lol, FIFA

[Colly]

Don't question Draw Baldy,  no one organises better than he.

[Adam]

I'm up for there being 40 teams in the tournament, easily enough to do - just have eight groups of five teams. Adds to the spectacle, gets more teams in (can guarantee an oceanic place for instance) and makes it so even the minnows have four matches at the tournament if they qualify.

[Matt]

Or 5 if they end up in England's group

[Lineker]

Blatter has been admitted into hospital...

[Gazz]

Would it be cynical to suggest that the plans to expand the World Cup is a ploy to garner the votes of the smaller nations who often come close but don't quite qualify for the tournaments or just the smaller federations in general who will have more representatives at these expanded tournaments?

[stokeriño]

I thought that went without saying, frankly.

[EddieG]

So he benefits, and they benefit, good deal for both.

[Rich]

Quid pro quo and all that

[DavidMarrio]

57 minutes ago, Gazz said:

Would it be cynical to suggest that the plans to expand the World Cup is a ploy to garner the votes of the smaller nations who often come close but don't quite qualify for the tournaments or just the smaller federations in general who will have more representatives at these expanded tournaments?

I think this is exactly what it's being done for. I've got no issues with the world cup expanding but a lot of the smaller nations will leap at this chance. 

[Lineker]

Quote

Sepp Blatter is in hospital after suffering what has been described as a “small emotional breakdown”.

The suspended Fifa president was last week ordered by doctors to take five days off work after having a medical evaluation for stress.

The 79-year-old had consulted a doctor after feeling unwell and, although no underlying problem was discovered, he was then told to rest. He has since suffered what has been described as “a nervous shock” and is likely to be supervised by doctors for several days.

“My brain and my heart are always fine, my body is letting me down,” he reportedly said.

Blatter’s spokesman, Klaus Stoehlker, told AFP by phone: “He is now, at this moment in hospital. He is preparing to leave on Monday and will be back on the job on Tuesday.”

He had been forced to cancel an interview with Swiss television that was planned for this week.

Blatter is at the centre of a corruption crisis at Fifa after the Swiss authorities opened criminal proceedings against him in connection with a £1.3m “disloyal payment” made to Michel Platini, and the sale of World Cup TV rights to the disgraced former Caribbean football chief Jack Warner.

He and Platini are both under a 90-day suspension imposed by Fifa’s ethics committee pending disciplinary hearings. Both have said they are innocent of any wrongdoing.

“His most important message is that he is fully preparing himself to go ahead with his fight against his 90-day suspension. He is deeply convinced that the ethics commission cannot force him out,” Stoehlker said.

“He said to me yesterday: ‘I was elected president by the 209 members of the congress and no commission can put me out of the game’. He’s fighting against this suspension.”

 

[MDK]

Blatter is taking a dive 

[Rich]

I heard he was really bunged up

[Lineker]

1 hour ago, Rich Manning said:

I heard he was really bunged up

[MDK]

19 hours ago, Rich Manning said:

I heard he was really bunged up

Here, take your like and get out 

[Rich]

And our candidates include:

 

 

[Adam]

Tokyo Whale is not a candidate

[Lineker]

Quote

Spain’s Uefa vice-president Ángel Villar Llona has been fined 25,000 Swiss francs (£16,000) for failing to cooperate with an investigation into the 2018 World Cup bidding process.

Villar Llona, the senior vice-president in Uefa, has also been warned by Fifa’s ethics committee but has escaped a ban.

A statement from the adjudicatory chamber of Fifa’s ethics committee said: “Mr Villar Llona failed to behave in accordance with the general rules of conduct applicable to football officials in the context of the investigations conducted by the then chairman of the investigatory chamber of the Fifa ethics committee regarding the 2018/2022 Fifa World Cup bids.

“As he subsequently expressed his commitment to collaborate and demonstrated a willingness to cooperate, he has been sanctioned with a warning and a fine of CHF 25,000.”

The American lawyer Michael Garcia carried out an investigation into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids – Spain and Portugal bid jointly for 2018 along with England, Belgium/Holland jointly and the eventual winners Russia.

Villar Llona initially refused to co-operate but later did so. However, no details about the results of Garcia’s examination of Spain and Portugal’s bid were released by the ethics committee judge Hans-Joachim Eckert in his initial findings that criticised England for their efforts to woo the disgraced former Caribbean football chief Jack Warner.

Two members of the Congolese Football Association, its vice-president Jean Guy Blaise and general secretary Badji Mombo Wantete, have been banned for six months for offering cash gifts at this year’s Fifa Congress.

Fifa’s ethics committee would not give further details, but said in a statement: “Taking into consideration that they have already been suspended provisionally for 135 days, the remaining ban to be served will be 45 days as from the notification of this decision.”

 

[Lineker]

Fifa has rejected appeals by its president Sepp Blatter and Uefa president Michel Platini against their provisional bans from all football activity.

The decision is a further blow to Platini’s faint hopes of re-joining the race to succeed Blatter. He has submitted his candidacy but Fifa’s ad-hoc electoral committee will not rule on his eligibility until he returns from his 90-day ban.

Meanwhile, it is understood that the Fifa ethics committee is on track to make a decision on the facts of the case before Christmas in any case, with both men facing the possibility of bans of up to seven years.

The pair had appealed in the wake of the decision by Fifa’s ethics committee in September to ban them both for 90 days , with a possible 45 day extension, while investigations into an alleged “disloyal payment” continued.

Blatter was accused by the Swiss attorney general of making a £1.35m payment to Platini weeks before he was re-elected as Fifa president in 2011. Platini has argued that the payment was for work carried out when he worked for Blatter as a special adviser between 1998 and 2002 but that Blatter told him at the time that Fifa could not afford to pay and he did not want to upset its wage structure.

It soon emerged that there was no written contract for the payment, with both sides arguing it was a “gentleman’s agreement”.

The Fifa appeals committee, chaired by the Bermudan Larry Mussenden, said the appeals had been rejected “in full” and the decision of the adjudicatory chamber of the independent ethics committee, chaired by the German judge Hans Joachim-Eckert, confirmed in its entirety.

However, it pointed out that the ethics committee could still itself “confirm, revoke or amend the provisional decision” if it decided to.

When the ethics committee hands down its full judgment it could definitively bring down the curtain on Blatter’s tenure atop world football and end Platini’s already slim chances of succeeding him.

When Platini was suspended, Uefa resolved to enter its general secretary Gianni Infantino as a presidential candidate on the understanding he would drop out if the Frenchman was re-admitted.

Infantino is one of five confirmed candidates for February’s election. The othes are the Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman, Jordanian FA president Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, former Fifa executive Jérôme Champagne and the South African Tokyo Sexwale.

Platini and Blatter may now take their cases to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

[Noah]

On 13/11/2015, 4:09:16, Adam. said:

Tokyo Whale is not a candidate

Didn't Skummy used to play bass for Tokyo Whale?

[GhostMachine]

No. He played trout.