lol, FIFA

[Benji]

I keep seeing his name and thinking someone's replied to something Harry Redknapp said that was offensive. "Wow 'arry".

[Lineker]

Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, a member of Jordan’s ruling family, has chosen a moment when his rival for the Fifa presidency, Michel Platini, is most vulnerable, to formally submit his candidature for the election, which is still scheduled for February.

Platini’s position as Europe’s candidate will be discussed on Thursday at a Uefa executive committee meeting in his absence, following the Uefa president’s suspension from all football activities for 90 days by Fifa’s ethics committee, which is investigating the £1.35m payment he received from Fifa in 2011.

The other previously declared candidate to succeed Sepp Blatter, the Korean Chung Mong-joon, whom Ali replaced as the Asian Football Confederation’s representative vice-president on Fifa’s executive committee in 2011, was banned by Fifa for six years last week for multiple breaches of the ethics code.

With Chung out of the election and Platini’s hopes potentially terminally damaged by the ethics committee investigation and the Swiss criminal proceedings into the payment authorised by Blatter, Ali has pitched himself as a clean-up candidate, while still being reassuringly a Fifa insider.

In a letter announcing the formal submission of his candidature, sent to the presidents and secretary-generals of all 209 national football associations around the world affiliated to Fifa, Ali included the soothing assurance: “I am one of you, an FA president, and I know how hard you strive to define football.”

Promising to restore Fifa’s reputation from the crisis over its leadership – Blatter and the secretary-general, Jérôme Valcke, are suspended and a succession of other senior figures have been banned, indicted or suspended for corruption allegations – Ali praised the national FA presidents whose votes he is seeking as honest and committed.

“I have never lost sight of the fact that there are so many good and honest people within the global Fifa organisation,” he wrote in his letter. “The dark cloud over Fifa’s leadership should not cast its shadow on our member associations and the thousands of volunteers who work tirelessly to bring the joy football [sic] to young boys and girls, and millions of fans the world over.

“The crisis at Fifa is a crisis of leadership. I believe in this organisation. Together we will make it great again.”

Prince Ali, son of the late King Hussein of Jordan, became president of the Jordanian Football Association in 1999, when he was 23. He was the sole challenger to Blatter in the election earlier this year, gaining 73 votes to Blatter’s 133 before withdrawing from a second round of voting.

Blatter then announced, following the arrests and indictments of Fifa officials on US corruption charges, that he will step down in February when another election is planned to be held. However an emergency Fifa executive committee meeting next week may consider whether the election should now be delayed.

There are growing calls for an interim independent process to run and reform Fifa, but no momentum has yet built within Fifa, or football associations more widely, for that to happen.

[Lineker]

Michel Platini has been given the unanimous backing of all 54 nations in Uefa as he seeks to justify a payment of £1.35m made to him by Sepp Blatter in 2011 and to succeed the Swiss as Fifa president.

Platini and the Fifa president Blatter were suspended for 90 days last week by the Fifa ethics committee following an investigation into the payment to the former France captain. Both Blatter and Platini deny wrongdoing.

After an emergency meeting in Nyon, European football’s governing body issued a statement saying: “We support Mr Platini’s right to a due process and a fair trial and to the opportunity to clear his name.

“We strongly call on all instances involved in the current process – Fifa’s ethics committee, appeals committee and CAS – to work very rapidly to assure there is a final decision on the merits of the case by mid-November 2015.”

The Russian sports ministry says the Uefa executive committee had expressed its “full support” for its suspended president Platini.

The Russian football union president, Vitaly Mutko, who is also Russia’s sports minister and a member of the Fifa executive committee, was attending the meeting at Uefa headquarters.

In the statement, the Russian ministry says during the Uefa executive committee meeting “all members … expressed absolute trust and full support” for Platini.

The Austrian FA president, Leo Windtner, endorsed the Russian position when he said all 54 nations had agreed to a statement backing Platini for now.

“The meeting was very satisfying because we got a unified position of Uefa. We give to Mr Platini our support,” he told the Guardian. “All nations give our support to Mr Platini to have a fair treatment.”

Pending the outcome of the Fifa investigation, the two officials could be handed longer bans.

[FestiveJack]

I'm confused by Russia's sports minister's being their football association president. I thought federations had to be free of government interference?

[MalaCloudy Black]

Should come as no surprise, but Bernie Ecclestone (another corrupt billionaire) has come out and "stood up" for Blatter, saying he shouldn't have stepped down. Shouldn't be too surprising coming from a guy who in 2009 said Hitler was a guy who "could get things done", and is bros with Putin. 

[Lineker]

Classic Bernie. 

[MDK]

I'm confused by Russia's sports minister's being their football association president. I thought federations had to be free of government interference?

I think jack warner was a cabinet minister of sorts. Doesn't say much of t&t politics if I'm right 

[Bobfoc]

Should come as no surprise, but Bernie Ecclestone (another corrupt billionaire) has come out and "stood up" for Blatter, saying he shouldn't have stepped down. Shouldn't be too surprising coming from a guy who in 2009 said Hitler was a guy who "could get things done", and is bros with Putin. 

Another quotation of interest was his claim that there is "no place for democracy".

[Lineker]

Despite a growing storm of criticism from human rights groups, the Asian Football Confederation president, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, has formally submitted his candidature to be the next president of Fifa after February’s election.

 

Sheikh Salman, who has been AFC president since 2013, submitted his application on Sunday night after talks with the interim Fifa president and Confederation of African Football leader, Issa Hayatou, in Cairo, according to reports in his native Bahrain. His application was later confirmed by the official Bahrain News Agency.

The Guardian revealed a week last Friday that Sheikh Salman was on the verge of standing for the Fifa presidency after Michel Platini, the Uefa president, was suspended for 90 days along with the outgoing incumbent, Sepp Blatter.

The Bahraini, who backed Blatter in May’s election, had previously pledged to support Platini’s bid to succeed his one-time mentor but began to consider standing himself once the Frenchman was suspended.

Sheikh Salman last week said it was premature to consider him a candidate but said he had been sounded out by senior figures in the football world and urged to stand.

His likely candidature had been heavily criticised by human rights organisations including Human Rights Watch, Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy.

Sheikh Salman was accused of “complicity in crimes against humanity” for allegedly heading a committee that identified 150 athletes involved in pro-democracy demonstrations in 2011, including international footballers, many of whom were later imprisoned and tortured. He denies the allegations.

Amid ongoing turmoil at Fifa five other candidates have already declared they will stand and have submitted applications accompanied by the requisite nominations from five football associations. Applications must be submitted by Monday night when candidates will undergo a so-called “integrity check”.

They include Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, a former Fifa vice president who lost out to Blatter in May before the Swiss was forced to stand to down , and the French former Fifa executive Jérome Champagne.

The South African businessman Tokyo Sexwale, a former politician who was imprisoned on Robben Island during the apartheid era but is also closely associated with Blatter, and the former Trinidad & Tobago international David Nakhid are also standing.

Platini submitted his formal application hours before he was suspended along with Blatter by Fifa’s ethics committee, putting his chances in serious doubt.

Over the weekend Uefa was still trying to decide whether to support a new candidate in light of Platini’s suspension or swing behind Sheikh Salman. Given the fractured nature of the race, it is likely that the support of Uefa’s 54 members will become split.

Reform campaigners have continually argued for Fifa’s rules to be changed to allow an external candidate to come in and undertake a wholesale reform programme of the crisis-hit governing body.

[Lineker]

Uefa’s general secretary Gianni Infantino is expected to enter the race for the Fifa presidency later on Monday, it can be disclosed.

The members of Uefa’s executive committee are expected to recommend Infantino – Michel Platini’s right-hand man for the last six years – be nominated for the presidency.

Platini has also submitted his candidacy for the election but is currently banned for 90 days pending a disciplinary hearing into a £1.3m payment signed off by the outgoing president, Sepp Blatter, in 2011.

Sources close to Uefa have disclosed that an emergency meeting of Uefa’s executive committee – via teleconference – has been called where Infantino’s candidacy will be discussed.

It comes after Asian football’s leader, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, became the sixth candidate to submit his candidacy for the Fifa presidential election, according to the official Bahrain news agency.

[Adam]

I can't even tell who would be a good successor to Blatter anymore. Can't we just flatten the whole organisation and start again?

[Baddar]

I'll go with Carra's suggestion and put Gary Neville forward. 

[Colly]

Tokyo Sexwhale for me.

[Colly]

Changed my mind, Champions League Draw Baldy has entered the race. He's my pick.

[Benji]

Trump 4 Prez.

[Lineker]

 

Quote

The agreement to hand Russia the 2018 World Cup before the vote took place involved "big players" in Fifa, says president Sepp Blatter's adviser.

Klaus Stohlker said there were "behind-the-curtain" talks involving members of the Fifa executive committee.

The suspended Blatter has suggested there was an agreement to give the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and the USA respectively.

Fifa should repay the money spent by Australia on its failed 2022 World Cup bid, according to a whistleblower who worked on the campaign.

Evidence has emerged that appears to link further the Bahrain Football Association, then overseen by the leading Fifa presidential candidate Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, to a crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in the country in 2011.

Sheikh Salman, president of the Asian Football Confederation since 2013 and one of the leading candidates to replace Sepp Blatter when he stands down in February, told the BBC this week that allegations he was involved in identifying 150 athletes who took part in demonstrations were “false, nasty lies”. In a fresh denial his spokeman told the Guardian that recent “allegations are entirely false and categorically denied by Sheikh Salman”.

The online archives of the official government news agency said, in an article dated 7 April 2011, that the Bahrain FA would take action against any “players or administrators or coaches” who have “violated the law” by attending illegal demonstrations or “any other action with the objective of removing the regime or insulting national symbols”.

It said that the “necessary measures” would be taken against any offenders. A few days later, on 11 April, the BNA posted an article – revealed this week by the Guardian – confirming Sheikh Salman would head a committee charged with identifying athletes involved in the protests, many of whom were allegedly imprisoned and tortured.

“Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, general secretary of youth and sport, will lead the investigation committee,” it said, before going on to list the others on the so-called commission of inquiry.

The article, in Arabic, confirmed Sheikh Salman was appointed head of the committee by Prince Nasser Bin Hamad al-Khalifa, the son of Bahrain’s king and head of the Bahrain Olympic Committee at the time.

Nine days later a further communique said the committee had decided to penalise six clubs who were suspected of being involved in the protests or had been unable to fulfil their fixtures because of the upheaval created by the February 2011 uprising. The committee fined the six clubs $20,000, suspended them for two years and relegated two of them to the second division.

A letter has also emerged, seen by the Guardian, in which the six clubs concerned had earlier written to the Bahrain FA in February of that year asking it to suspend the league in light of the protests and attendant security concerns. Instead they were fined and banned.

Associated Press reported in 2011 that more than 150 athletes, coaches and referees were suspended after a special committee, which it said was chaired by Sheikh Salman, then head of the Bahrain FA, identified them from photos of protests.

A statement given to the Guardian on behalf of Sheikh Salman on Thursday stated: “While it was proposed that Sheikh Salman lead a fact-finding committee in relation to the events of 2011, that committee was never formally established and never conducted any business whatsoever. For the record, and in light of the recycling of historic allegations in the media, Sheikh Salman had absolutely no involvement in the identification, investigation, prosecution or mistreatment of any individuals as has been alleged.”

In his first interview since being confirmed as a candidate for February’s presidential election amid the crisis at Fifa, Sheikh Salman this week insisted he was not involved in identifying athletes who took part in the protests.

“I cannot deny something that I haven’t done,” he told the BBC. “Such accusations are not just damaging. It’s really hurting. Some people have agenda on their table. It’s not just damaging me, it’s damaging the people and the country. These are false, nasty lies that have been repeated again and again in the past and the present.”

Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, the director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, said: “This is the nasty truth that Sheikh Salman can’t avoid any longer. We have said it before and we will say it again, the facts of Sheikh Salman’s involvement in human rights violations is well documented and comes straight from the horse’s mouth.”

Husain Abdulla, the executive director at Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain, added: “Six clubs wrote a letter pleading to Sheikh Salman to halt activities for the safety of their players. A few months later Sheikh Salman destroyed them with fines, suspensions and relegation. He then went after their players. He was incapable as head of the Bahrain Football Association and he should not be trusted with the governing of world football.”

A list compiled by the ADHRB group, seen by the Guardian, names 79 athletes who remain in prison in Bahrain for their part in the pro-democracy demonstrations.

Sheikh Salman is one of seven candidates to replace Blatter who will now undergo so-called “integrity checks” by Fifa’s ethics committee.

Human rights groups argue his alleged involvement in the 2011 crackdown make him unsuitable to stand for the Fifa presidency, although the ethics committee refused calls to investigate after Sheikh Salman was elected the AFC president, with Blatter’s backing, in 2013.

The Fifa presidential elections will take place on 26 February after Blatter was forced to stand down amid spiralling corruption allegations.

Blatter and Michel Platini, who was favourite to replace him, were laterprovisionally suspended for 90 days by the Fifa ethics committee over an alleged “disloyal payment”. They deny wrongdoing.

[Lineker]

Sepp Blatter has rejected complaints made by football’s biggest sponsors over a bribery and corruption scandal, saying they were politically motivated and made at the behest of the US.

Blatter has been suspended from Fifa as part of the fallout from a US Department of Justice investigation into bribery, money-laundering and wire fraud at the sport’s governing body.

The 79-year-old had initially been set to remain in his post until next year, despite a string of arrests of top Fifa officials, until a group of major sponsors issued coordinated calls for him to go. Blatter was suspended a few days later.

“It is the American companies,” Blatter told the Financial Times in an interview in a reference to sponsors including Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Visa, and Budweiser owner Anheuser-Busch InBev.

“The other companies haven’t said anything. So you are intelligent enough to make the connection with American companies and the American investigation. I do not need to underline that.”

Fifa, which Blatter ran for 17 years, is engulfed in the biggest scandal of its history, with 14 officials and sports marketing executives indicted by the US.

Blatter and the Uefa president, Michel Platini, are both serving 90-day suspensions imposed by Fifa’s ethics committee, which is looking into a £1.35m payment Blatter made to Platini in 2011 – a case that is also part of a separate Swiss criminal investigation.

Blatter has also spoke to the Russian news agency Tass, revealing that he had planned for Russia and the US to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups before the voting had taken place.

“The solution that has been agreed, not in writing, but it has been agreed, let’s go to the two superpowers in the vote for the World Cup: let’s go to Russia and let’s go to the United States,” he continued.

Blatter said that decision had not been taken officially by Fifa’s full executive committee but was rather an agreement taken “behind the scenes. It was diplomatically arranged.”

The plan fell apart, according to Blatter, when Platini changed his mind and backed Qatar for the 2022 World Cup under pressure from the then-French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Blatter said the problems at Fifa had all started with the vote to award the tournament to Qatar – a small desert country where daytime temperatures can top 40°C (104°F).

“If you see my face when I opened it [the envelope containing the winning bid], I was not the happiest man to say it is Qatar,” he said. “Definitely not.”

Blatter repeated his contention that the US multi-million-dollar investigation was a direct result of the US missing out on the right to host the 2022 World Cup.

“It took a political dimension,” Blatter said of the race to host the World Cup. “I am looking now to see what were the political reasons. The easiest thing would be to say [they are] bad losers.”

[Lineker]

Quote

The president of the German Football Association (DFB) has resigned over a Fifa payment that has resulted in a tax evasion investigation.

Wolfgang Niersbach said he was taking "political responsibility" for a 6.7m euro (£4.9m) payment to Fifa.

The sum was allegedly used to bribe officials of world football's governing body to vote for Germany's 2006 World Cup bid.

Niersbach said he always worked "cleanly, confidently and correctly".

On 3 November police in Frankfurt raided the headquarters of the German Football Association over allegations of tax evasion linked to the 2006 World Cup.

The DFB denied the claims last month.

"I was involved in the bid for the 2006 World Cup from day one until the final documentation of the summer fairy tale was submitted," Niersbach said. 

"I would like to make it clear unmistakably once again that I had absolutely no knowledge of the background of the flow of payments that are being looked into."

The homes of Niersbach, his predecessor Theo Zwanziger, and former Secretary General Horst Schmid, were also searched.

In a statement, the prosecutor's office said it had opened a probe into claims of serious tax evasion linked to the awarding of the World Cup to Germany in 2006.

 

[Lineker]

Quote

The World Cup could be expanded by eight teams to 40 if Gianni Infantino is elected as the next Fifa president.

Infantino, the face of European competition draws as Uefa’s secretary general, revealed his first plans to transform Fifa after making a surprising late decision to enter the election.

European football scrambled to find a candidate as a substitute for Infantino’s superior, Michel Platini, after the Uefa president was provisionally suspended by Fifa. Platini is at risk of a long ban once the ethics probe into a 2011 payment from Fifa has been completed, which would make him ineligible for the 26 February election.

Infantino insisted that if he is elected to lead Fifa he would not stand down if Platini later wins any appeals.

Infantino has worked in Platini’s shadow, implementing the president’s vision from Financial Fair Play for clubs to expanding the European Championship from 16 to 24 teams starting with next year’s tournament. If Infantino gets his way, the World Cup also could have to find space for an additional eight teams.

“I believe in expanding the World Cup based on the experience we had in Europe with the Euros,” Infantino said. “Look at qualifiers now where some teams who have never qualified did and some teams which have always qualified didn’t make it. So it created a completely new dynamic in the qualification. It created new enthusiasm. If you are serious about developing football it must involve more associations in the best football event in the world: The World Cup.”

It would be too soon to swell to 40 teams in Russia in 2018 given that qualifying has already started and it could be problematic for Qatar since the plan is to squeeze the 64 games into 28 days to cope with staging the tournament in November-December 2022 rather than the traditional June-July slot.

But the proposal could help Infantino collect votes from some of the smaller Fifa members outside Europe. “I don’t have a European vision,” he said. “I have a vision for football.”

The 45-year-old Infantino, a lawyer who has been Uefa’s general secretary since 2009, was endorsed by the organisation’s executive committee to stand for Fifa president only hours before the candidate deadline on 26 October. “We made a draw and my name came out,” he joked.

Infantino does not hide that he never previously publicly expressed any desire to run the global game as it recovers from a corruption crisis which had seen Blatter announce plans to quit even before he was suspended along with Platini last month. Infantino’s candidacy gave the impression of Uefa being dissatisfied with the other options: the Asian football leader Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, the former South African politician Tokyo Sexwale, the Liberian federation president Musa Bility and the former Fifa official Jérôme Champagne.

“It’s not a question about other candidates, it’s a question about Europe being present and making its voice heard,” Infantino said. “When you have a function in football like mine with responsibilities you have to assume responsibility when times are difficult, to put yourself forward in order to try to change this and bring messages forward.”

Those messages are not just Platini’s rehashed with a different name on the manifesto, Infantino maintained.

“I hope all of them he will agree with, but maybe on some of them we are not exactly the same – some of the priorities are maybe not exactly the same,” Infantino said. “I have been working with Michel Platini for the last nine years. We share many views and many ideas. It’s obvious we have the same philosophy on many things but I am a candidate on my own, I will have ideas on my own.”

He also insisted he would not stand aside for Platini if the former France captain later wins any appeals.

“I take it seriously which means if I am elected on 26 February in case Michel cannot run, then I will be the Fifa president and I will act as Fifa president,” Infantino said. “There is no stepping down or whatever.”

Infantino’s Uefa is not universally popular across the continent. Fans of both Barcelona and Manchester City have booed the Champions League anthem in recent weeks in protest against Uefa sanctions. City is facing a Uefa punishment over the jeering.

“When you are in charge of a governing body like Uefa it’s of course very difficult to be popular,” Infantino said. “If you think fans in general have the opportunity and right to give raise to their opinions in the way they do best. They are booing their team, they are booing opponents, they are booing the UEFA Champions League anthem. We have to not be offended by it, live with it and to make things always better and try to prove and show people what is down in our heart is football basically. I am looking forward very positively and I hope I can convince as many people as possible.”

 

[stokeriño]

Quote

“I believe in expanding the World Cup based on the experience we had in Europe with the Euros,” Infantino said.

Should probably wait until we've had the tournament first... :/