Governing Bodies
IOC Veteran, Pound Assures on Tokyo 2020
The International Olympic Committee’s longest serving member assured on Thursday (May 20) that the Tokyo Games are “a go”, as IOC officials huddled with local organisers for online talks.
“There’s nothing to indicate that there’s an elephant in the room that we don’t know about,” Richard Pound told AFP two months before the scheduled start of the Games, which have already been pushed from last year due to the pandemic.
Japanese public sentiment is against the mega event, with polls showing a majority in the country want the Olympics delayed further or altogether cancelled.
“Based on everything we know today it’s a go,” Pound said, adding, “I have my ticket.”
“If the host country (Japan) doesn’t want to host, it doesn’t host,” he said, but added that the IOC ultimately retains “the power to cancel the Games if the conditions are dangerous enough”.
Organisers have outlined extensive virus countermeasures to keep the Olympics safe, including barring overseas fans for the first time ever.
But with Japan battling a fourth wave of infections, doctors’ associations have warned that the healthcare system is already overstretched and the Games could add further stress.
As currently planned, there will be less “celebratory stuff, the streets (won’t be) filled with athletes and spectators and so on. The excitement of being in an Olympic city, that’s going to be a lot more subdued”, Pound said.
Athletes will be tested for Covid-19 at the Tokyo airport upon arrival and then effectively isolated at the Olympic village. After competing, they will be asked to quickly leave the country.
“It’s not going to have all the frills and bells and whistles that we’ve come to expect,” he said. “That kind of ambience is not going to be there.”
But “there will be Olympic competitions and the athletes from all 206 countries are expected to participate.”
Pound, a former Canadian swimming champion who later became the first president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, acknowledged the push-back in Japan against the Games, but downplayed its likelihood of forcing a cancellation.
He drew parallels with the 1984 Games in Los Angeles in which there were concerns “about how many Olympic athletes were going to die because of the smog”, and a Zika virus outbreak prior to the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
“It was the wrong season and the wrong area (for Zika) but people still thought that Zika would decimate the crowds and the athletes,” he said. In the end, no foreign visitors to the Rio Games contracted the virus.
“So you’ve got to expect some of that stuff and just persist through it,” he said, adding that “communications could be better to try and reassure the public at large.”
“At the moment, the big question is will there be spectators and if so, what percentage of the venues will be available.”
He said the IOC has agreed, in addition to banning foreign spectators, to halving the number of people with Olympic responsibilities entering Japan from overseas for the Olympics, which take place from July 23 to Aug 8.
If the Games are cancelled at the last minute, Pound said, “certainly there would be massive disappointment on the part of the athletes, (and) around the world that this opportunity could not be seized upon”.
The IOC, sponsors, broadcasters and “almost anybody connected with the risks” of putting on the world’s premier sporting event, he said, are insured for that eventuality.
Financial losses resulting from a cancellation “would be significant”. But it “would not put the entire international sports system or the Olympic movement in dire straits”, Pound assured. “We’d have to tighten the belts a little bit of course but it certainly would not cause financial ruin.”
It would, however, be regrettable for competitors as “three out of four Olympic athletes get one kick at the can”, he said.
The Games have only been cancelled on three occasions, because of World War I in 1916 and due to World War II in 1940 and 1946.
The pandemic has also prompted the Canadian swimming team to pull out of a pre-Olympic training camp in Japan.
Plans for some 50 training camps in Japan have been scrapped, the majority due to concerns over the pandemic.
The Canadian team of about 60 swimmers and coaches were originally scheduled to stay in the city of Toyota, about 250km west of Tokyo, from July 9 to July 30, Kyodo reported on Friday.
“We will no longer be doing our holding camp at Toyota City and Chukyo University and will be going straight into the Olympic Games village,”
Also on Thursday, a sudden surge of coronavirus cases has prompted officials to move an Olympic baseball qualifier from Taichung in Taiwan next month to Mexico.
“The decision was forced by new restrictions the local authorities imposed in Taiwan due to a surge in Covid-19 cases,” the World Baseball Softball Confederation WBSC said in a statement on Thursday, specifically citing the limits to foreigners arriving.
The statement added that exact dates and venues for the Mexico tournament were still to be confirmed.
Mexico’s baseball team have already qualified for the Olympics.
Taiwan, Australia and the Netherlands have earned the right to participate in the upcoming qualifier in Mexico alongside two other teams from an Americas regional qualifier taking place later this month.
Mexico’s coronavirus situation is far worse than Taiwan’s. It has recorded about 220,000 deaths and is still counting 2,000 new cases each day.
In contrast Taiwan has had just 2,800 cases and 15 deaths.
-AFP
World football governing body, FIFA, today clocks its 122nd anniversary, celebrating more than a century of overseeing and expanding the global game.
Founded on May 21, 1904, in Paris, France, FIFA began with just seven member associations — France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
From that modest beginning, the organisation has grown into the most influential sports governing body in the world, with 211 member associations spread across all continents.
Over the decades, FIFA has transformed football into a truly global phenomenon through competitions such as the FIFA World Cup, Women’s World Cup, Club World Cup, youth tournaments, and developmental programmes aimed at growing the game worldwide.
The organisation has also witnessed remarkable milestones, including the expansion of the men’s World Cup from 13 teams in 1930 to 48 teams beginning from the 2026 edition to be jointly hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
FIFA’s journey has equally reflected football’s growing influence beyond sport, with the game becoming a major tool for diplomacy, social inclusion, youth empowerment, and economic development across the world.
As FIFA celebrates 122 years of existence, attention is now focused on the future of the game, technological innovations, expanded competitions, women’s football growth, and the continued globalisation of football.
Visit the Sports Village Square Channel:
UEFA has issued a lifetime ban to Petr Vlachovsky, a Czech women’s soccer coach who secretly filmed his players, the governing body announced on Tuesday.
Czech media reported that the coach was convicted in May 2025 and initially received a suspended one-year prison sentence and a five-year domestic coaching ban for filming FC Slovacko’s players in changing rooms, the youngest of whom was 17.
In a statement, UEFA’s Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) said it had decided to ban Vlachovsky “from exercising any football-related activity for life” following the appointment of an Ethics and Disciplinary Inspector to investigate allegations of potential misconduct.
“The CEDB further decided to request FIFA to extend the abovementioned ban on a worldwide level and to order the Football Association of the Czech Republic to revoke Mr Petr Vlachovsky’s coaching licence,” the statement added.
FC Slovacko did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Football players’ union FIFPRO welcomed the ban as well as UEFA’s request for world soccer governing body FIFA to impose an international ban on Vlachovsky.
“This outcome sends a strong and necessary message that abusive and inappropriate behaviour has no place in football and that safeguarding the well-being of players must remain a priority at every level of the game,” FIFPRO added in a statement.
Vlachovsky had also previously served as coach of the Czech women’s Under-19s team.
RELATED STORY: https://sportsvillagesquare.com/2026/04/08/outrage-as-male-coach-who-secretly-filmed-women-players-still-free-to-work-in-football/
-Reuters
Visit the Sports Village Square Channel:
https://www.whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vaz7mEIGk1FxU8YIXb0H
Southampton have been kicked out of the Championship playoff final after being found guilty of spying on semi-final opponents Middlesbrough, the English Football League said on Tuesday.
Middlesbrough, who lost 2-1 to Southampton on aggregate in the semi, have been reinstated and will face Hull City on Saturday in what is dubbed the world’s richest soccer match.
Promotion to the Premier League, even with an immediate relegation, is estimated to be worth in the region of 200 million pounds ($268.10 million) over three seasons.
Southampton, who admitted the charges, were also found guilty of filming training sessions involving Oxford United in December and Ipswich Town in April during the regular season.
They have also been deducted four points from the start of next season in England’s second tier.
“An Independent Disciplinary Commission has today expelled Southampton from the Championship play-offs after the club admitted multiple breaches of EFL regulations related to the unauthorised filming of other clubs’ training,” the EFL said.
“Southampton admitted breaches of Regulations requiring Clubs to act with the utmost good faith and prohibiting the observation of another Club’s training session within 72 hours of a scheduled match.
“The effect of today’s order is that Middlesbrough are reinstated into the 2026 play-offs and will proceed to the play-off final against Hull City. The final remains scheduled for Saturday 23 May, with the kick-off time to be confirmed.”
The EFL confirmed that Southampton could appeal against the decision and that “parties are working to try and resolve any appeal on Wednesday 20 May.
“Subject to the outcome, it could result in a further change to Saturday’s fixture,” the statement said.
‘BORO CALLED FOR SOUTHAMPTON EXPULSION
Middlesbrough had called for Southampton’s expulsion after having a training session at their Rockliffe Park site filmed 48 hours ahead of the first leg of their playoff semi-final with Southampton which ended 0-0.
The north-east club said they welcomed the decision.
“We believe this sends out a clear message for the future of our game regarding sporting integrity and conduct,” the north Middlesbrough said in a statement.
“As a club, we are now focused on our game against Hull City at Wembley on Saturday.”
Southampton were relegated from the Premier League last season and were struggling in the early part of this campaign until a storming finish in which they went unbeaten in 19 league games to finish fourth and enter the playoffs.
The south-coast club are the first to fall foul of the Football League’s regulation 127 — brought in after Leeds United were found guilty of spying on Derby County seven years ago, an offence for which they were fined 200,000 pounds.
-Reuters
Morocco Become First African Team to Reach World Cup 2026 Knockout Stage
Vinicius double helps Brazil past Scotland into World Cup knockouts
Atlas Lions Fight Back Twice to Seal World Cup Progress
Breaking! Uzoho suspended from Super Eagles’ next match with Sierra Leone
No longer Super League as CAF changes name of its new clubs competition
NIGERIAN FOOTBALL CHIEF EXECUTIVE, SANUSI CHARGES NIGERIAN COACHES TO BE UPRIGHT, DILIGENT
- World Cup6 days ago
‘Most Oppressed Team’: Iran Set for FIFA Showdown Over Travel Rules
- World Cup4 days ago
U.S. defends Iran World Cup travel restrictions, says discussions ongoing
- World Cup1 week ago
Doku Faces World Cup-or-Fatherhood Dilemma as Belgium Star Awaits First Child
- World Cup1 week ago
Back in Canada After 39 Years: A Return to Where the Journey Began
- World Cup1 week ago
Tunisia Become Second African Casualty as Sweden Hit Five in World Cup Rout
- World Cup1 week ago
Salah Eyes Birthday Gift as Egypt Seek Historic World Cup Breakthrough Against Belgium
- World Cup4 days ago
Victory on the Pitch, Respect in the Stands: Japan Fans Clean Up After Tunisia Rout
- World Cup7 days ago
South Africa’s Zwane Banned for Three Matches After World Cup Red Card