02 Page 80 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

U.S. Olympic Committee Selects Boston To Bid For The 2024 Olympics
The U.S. Olympic Committee announced Thursday that it had selected Boston to represent the United States in bidding for the 2024 Olympics. Boston's bid beat out those from Washington, San Francisco/Bay Area, and Los Angeles. Boston still has a long way to go, of course, before it can actually be cho...

FIFA Investigator Blasts Report Based On His Own Investigation
As expected, the report based on FIFA's probe has largely cleared Russia, Qatar, and all active FIFA officials of claims of corruption in the World Cup bidding process. But here's one no one saw coming: the man who actually conducted the investigation says the report is "incomplete and erroneous,"...

Spoiler Alert: After FIFA Probe, Qatar Gets To Keep Its World Cup
The summary of a year-long investigation into the bidding process for the next two World Cups will not be released until tomorrow, but the gist has already leaked via the English press. Basically: everyone involved was corrupt, but the 2018 and 2022 tournaments will not be taken away from Russia or ...

Qatar Sports Minister Says He <em>Probably</em> Won't Imprison Gay Soccer Fans
It's hard to keep track of all the reasons it's so fucked up that FIFA decided to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, so here's one you might not have been aware of: It is illegal to be gay in Qatar, and the country's sports minister isn't willing to give anyone a straight answer on whether gay peopl...

Report: Qatar Using North Korean Slave Labor To Build For World Cup
It seemed like we had reached a point where the organizers of the 2022 World Cup couldn't possibly get more cartoonishly evil, what with the ITUC estimating that migrant worker-fueled construction would kill more people than 9/11, and then another report estimating that 1,000 migrant workers had alr...

FIFA's Corruption Report Is Being Kept Secret For Very Dumb Reasons
Former U.S. attorney Michael J. Garcia finished his investigation into allegations of bribery in the bidding process for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups earlier this year, and he has made it known that he would like the report to be made public. The report is currently being kept secret by Hans-Jo...

Old Man In Sweater Knocks Virile Young Man Right On His Ass
That dude's confidence is now toast, because an old man in street clothes just handled him without breaking a sweat....

Report: To Escape Qatari Heat, World Cup Matches Might Start At 1 A.M.
Despite overwhelming evidence of corruption, it doesn't look like Qatar will be losing its 2022 World Cup hosting privileges. Which still leaves that little problem of how to play in the heart of a Middle Eastern summer. One new proposal involves pushing back start times into the night and early mor...

Seriously, Nobody Wants To Host The 2022 Olympics
Norway's ruling party just voted against funding Oslo's 2022 Winter Olympics bid, essentially forcing the city to drop out of the race. It's just the latest in a long series of cities and countries who have given an emphatic "no" to hosting the Olympic quagmire....

FIFA's Independent Investigator Wants His Corruption Report Released
FIFA hired an outside investigator to conduct a probe into allegations of bribery in the bidding process for the Russia and Qatar World Cups. That investigator, a former U.S. federal prosecutor, has finally submitted his findings to FIFA with the expectation that they would eventually be released to...

One FIFA Executive Thinks Qatar Will Lose The 2022 World Cup
Everything about the 2022 World Cup in Qatar—from the scores of migrant workers who have died building stadiums and infrastructure, to the accusations of corruption, to the scorching heat that will make games unplayable—is shaping up to be a disaster. It is so bad that even one of the Bond-villain t...

2022 World Cup Final To Be Played In City That's Currently Not Real
The 2022 Qatar World Cup continues to be a disastrous exercise for the world's most beautiful game. In addition to the deadly slave labor and oppressive heat, a CNN article from Monday points out that the city expected to host the final, Lusail, still needs to be built: ...

Workers Who Built Qatar's World Cup HQ Haven't Been Paid In A Year
The situation for migrant workers in Qatar, which one international organization believes will result in more deaths than 9/11, doesn't appear to be getting any better. The Guardian, which has been all over this story, has a new report on migrant workers who have not received payment in over a year ...

FIFA's Report On World Cup Bidding Corruption Won't Be Made Public
We all had a grand old time in Brazil, didn't we? But now FIFA has to stop ignoring the fact that many (most?) observers believe the bidding process for the forthcoming Russia and Qatar World Cups was fixed, or at least flawed. In response to the clamoring for an update, FIFA has released a statemen...

Three Cities That Didn't Drop Out All Named 2022 Olympic Host Finalists
The 2022 Winter Olympics will be held in either Oslo, Norway, Beijing, China, or Almaty, Kazakhstan. Trimming the list of potential host cities to three finalists was easy enough for the IOC, because the other five all decided they don't want the Olympics. (And Oslo is expected to drop out within a ...

How To Beat Portugal: A Blueprint From 2002
On Sunday, the United States will take the field against Portugal in Manaus, where, despite a dramatic victory over Ghana and Portugal's feeble showing against Germany, the Yanks will find themselves as slight underdogs....

Qatar Soccer Head Says World Cup Bidding Was Fair
Today's Guardian publishes an op-ed by Hamad Bin Khalifa Bin Ahmed Al-Thani, president of the Qatar Football Association, in which he contends that Qatar deserved to host the 2022 World Cup. It's the sort of thing that begs you to scroll to the comments first, just to see the readers catalogue omis...

Host Sites For A 2022 U.S. World Cup That Doesn't Exist–Yet
ESPN Deportes' Jorge Ramos caused a bit of a stir last week by reporting that FIFA put U.S. Soccer on standby for the 2022 World Cup, should Qatar be stripped of its hosting privileges. While this report has been disputed and denied up and down, America's vast sports infrastructure would make it a s...

Sepp Blatter Says We're All Racist For Pointing Out FIFA's Corruption
While addressing FIFA's African and Asian confederations on Monday, FIFA president Sepp Blatter seized the opportunity to mount a defense against the most recent and damning allegations that Qatar bribed its way to the 2022 World Cup. He did this by accusing all of his critics of being racist....

FIFA Vice President Would Support A Re-Vote On 2022 Host
On the heels of The Sunday Times report detailing Mohamed bin Hammam's successful campaign to purchase the 2022 World Cup for Qatar, FIFA vice president Jim Boyce told BBC Radio 5 he would support a re-vote for a new host. Boyce says the claims in the Times report would have to be proven, but if the...