The USA, Canada and Mexico announced plans to submit a unified bid to host the 2026 World Cup. Here’s what we know and don’t know about the bid announced Monday by U.S. Soccer president SunilGulati, Concacaf and CSA president Victor Montagliani (left in photo) and Mexican federation president Decio de Maria (right) at New York’s One World […]
sepp blatter
Posted inOff The Post, Story
Video replay in soccer: suggestions for its better implementation
With the industrialization of soccer, the Laws of the Game (LOTG) started to change to answer the demands of industrialized soccer. The first major change came with “the specializedlinesman” in the early 1990s. Until then, there was no distinction between the referee and the linesman. It was thought that one could do both functions equally […]
Posted inAround The Net in Soccer World Daily, Story
Blatter loses appeal over six-year soccer ban
Sepp Blatter lost his appeal of a six-year ban imposed by FIFA on its former president for breaching ethics rules related to authorizing payments to former UEFA president MichelPlatini, himself banned from soccer, worth over $2 million that amounted to “undue gifts.” The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) published its ruling on Monday. Blatter […]
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More officials do not necessarily mean less mistakes by officials
By Ahmet Guvener It is a well acknowledged fact that soccer has the fewest number of officials per square feet in any team sport may be with the exception of rugby. If one followsthe history of Laws of the Game one can clearly see the transition from the linesman — whose sole duty was to […]
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A 48-team World Cup? Dumb, dumb, dumb
It was once said that Sepp Blatter was good for 50 ideas every morning before breakfast and 51 of them were bad. But Gianni Infantino, Blatter’s successor as FIFA president, is quicklygiving him a run for his money. Infantino’s latest idea: expand the World Cup to 48 teams, beginning in 2026. In his presidential campaign, […]
Posted inSoccer America Site, Story
USSF's 1988 AGM: The Development Plan, Havelange, Blatter and bananas
In my 31 years as Soccer America’s editor, I’d estimate I’ve written or edited 50,000 headlines, 20 or so a week when we were a weekly magazine, about the same number when we started the SoccerAmerica Daily e-letter in 2001 with a reduced magazine frequency and now that number each day as most of our […]
Posted inAround The Net in Soccer World Daily, Story
Former FIFA trio paid themselves $81 million
A trio of former FIFA officials — president Sepp Blatter, general secretary Jerome Valcke and deputy general secretary Markus Kattner — paid themselves $81 million in secret payraises and World Cup bonuses over five years (2011-15). “The evidence appears to reveal a coordinated effort by three former top officials of FIFA to enrich themselves throughannual […]
Posted inSoccer America Daily, What They're Saying
What They're Saying: Qatar 2022's Hassan Al-Thawadi
“Blatter wanted the U.S. to win. It’s just fascinating that nobody is raising any concerns about that and looking into that one to start off with. But fair enough. I guess we will take the flakagain.” — Hassan Al-Thawadi, secretary general of the Qatar 2022 organizing committee, saying there was a double standard about criticism […]
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Life is full of surprises for Michel Platini
Michel Platini is finished in soccer. Banned by a FIFA ethics committee from soccer for taking $2 million from FIFA years after he was supposed to have done the work, the Frenchman saw hissuspension reduced from first eight years to six and then six years to four by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on […]
Posted inAround The Net in Soccer World Daily, Story
Blatter: 'I am not guilty' of being silent about corruption
Argentine prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo, once turned down to be the FIFA prosecutor on corruption, said former FIFA president Sepp Blatter knew about corruption going on in soccer anddid nothing about it. “I am not guilty,” the visibly angry former FIFA president later responded at the University of Basel. Blatter had been the key speaker […]