Governing Bodies
BREAKING: US GOVT ACCUSES RUSSIA, QATAR OF WORLD CUP BRIBES
After years of investigations and charges, the US Department of Justice on Monday said for the first time that representatives working for Russia and Qatar had bribed top officials to secure hosting rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup respectively.
Prosecutors made the accusations in charging three media executives – former Fox executives Hernan Lopez and Carlos Martinez – and Gerard Romy, the former co-chief executive of Spanish media company Imagina Media.
Full Play Group, a Uruguayan sports marketing company, was also charged.
The crimes include wire fraud and money laundering in connection with bribes to secure TV and marketing rights for international football tournaments.
The accusations were the latest in a protracted corruption case that has already produced convictions of numerous football officials and executives, as well as depositions from former leaders of Fifa.
Never before, though, have prosecutors so clearly described the scheme that helped deliver the votes that gave Russia and Qatar hosting rights for the sport’s biggest event.
Prosecutors explicitly revealed details about money paid to five members of governing body Fifa’s top board ahead of the 2010 vote to choose Russia and Qatar as hosts.
Russia defeated England and joint bids from the Netherlands-Belgium and Spain-Portugal to host the 2018 tournament, while Qatar defeated the United States in a run-off by a group of voters that had already been trimmed because two members had been secretly filmed agreeing to sell their votes.
Three South American officials, according to the indictment, received payments to vote for Qatar.
One of them, former Argentinian Football Association president Julio Grondona, died in 2014. Former South American football chief Nicolas Leoz died in Paraguay last year while under house arrest and fighting extradition to the United States.
The third man, Ricardo Teixeira, the former president of the Brazilian Football Confederation, is still in Brazil, which does not have an extradition treaty with the US.
Prosecutors also stated that former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner of Trinidad and Tobago, who has been fighting extradition to the US since 2015, received US$5 million (S$7.1 million) through a string of shell companies to vote for Russia.
Some of the money came “from companies based in the United States that performed work on behalf of the 2018 World Cup bid”.
More than half the people involved in the votes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, including former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, have been accused of wrongdoing, though not necessarily criminally charged.
NYTIMES
By Kunle Solaja.
Nigeria is set to host the 48th Ordinary General Assembly of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), marking the third time the country will stage the continent’s top football gathering.
The development was confirmed in a statement issued by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), which disclosed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on the sidelines of the ongoing Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, approved Nigeria’s proposal to host the event.
The approval followed a meeting between President Tinubu and CAF President Patrice Motsepe, attended by Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, NFF President Ibrahim Musa Gusau, former NFF President and Special Adviser to the CAF President Amaju Melvin Pinnick, as well as CAF Acting General Secretary Samson Adamu.
Sports Villages Square affirms that Nigeria previously hosted the CAF Congress at the National Theatre in Lagos in March 1980 and again in February 2009, when the late CAF President Issa Hayatou secured another four-year term in office.
In addition to this year’s 48th Ordinary General Assembly, scheduled for October, Nigeria also secured the hosting rights of the CAF Awards ceremony. The annual awards gala, which celebrates Africa’s top football performers, has been staged in Morocco over the past three years.
Nigeria had earlier hosted the CAF Awards when telecom firm, Globacom, was the headline sponsor. This year’s event will be the seventh to be held in Nigeria after those of 2005, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2014 and 2016.
The CAF Ordinary General Assembly traditionally attracts key football stakeholders from across the continent, including presidents of CAF’s 54 member associations, representatives of the six zonal unions and senior football administrators.
The CAF Awards ceremony is regarded as one of African football’s flagship events, honouring outstanding players, coaches, clubs and officials in a glamorous setting that showcases the continent’s football excellence.
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FIFA’s independent Ethics Committee has banned former Guyana Football Federation (GFF) General Secretary Ian Alves from all football-related activities for five years after finding he sexually harassed female staff members.
FIFA also fined Alves 20,000 Swiss francs ($22,000) after determining that he had breached provisions of the FIFA Code of Ethics relating to the protection of physical and mental integrity, abuse of position and general duties.
“FIFA has a strict stance against all forms of abuse in football,” the organisation said on Monday.
The decision followed a review of written statements from the victims, documents provided by the GFF, submissions from Alves, and other evidence gathered during the investigation.
Alves stepped down from his position in 2024.
The ban came into force on Monday, when the terms of the decision were notified to Alves, and the full grounds for the ruling will be communicated within 60 days in accordance with the Code of Ethics, FIFA added.
The GFF did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Alves could not immediately be reached for comment.
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FIFA President Gianni Infantino said on Thursday that he planned to seek re-election for a fourth term in a bid to continue to lead the governing body of world soccer.
Infantino confirmed he would run for the 2027–2031 term in the closing moments of the FIFA Congress in Vancouver, which comes less than two months before the start of the World Cup.
The election will be held on March 18 in Morocco, which is set to co-host the 2030 World Cup.
Infantino said he was “honoured and humbled” to have the chance to run for a fourth term.
The Italian-Swiss took office in 2016, replacing Sepp Blatter, and was re-elected unopposed in 2019 and 2023.
Infantino has pushed for the expansion of FIFA competitions during his tenure, with this year’s World Cup in North America the first to feature 48 teams, while the women’s tournament in 2023 has been expanded to 32 teams.
Infantino’s tenure has also drawn some criticism over issues such as high World Cup ticket prices and the decision to award the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize to U.S. President Donald Trump at the World Cup draw in December.
Earlier this month, the council of South American football’s governing body (CONMEBOL) said in a statement it would unanimously support the 56-year-old if he decided to seek another term.
-Reuters
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