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Tag: Fifa

  • NFF yet to receive FIFA, CAF money – Pinnick

    NFF yet to receive FIFA, CAF money – Pinnick

    President of the Nigeria Football Federation , Amaju Pinnick, says the federation is yet to receive COVID – 19 palliatives from world body FIFA and CAF .

    Pinnick said once the federation took delivery of the funds, external auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers, would ensure they were properly distributed.

    Newsmen had reported that FIFA approved $1m as universal solidarity grant to all member associations, while an additional $500,000 was specifically assigned for women’s football.

    CAF also released $ 300,000 as grant to mitigate challenges as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, while the NFF got $ 200,000 from sponsors Nike and Coca Cola.

    “We’ve not received all the money, we’ve not received the one from CAF, we’ve not received from FIFA, once we receive, we are talking to PWC so that it’s not just distribution, they have to monitor how it is done, they have to monitor what we are doing to ensure it gets to the end users,” Pinnick told BBC.

    “Once we get the money, we will notify the ministry, the only one we have right now is what we have been able to warehouse from Cocacola and Nike. You can see that it is $ 2m – $1.5m from FIFA , $300,000 from CAF and $200,000 from the federation . We are going to religiously adhere to that principle.”

  • FIFA suspends Trinidad and Tobago

    FIFA suspends Trinidad and Tobago

    FIFA has suspended Trinidad and Tobago from international football after its football association (TTFA) pursued a dispute through the country’s High Court in contravention of the world governing body’s statutes.

    The TTFA and FIFA have been at loggerheads since March after the world governing body dissolved the executive of the cash-strapped association.

    FIFA said it had installed a normalisation committee after they concluded the TTFA’s former leadership had “engaged in various acts of serious mismanagement”.

    This was opposed by TTFA president William Wallace and contested in court.

    “The suspension was prompted by the former leadership of the TTFA lodging a claim before a local court in Trinidad and Tobago in order to contest the decision of the FIFA Council to appoint a normalisation committee for the TTFA,” FIFA said in a statement.

    “This course of action was in direct breach of article 59 of the FIFA Statutes, which expressly prohibits recourse to ordinary courts unless specifically provided for in the FIFA regulations.”

    FIFA said they gave a Sept. 16 deadline to withdraw the case which was extended to Sept. 23 before the decision was taken to suspend the TTFA.

    “This suspension will only be lifted when the TTFA fully complies with its obligations as a member of FIFA, including recognising the legitimacy of the appointed normalisation committee and bringing its own statutes into line with the FIFA Statutes,” it added.

    Trinidad and Tobago are scheduled to play Guyana in their next competitive fixture on Oct. 8, the start of their qualification campaign for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

  • COVID-19 pandemic to cost football N5.4trn this year – FIFA

    COVID-19 pandemic to cost football N5.4trn this year – FIFA

    The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to cost club football 14 billion dollars (about N5.4 trillion) this year worldwide, a leading official at global football body FIFA said on Wednesday.

    Olli Rehn, who heads the FIFA committee set up to tackle the effects of the pandemic, said the cost is around one third of its value.

    He added that FIFA, along with financial consultants, had estimated the club game to be worth between 40 billion dollars and 45 billion dollars worldwide.

    Rehn said the figure of 14 billion dollars was based on the current scenario, where football is slowly restarting after a three-month hiatus earlier this year.

    But the FIFA official stated that it would be a “different ball game” if the pandemic did not let up.

    “Football has been hit very hard by the coronavirus pandemic,” Rehn, a former EU commissioner and now governor of the Bank of Finland, said.

    “It has created plenty of turmoil at different levels with some professional clubs facing very serious difficulties.

    “I’m also very concerned about youth academies and lower division clubs.”

    Rehn said that football in South America had been especially hard hit, while Africa and Asia were also a concern.

    “It is a real danger that the good work that has been done developing football in Asia and Africa could be ruined. So, we want to soften the blow and maintain the development that has been done,” he said.

    FIFA has allocated 1.5 billion dollars to help tackle the effects of the pandemic and Rehn said 150 of the 211 member-associations had so far applied for funds.

    He said that, while football was slowly re-awakening, another downturn could not be ruled out.

    “The critical thing will be whether a vaccine will be developed and can be used, and that we have medical and other means to fully contain and tame the pandemic, and that is uncertain,” Rehn said.

    “We cannot rule out worse developments and that would be another ball game if the pandemic were to continue in a severe form next year. Now we are working on the basis of the current scenario.”

  • Blatter slams FIFA committee after probe closed against Infantino

    Blatter slams FIFA committee after probe closed against Infantino

    Former FIFA chief Joseph Blatter has criticised world football’s governing body after its ethics committee decided to drop a case against current President Gianni Infantino.

    “Nothing surprises me anymore,’’ Blatter, who was forced out in 2015 by the ethics committee, said on Thursday.

    According to him, FIFA’s controlling bodies are no longer independent under Gianni Infantino

    On Wednesday, FIFA said that Infantino will not face sanctions over alleged ethics breaches because no conduct violations had taken place.

    FIFA’s ethics committee had launched preliminary investigations into several alleged transgressions, including a FIFA-booked private flight from Suriname to Geneva, and secret meetings between Infantino and Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber.

    Report says Infantino is still subject to criminal investigations in Switzerland, based on the suspicion that he instigated top prosecutor Lauber to abuse his office.

  • Former FIFA President Blatter calls for Infantino’s suspension

    Former FIFA President Blatter calls for Infantino’s suspension

    Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter has called for the suspension of his successor, Gianni Infantino, by the global football body after criminal proceedings were opened against Infantino in Switzerland.

    Swiss authorities said on Thursday that proceedings had been launched against the current FIFA boss by a special prosecutor looking into meetings he had with the Swiss Attorney-General, Michael Lauber.

    Lauber and Infantino have, however, denied any wrongdoing.

    “For me, the situation is clear that the FIFA ethics committee has to open a case against Mr Infantino and so it has to suspend him,” Blatter, 84, said in a statement to Reuters.

    FIFA did not immediately reply to a request for comments on Blatter’s statement.

    Blatter, who was FIFA president for 17 years, himself was suspended and later banned by FIFA’s ethics committee after he became the subject of criminal proceedings in Switzerland in 2015.

    The investigation is still ongoing and Blatter, who has denied any wrongdoing, has not been charged.

    It centred on a payment of two million Swiss francs (1.6 million pounds) made in 2011 to then UEFA President Michel Platini with Blatter’s approval.

    Both Blatter and Platini have insisted the payment was for work the Frenchman had done a decade earlier.

    Blatter was banned for eight years, but the sentence was reduced to six on appeal, and Platini also for eight years, and reduced to four.

    Platini also denied any wrongdoing.

    The FIFA ethics committee is divided into an investigatory and an adjudicatory chamber, which since 2017 have been headed by Colombian Maria Claudia Rojas and Greek Vassilios Skouris respectively.

    They replaced Swiss Cornel Borbely and German Hans-Joachim Eckert who were ousted when the decision-making FIFA Council decided not to renew their mandates.

  • FIFA bans ex-top official for 10 years

    FIFA bans ex-top official for 10 years

    Soccer’s world governing body FIFA has banned Markus Kattner, a former leading official in the Zurich organisation, for 10 years.

    The sports governing body fined him one million Swiss francs ($1.06 million) after a probe into bonus payments.

    FIFA said in a statement on Tuesday that the investigation into Kattner covered various charges concerning bonus payments in relations to FIFA competitions that were paid to top management officials (including Mr Kattner).

    “The adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee has found Markus Kattner, former FIFA Deputy Secretary General and Acting Secretary General, guilty of conflicts of interest and having abused his position, in violation of the FIFA Code of Ethics.

    ”Various amendments to and extensions of employment contracts, reimbursement of private legal costs, and Kattner’s duties as an official”.

    FIFA said in June, 2016, that an internal investigation revealed that Kattner, FIFA’s former Secretary General Jerome Valcke and the organisation’s ex-President Sepp Blatter had received 79 million Swiss francs ($81 million) in compensation over five years, calling them “massive payouts”.

    Blatter, who led FIFA from 1998 until 2015, was banned from football for six years in February 2016, while Valcke is banned until 2028.

    The 45-year-old Kattner, who holds German and Swiss citizenship, joined FIFA as Director of Finance in 2003 and four years later became Deputy Secretary General.

    He became Acting Secretary General in September 2015, after the departure of Valcke, but was then fired in May 2016.

    According to the Ethics Committee’s final judgement, Kattner argued that the ethics process against him had not been fair and that he did not grant any bonus payments either to himself or to anyone else in the top management.

    The official can appeal the FIFA ban to the Court of Arbitration of Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.

  • Japan pulls out of hosting bid for Women’s World Cup in 2023

    Japan pulls out of hosting bid for Women’s World Cup in 2023

    Japan on Monday withdrew its bid to host the 2023 Women’s World Cup just three days before FIFA’s decision on the venue.

    FIFA had confirmed that Japanese Football Federation had pulled out of the running due to the Tokyo 2020 Games being delayed a year to commence on 2021 and the impact of the coronavirus crisis.

    The FIFA Executive Committee would therefore, choose on Thursday between a combined Australia/New Zealand bid, widely seen as favourite, and Colombia for the newly expanded 32-nation event.

    FIFA, while previously evaluating the bids, said Australia/New Zealand offered good options in sporting and general infrastructure, and would also appear to present the most favourable commercial proposition.”

    Colombia’s bid met minimum requirements but FIFA expressed doubt as to whether the necessary support and investment from local stakeholders would be forthcoming.

    The Asian Football Confederation (AFC), President Shaikh Salman Al-Khalifa announced his region’s backing for Australia/New Zealand after Japan’s withdrawal.

    “On behalf of the AFC, and AFC family, I will be supporting the Australia/New Zealand bid to host the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023.

    “I’m sure that I will be supported by all the AFC’s FIFA council members.

    “Not only is this a historic first cross-Confederation bid, with our close friends and neighbours from Oceania.

    “But most importantly, this is the most technically impressive of the bids that the Council must choose from on June 25 and we must be guided by the experts,” he said.

    Brazil also withdrew a bid just before the deadline for final submissions.

    The U.S. won the 2019 edition, out of the 24 teams, held in France.

  • Players allowed to play for 3 clubs in a season — FIFA

    Players allowed to play for 3 clubs in a season — FIFA

    Players will be allowed to play for up to three clubs, instead of two, during the course of a season, FIFA said.

    The global football body said this was a temporary rule change to alleviate the effects of the novel coronavirus pandemic on the sport.

    It added that the move was “to avoid any concerns regarding unemployed players.”

    FIFA also said it would allow national associations to open their transfer window for the 2020/2021 season before the current campaign has finished.

    It said the change was intended to allow clubs to complete the 2019/2020 season with their original squad.

    This is view of the fact that the current campaign had been extended from May into June and July as is the case in a number of European countries.

  • FIFA plans football match for fight against coronavirus

    FIFA plans football match for fight against coronavirus

    FIFA will organise a charity football match to raise funds for the battle against the coronavirus, the sport’s world governing body said on Monday.

    “It is our responsibility to demonstrate solidarity and continue to do everything we can to participate and support the efforts in the combat against the pandemic.

    “We have been active in raising awareness via several other campaigns,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said.

    According to him, FIFA has also contributed financially to this cause, “but now we commit ourselves to organise this global fundraising event when the health situation permits, even if this is only in some months’ time.

    “Funds raised will support the development, production and equitable global access to new coronavirus essential health technologies, including diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.”

    However, further details of the match were not given.

  • FIFA approves five substitutes per match

    FIFA approves five substitutes per match

    Teams will be allowed up to five substitutions per match, instead of the usual three, as a temporary measure to help cope with potential fixture congestion in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak, FIFA have confirmed.

    The change in the rules will be allowed in all competitions which are due to finish by the end of this year and it will be up to individual competition organisers whether to implement it.

    FIFA also said that competitions currently using the video replay system (VAR) would be free to discontinue its use on restarting.

    Football’s rule-making body IFAB agreed to make the change to the rules “based on a proposal received from FIFA seeking to protect player welfare”, the statement added.

    FIFA added that, to avoid disruption to the game, each team would have to make their substitutions in a maximum of three slots plus the halftime interval.

    Football has been at a standstill since mid-March but many leagues and federations are still hoping to complete the season. To do so they would have to cram fixtures into a shorter period than usual once games re-start.

    “The temporary amendment comes into force with immediate effect, and has been made as matches may be played in a condensed period in different weather conditions, both of which could have impacts on player welfare,” FIFA said.

    “The IFAB and FIFA will determine at a later stage whether this temporary amendment would need to be extended further (e.g. for competitions due to be completed in 2021).”