computer systems.

Coaches at the World Cup zealously guard their tactics and team selection plans for the monthlong event, often erecting fences around training fields to prevent such information from leaking out. Shortly before France’s opening game at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, a drone hovered above the team’s practice session, leading the team’s coach to express concerns about possible spying. At the 2015 Rugby World Cup, photographers managed to capture details of Australia’s tactics after staff members failed to keep them covered during preparations for the championship match against New Zealand.

Fancy Bears’ original leaks about international athletes emerged about four months after the The New York Times published the account of Russia’s longtime antidoping chief, who revealed that he had run a yearslong doping program involving top Russian athletes. The hacks also are seen as a response to sports federations who banned Russian athletes from the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Russia has denied that its government is behind the attacks. But law enforcement authorities have determined they originated there, according to the World Anti-Doping Agency.

“For the purposes of computer security in general, FIFA is itself relying on expert advice from third parties,” FIFA’s spokesman said. “It is for this reason that FIFA cannot and does not provide any computer security advice to third parties.”

Offline Trini _2026

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FIFA bans CFU president Gordon Derrick for 6 years
« Reply #678 on: September 20, 2017, 07:17:31 AM »
FIFA says bans Caribbean soccer official Gordon Derrick
Reuters Staff
ZURICH (Reuters) - Global soccer body FIFA said on Tuesday that it had banned Caribbean Football Union (CFU) president Gordon Derrick for six years from all soccer-related activities for violating several articles of its code of ethics.

Neither Derrick, who has denied wrongdoing, nor the CFU could immediately be reached for comment.

FIFA said the case against Derrick focused on “alleged conflicts of interest, offering and accepting gifts and other benefits, mismanagement of funds, abuse of position and disloyalty.” It did not give further details of the case.

Derrick, who is also General Secretary of the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association (ABFA), was also ordered to pay a fine totaling 30,000 Swiss francs ($31,170), FIFA said.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/sh8SeGmzai4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/sh8SeGmzai4</a>

Offline pull stones

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Re: FIFA bans CFU president Gordon Derrick for 6 years
« Reply #679 on: September 20, 2017, 11:42:34 AM »
here comes our neo jack warner to the rescue in the form of our very own fat faced dictator mr david oink oink williams to take up the mantle in is very own self serving capacity to take up where uncle jack left off. this thing us painful to watch all over again. may heaven help us. there's simply no progression in this CFU game we're definitely going in circles.

Offline asylumseeker

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #680 on: March 23, 2018, 11:42:32 AM »
FIFA, LOC mark International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
FIFA


FIFA, the Russia 2018 Local Organising Committee (LOC) and Federal Centre in Tolerance joined forces yesterday to take part in a series of activities to mark International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination across Russia and to promote the message of anti-discrimination and diversity.

With just under 85 days until the start of 2018 FIFA World Cup, dedicated lessons were taught in schools across Russia, winners of a nationwide art competition were unveiled at a special ceremony hosted at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow, and FIFA’s Head of Sustainability and Diversity, Federico Addiechi, joined a panel discussion in Paris hosted by the European Football for Development Network.

“The FIFA statutes are absolutely clear: racism and any other form of discrimination have no place in football,” said Addiechi.” In recent years, we have expanded our strategy and made great strides to fight it in football globally and ensure that our events are free of discrimination and inclusive for all.”

The lessons were prepared in collaboration with the Federal Research and Methodological Centre of Psychology and Education in Tolerance and implemented by the LOC in schools across Russia. The activities aimed to excite and engage children and young people across three age groups and also educate them about using football as a platform to build tolerance and combat discrimination in society. In line with previous activities that took place in Russia last year to mark the International Day for Tolerance, the lessons featured a short film, as well as a series of individual and group tasks and discussions.

The nationwide art contest, ran by the Federal Centre in Tolerance, came to an end at the Jewish Museum with a special ceremony announcing the winners and was attended by Zabivaka and a host of stars from Russia and the football community, such as Russia women’s national team players Lina Yakupova and Yulia Grichenko, as well as former footballer and a TV pundit Evgeniy Savin. The competition - which involved students and young artists from arts universities, vocational establishments, educational organisations across Russia - sought to engage young people aged 15-30 and Russian society to help build a discrimination-free environment and spread humanitarian values through the power of football.

“In football everyone are equal, regardless of the ethnical group you belong to”, said Zoya Mitusova, a 29-year old artist from Voronezh, whose work was chosen the best in Football against stereotypes nomination. “This is why I depicted legs of people of different races stretching to the ball. I wanted to show that football unites everyone with the one goal and contrived antagonism”.

FIFA builds further on diversity and anti-discrimination work in football

Today’s activities build on FIFA’s ongoing work and commitment to promoting diversity and tolerance in football, as well as recent activities and initiatives it is carrying out with the Russia 2018 LOC, FIFA partners, NGOs and other stakeholders in this area.

Some of the key activities that FIFA has introduced to combat discrimination in football include:

*The introduction of an anti-discrimination monitoring system, which was carried out during the FIFA World Cup qualifiers and will be in place for the final competition

*The introduction of a three-step procedure for referees in case of discriminatory incidents at FIFA tournaments, which was in place for the first time at the FIFA Confederations Cup and will be implemented during the FIFA World Cup

*The publication of a Good Practice Guide for member associations

*The creation of the FIFA Diversity Award

Ongoing measures also include proactively distributing information to fans, introducing enhanced security and monitoring procedures inside the stadium and delivering diversity training and education for all staff, volunteers and stewards – the latter also done in collaboration with Federal Research and Methodological Centre of Psychology and Education in Tolerance.

For more information on FIFA’s work in the field of anti-discrimination, please click here.
« Last Edit: March 23, 2018, 11:50:28 AM by asylumseeker »

Offline asylumseeker

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #681 on: March 23, 2018, 11:59:34 AM »
India loses bid to host 2019 U-20 FIFA World Cup, Poland to host event
Business Standard


India's bid to host the next U-20 FIFA World Cup ended in disappointment as world football governing body FIFA accorded the status to Poland.

The European nation will host the next edition of the tournament in 2019. This was decided at the FIFA council meeting in Bogota, Colombia.

Amid much fanfare, India had submitted its bid for hosting the mega event after successfully organising the U-17 World Cup last October.

The success of the U-17 event emboldened the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to submit a bid for hosting another FIFA tournament in two year's time.

Both India and Poland fulfilled the most important criteria - of having ready stadia.

With the tournament scheduled to be held around May to June, Poland emerged as the preferred choice as it will be difficult for the players to play in the scorching Indian summer. It is believed that is what prompted FIFA to opt for Poland.

The U-20 World Cup has featured players such Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi - who would go on to becomes legends of the game.

While the legendary Maradona played in the 1979 edition in Japan, Messi featured in the 2005 tournament in the Netherlands.

The last edition of the tournament was held in South Korea last year.

Argentina have won the tournament most number of times (six), followed by their South American rivals Brazil, who triumphed on five occasions.

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #682 on: April 23, 2018, 05:37:32 PM »
FIFA pushing for talks on $25-billion Club World Cup, global league plan
Graham Dunbar, The Associated Press


FIFA is forcing the pace on talks over a $25 billion offer to revamp the Club World Cup and create a global national team competition.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino is seeking an urgent meeting in the next week with leaders of the six continental governing bodies, following his hosting of invited officials from some of Europe’s top clubs. That session was held last Friday, the world soccer body said on Monday.

The European Club Association has strongly opposed FIFA’s hope for a four-yearly club tournament starting in 2021, which could rival the UEFA-organized Champions League.

UEFA has also been skeptical of the Club World Cup expansion plan, and last year also proposed a Global Nations League to develop from its European version which kicks off in September.

However, a similar worldwide project is tied into the FIFA-controlled $25 billion, 12-year offer from a Japanese-led consortium including investors from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

FIFA said it was holding “informal ongoing discussions with different stakeholders on the topic of the future Club World Cups.”

Though FIFA published a statement last Friday after hosting agents to discuss transfer market reforms, a separate meeting also in Zurich with a select group of clubs was not announced in advance nor details given after.

Infantino is set to meet “in the near future” with the presidents and general secretaries of the six continental confederations, FIFA said.

They include UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin, who has publicly doubted that a proposed 24-team Club World Cup could start in 2021.

Currently, the Club World Cup is an annual, seven-team event in December for continental champions and the host nation’s league winner. It generates little interest in Europe, and the 2017 edition in the United Arab Emirates earned just $37 million revenue for FIFA.

FIFA’s Infantino Calls for Rare Emergency Meeting Amid $25 Billion Offer
By Tariq Panja, The New York Times


FIFA President Gianni Infantino has called for an emergency meeting of the leading officials in international soccer to address a $25 billion rights offer from an investment group that could radically change some of the biggest competitions in the sport.

In lengthy letter sent to members of the governing FIFA Council last week, Infantino called for a special meeting with leaders of soccer’s six regional bodies as soon as this week to discuss new details of the offer for control of a new quadrennial 24-team club tournament along the lines of the World Cup, FIFAs’s $5 billion cash cow, and a proposed league for national teams.

The New York Times first reported details of Infantino’s secret talks with the group of international investors on April 9. Infantino disclosed the negotiations to FIFA’s board at a fractious meeting last month in Bogotá, Colombia.

Officials have so far blocked Infantino from moving ahead with a deal that he said had to be signed within 60 days, in part because he declined to identify the members of the international consortium, citing a nondisclosure agreement, and also because they are concerned the event could compete with existing tournaments.

It later emerged that one of the proposed investors is SoftBank, the Japan-based financial institution that runs the world’s biggest technology investment fund.

The full FIFA Council is expected to address the offer during an extraordinary meeting in early May. The next scheduled meeting for that group had been set for June, days before the 2018 World Cup kicks off in Russia.

“A meeting with the confederations will take place in due course but no date has been set yet,” said a FIFA spokesman, confirming the planned talks were to discuss details of the offer from investors. “Further consultation is also ongoing with different stakeholders on potential changes to the FIFA Club World Cup.”

Emergency meetings are rare and reserved for the most vital matters. The last time FIFA called its top board for an unscheduled meeting was in 2015, after several of the board’s members were arrested in a dawn raid on a luxury Zurich hotel.

Infantino’s rationale for the urgent meeting is twofold. He wants to persuade skeptical officials to allow him to forge ahead with negotiations on the proposed $25 billion deal. But he also wants to calm some members who have grown angry over what they see as Infantino’s aggressive pursuit of a deal that would lead to the biggest restructuring in soccer in several decades.

During his campaign for the presidency of FIFA, Infantino promised fourfold increases in financing for soccer development to member nations. The $25 billion would provide Infantino with enough money to follow through on that commitment ahead of his bid for re-election next year.

Opposition from powerful European soccer officials and some of the continent’s biggest clubs remains strong. Creating the event without the agreement of the world’s best clubs, employers of the top players required to make the events a success, is likely to lead to a protracted conflict in a sport that has been a battleground for primacy between national teams, which are governed by FIFA, and club soccer, which is overseen by the six regional confederations and their members.

To win support, Infantino recently met with a handful of executives from the biggest clubs, including Germany’s Bayern Munich and Chinese-owned Inter Milan, according to people familiar with the situation. The discussion took place without the knowledge of the European Club Association, an umbrella group for about 200 teams from across a continent, which includes the vast majority of the world’s richest clubs. A spokesman for the E.C.A. said it had not been informed about the extraordinary FIFA Council meeting.

In a briefing document sent to FIFA Council members before the Bogotá meeting, and seen by The New York Times, FIFA said it favored a 24-team global club championship, with half the participants drawn from Europe. That group would include the finalists from the four prior editions of the Champions League, soccer’s richest club event.

FIFA estimated each edition of its proposed club competition could generate a maximum of $1 billion; the investment group is offering $3 billion for each tournament, with the remainder offered for a proposed nations league.

European soccer’s governing body UEFA is largely opposed to the proposal. Both competitions proposed by FIFA would cause upheaval to its events, including the creation of a significant competitor to the Champions League, which generates billions of dollars in advertising and broadcast revenue. The global nations league also would usurp UEFA’s own version of a similar competition, which begins its first edition later this year.

Confederations in Asia and the Americas appear to be largely supportive of the idea, which would guarantee more games against top European sides for their best clubs. But a German member of the FIFA Council, Reinhard Grindel, a critic of Infantino’s management style, told Infantino the organization should focus on national team soccer and not meddle in club affairs.

In its most recent letter to members, FIFA explained that the money from the proposed deal would directly benefit its 211 member federations, the group that will vote in next year’s presidential election.

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #683 on: June 08, 2018, 06:09:47 AM »
Ghana to dissolve football association over bribery allegations
Reuters


Ghana has decided to dissolve its national football association a day after officials, including the body’s president, were shown in a documentary taking kickbacks.

The two-hour documentary, When Greed and Corruption Become the Norm by undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, was provided to the authorities last month before being screened in public for the first time on Wednesday.

Ghana Football Association president Kwesi Nyantakyi did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The GFA said it would cooperate with any investigation.

Nyantakyi, who is also a member of the Fifa Council, the world football body’s legislative organ, was filmed in a hotel room allegedly taking a $65,000 bribe from a supposed businessman seeking to sponsor the Ghanaian football league.

Information minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid said in a statement that the government was shocked and outraged at the contents of the documentary and would refer the alleged culprits to the police for investigation.

“Having regard to the widespread nature of the apparent rot involving top GFA officials, NSA [National Sports Authority] officials, match commissioners, football administrators and referees, government has decided to take immediate steps to have the GFA dissolved,” he said.

He said the government would soon announce provisional measures to govern football activities until a new association could be formed.

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #684 on: June 08, 2018, 10:10:04 PM »
The saga continues, I hope the individuals who issued the bribe gets banned from all football related activities as well.

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #685 on: June 20, 2018, 07:58:40 PM »
Sepp Blatter claims centre stage in theatre of the absurd as he makes appearance in Russia
By Oliver Brown, The Telegraph


The St Regis Nikolskaya is the type of Moscow hotel that feels wholly of a piece with Fifa’s ancien regime. With a lobby dripping in gold leaf, a resident pianist tinkling the ivories beneath a stained glass dome, and even a club sandwich carrying a price tag to trigger a soft whimper of despair, it is a byword for the opulence with which Sepp Blatter would cloak himself as president. How grimly apt, then, that despite his unmitigated disgrace and a six-year ban from the game he could once call his fiefdom, this was still the place to find him.

Exile, evidently, has put barely a dent in his hubris. This is a man supposed to be serving a six-year ban from all football activity, arising from an unauthorised payment of £1.5 million to former Uefa chief Michel Platini, and yet here he breezed back into the World Cup with nary an ounce of repentance. Even before checking into his suite, he posed for selfies with startled Latin American fans. “How I was received here, with television cameras and all the rest, made me feel as if it was my World Cup,” he said, displaying more brass than the Moscow Symphony.

Despite leading Fifa into a state of such pestilence that several senior executives had to be frogmarched out of the Baur au Lac under cover of their own bed linen, Blatter continues to feel that he is a man traduced.

“I have done nothing wrong,” he shrugged. “I spent a lifetime of honestly serving.”

Of course he did. There is nothing like a record of turning a blind eye to a multi-million-pound network of bribery and kickbacks to convince sceptics of one’s moral rectitude.

Then again, Blatter has already run the full gamut of “wasn’t me, guv’nor” schtick in defending his 17 years of running Fifa like a latter-day Louis XIV. Here in Moscow, he reprised his old line of blaming the confederations, even after five straight elections of courting their votes with ever more lavish inducements. He also had the gall to claim that Fifa should have extended an official invitation to him, on the pretext that he was still the president, just with the tiny asterisk that he remained subject to investigations by the US Justice Department.

It was a day that stretched the boundaries of absurdity. Just when you lose your ability to be dumbstruck by Blatter – the figure who bankrolled United Passions, the silver-screen document of Fifa’s creation and officially the worst-performing film in history, with a budget of £20 million and a box-office return of less than £100,000 – he pushes the envelope once more.

He began by brazening it out beside the Kremlin walls, telling anyone who would listen that he was the honoured guest of Vladimir Putin. Odd, then, how Putin made sure not to be pictured alongside him at any stage. Dmitri Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, denied that any meeting had been arranged.

Septic Sepp? At the diplomatic level, Blatter is radioactive. So what was he doing here? In part, it was to show the world that he was still soldiering on. Blatter has cut a somewhat pitiful figure since the roof fell in on his band of knaves: first came his dishevelled appearance at a Zurich press conference, then the reports of a nervous breakdown. But equally, it was as if he could not bear for a World Cup to pass without his presence. In the city where Lenin is preserved inside a mausoleum, Blatter labours under the delusion that he is football’s eternal leader.

“I was elected for four years in 2015,” he said, proudly. “I never resigned, I was never voted out.”

He even extended his overtures to the English all over again. Seven years after Fifa’s venal voting system left England with a mere two first-round votes for its 2018 bid, Blatter was urging the country to try afresh for the tournament in 2030. “They last had it in 1966, so it’s a long time ago,” he said. “I was told that it could be with Wales and Scotland, but I said, ‘Why not Ireland altogether?’ With 48 teams, you need more than one country to host it.”

With that, Blatter was off to Luzhniki Stadium to watch Cristiano Ronaldo’s early goal sink Morocco. There were no velvet ropes for him this time, though, no silver-service butlers or token dignitaries. How Blatter would have loved still to be in Gianni Infantino’s position, sandwiched between Putin and the Saudi Crown Prince. Instead, he returned to the feast like Banquo’s ghost, haunting Fifa just when it purported to have disavowed the past.

Blatter denied that he was an embarrassment to the organisation he brought to the brink of ruin. Indeed, as he returned from the match, he swept into the St Regis lobby with all the hauteur of old, flicking away TV interview requests. There was, apparently, a restaurant reservation to honour. Sure enough, he reappeared downstairs as the guest of a certain Vitaly Mutko, deposed head of the World Cup organising committee and alleged enabler of the worst ever state-sponsored doping racket in sport. For a dinner a deux, it was hard not to shake the sense that he and Blatter were made for each other.

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #686 on: June 22, 2018, 08:17:57 AM »
So because he ban from activities he need to stay in a dark empty room and dead? Steups this article dumb on several levels

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #687 on: June 23, 2018, 11:26:40 AM »
I don't see him in center stage unless they keep on focusing the camera on him. He is passe. The focus is on Messi, Neymar, "preety boy" CR7 and it appears that Lukaku  is in the spotlight now that he has 4 goals as CR7.

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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #688 on: August 23, 2018, 08:37:40 PM »
Fifa corruption: Brazil's Jose Maria Marin jailed for four years
BBC


A former head of Brazil's football association has been jailed for four years for corruption.

Jose Maria Marin, 86, was one of seven Fifa officials arrested at a hotel in Zurich in May 2015.

He was convicted of accepting bribes from sports marketing companies in exchange for contracts to broadcast tournaments such as the Copa America.

In addition, Marin was fined $1.2m (£920,000) and ordered to forfeit $3.34m (£2.59m).

He was sentenced in a Brooklyn federal court by judge Pamela Chen and he is the first official to be sentenced as part of an American investigation into corruption at Fifa.

Marin, a former governor of Sao Paulo, was last year found guilty of six of the seven counts against him, relating to money laundering and wire fraud conspiracy.

He was convicted alongside Juan Angel Napout, who led South America's football governing body Conmebol. He will be sentenced at a later date.

Peru's Manuel Burga was cleared of taking bribes by a jury in the USA.

Marin's lawyers say he will appeal against the sentence.




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Re: FIFA News Thread.
« Reply #689 on: August 29, 2018, 04:39:38 PM »
Official in Fifa bribery scandal jailed for nine years over football racketeering
The Guardian


A former South American football official has been sentenced to nine years in prison on charges arising out of the sprawling Fifa bribery scandal.

Juan Ángel Napout of Paraguay was sentenced in New York on Wednesday. A jury convicted him late last year of racketeering and other charges stemming from a corruption scandal that shook the sport’s international governing body.

Prosecutors had asked the judge to sentence the already-jailed Napout to 20 years in prison for taking millions of dollars in bribes from companies seeking marketing rights to major football tournaments. His lawyers said he deserved far less time, saying prosecutors exaggerated his role in the scheme.

The 60-year-old is the former president of Paraguay’s football federation and of the South American football governing body Conmebol.


Former FIFA Boss Sentenced to Nine Years in U.S. Prison
By Patricia Hurtado, Bloomberg


To his lawyers, he was a man who did hundreds of good deeds, including paying for his chauffeur’s knee surgery. But U.S. prosecutors said former South American soccer boss Juan Angel Napout sometimes moved illicit cash by dispatching his personal driver on 15-hour trips from Buenos Aires to Asuncion, Paraguay.

Napout, 60, a Paraguayan who was president of CONMEBOL, the governing body for South America’s soccer, as well as a vice president of FIFA, international soccer’s governing association, was sentenced to nine years in prison on Wednesday after being convicted by a U.S. jury of getting $3.4 million in bribes and soliciting almost $25 million.

In announcing the sentence in Brooklyn, New York, federal court, U.S. District Judge Pamela Chen said she had a hard time reconciling the portrait of Napout painted by his lawyers, family and friends, as a man of generosity and good character with the evidence she’d seen at trial.

“Napout had a public face, one that is reflected in all the letters I’ve seen,” Chen said. “But then there was this hidden character he had, this hidden life.”

Prosecutors sought a sentence of 20 years.

"I know America is a compassionate country,” Napout told the judge before the sentence was handed down. “I beg you for your mercy.”

Napout portrayed himself publicly as an agent of reform who tried to change CONMEBOL, which was plagued by years of corruption. But prosecutors argued that as soon as he joined the Paraguayan soccer association in 2010, Napout began taking bribes and collected perks like a $40,000 seaside vacation condo and more than $10,000 worth of tickets to a Paul McCartney concert.

"He entered sports to make money when he had more than enough," prosecutor Kristin Mace said. "Napout led by example at CONMEBOL and FIFA; he led colleagues and subordinates to believe that bribe-taking was common practice."

Napout was convicted in December of wire fraud and racketeering conspiracy by a federal jury in Brooklyn after a seven-week trial. He was cleared of money-laundering charges.

His lawyers argued the evidence in his trial was just a small snapshot of his life. While they acknowledged that he was born into a wealthy family -- one friend described it as a "golden cradle" -- they said Napout spent his life helping those in need.

"One act cannot erase a lifetime of good work," Napout’s lawyer Sylvia Pinera-Vazquez said.

The five-hour sentencing hearing included an appeal from Napout’s wife, Karin Forster, who pleaded, "Please, your honor, give mercy and impose a sentence that allows him to return," to Paraguay.

Message Sent

Chen said the trial exposed the “rampant corruption in international soccer,” which must be addressed.

“Clearly a message has to be sent to others that this behavior will be met with serious consequences,” she said. “You cannot steal millions in bribes from these organizations and go unpunished.”

Prosecutors at the trial called almost 30 witnesses, including former sports-marketing executives who gave jurors an inside look into FIFA’s seamier side.

Alejandro Burzaco, chief of sports-marketing company Torneos y Competencias SA, testified he paid at least 30 soccer bosses more than $160 million to secure broadcasting rights to South American tournaments and World Cup matches in 2026 and 2030. A former Citigroup Inc. banker, Burzaco testified that Napout was among at least six soccer officials who accepted payoffs.

Jose Hawilla, the founder of Traffic Sports International Inc. who was caught lying to the U.S. in 2013, agreed to secretly record conversations for the Federal Bureau of Investigation for more than a year. Hawilla described paying bribes to multiple officials, dating to the 1990s.

The case is U.S. v. Napout, 15-cr-252, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).





 

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