“A good FIFA is like a good referee, nobody speaks about it.” — UEFA president Michel Platini, the favorite to become the next FIFA president,saying FIFA’s image needed to restored and politics must be toned down in favor of soccer interests. (AP)
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The Sepp Blatter Interview: Still Drinking the FIFA Kool-Aid
The BBC on Monday published an interview between outgoing FIFA President Sepp Blatter and correspondent Richard Conway. You can see the full 22-minuteQ&A here, or continue reading for selected highlights and analysis from Off The Post. View image | gettyimages.com We’ll start by going over the wide-ranging territory that Conway covers in his questioning. He […]
Posted inSoccer America Confidential, Story
U.S. Soccer in the Senate hot seat over FIFAGate
By Paul Kennedy (@pkedit) Drip. Drip. Drip. That’s the sound, day after day, of newrevelations into FIFAGate, the massive bribery scandal that resulted in indictments against 14 FIFA officials and sports marketing executives in May. They are accused of kickback schemesthat took place over more than two decades and involved more than $150 million. That’s […]
Posted inAround The Net in Soccer World Daily, Story
FIFA Bans 2018, 2022 WC Evaluator for Seven Years
FIFA on Monday banned the former head of its bid evaluation committee for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups for seven years over “confidentiality” breaches. Harold Mayne-Nicholls, a formerChilean soccer federation (FFC) president, wrote the report that gave Qatar the worst ranking of the candidates for the 2022 World Cup finals which the wealthy Gulf […]
Posted inAround The Net in Soccer World Daily, Story
Report: FIFA's Garcia Report Won't Be Published for "Years"
The full version of the report by Michael Garcia, the former Fifa ethics investigator, into the controversial race for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups is now unlikely to be published foryears, the Guardian reports. FIFA had already said that the full 430-page report would not be published while its own investigations into individuals inside its organization werecontinuing but […]
Posted inAround The Net in Soccer World Daily, Story
Report: Blatter Not Reconsidering Stepping Down
FIFA President Sepp Blatter on Monday confirmed there has been no change of heart in his decision to step down as the organization’s president despite the emergence of reports to the contrary over the weekend. Separately, Switzerland’s attorney generalwill make a statement on Wednesday about his investigation into the bidding process for the 2018 and […]
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Wednesday: FIFA halts 2026 bid process
In the latest twist to FIFA’s mounting crisis, it has suspended the bid process for the 2026 World Cup — for which the USA is considered the favorite — before it even began. “Due to thesituation,” FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke said on Wednesday during a 2018 World Cup meeting in Russia, “I think it’s […]
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Are The Feds Closing in on Blatter?
What’s more exciting: the fact that there’s not one but two World Cups going on concurrently, or the fact that the FIFA scandal continues to widen with what seems like a stream of newrevelations almost by the hour? As much as Off The Post loves international soccer, he’ll have to side with the FIFA scandal, […]
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Rothenberg 'confident' soccer will overcome current scandals
By Ridge Mahoney (@ridgemax) As one of the leading figures in American soccer for several decades,former U.S. Soccer president and World Cup 1994 Organizing Committee chairman Alan Rothenberg firmly believes there are solutions to soccer’s problems ofgovernance and transparency that resulted in this week’s decision by FIFA president Sepp Blatterto step aside when a new […]
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Sepp Blatter Has No Intention of Stepping Down as FIFA President
As it turns out, the story of Sepp Blatter’s resignation as president of FIFA isn’t over yet. On a day when Russia and Qatar both defiantly maintained that they would go on to host soccer’s showpiece event in2018 and 2022, respectively, Reuters reported that the FBI, after handing out indictments to current andformer FIFA officials […]