fifa Page 9 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The U.S., Canada, And Mexico Will Host The 2026 World Cup
While the rest of the world’s hatred of Donald Trump runs deep, it apparently doesn’t run quite deep enough to deprive the U.S. of hosting the World Cup. After a bit of a scare there for a while, today FIFA voted on who would host the 2026 World Cup and the joint bid by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico ...

World Cup Referee Caught Accepting $600 From An Undercover Journalist<em></em>
Footage from a documentary on corruption in African soccer, shared exclusively with the BBC, shows World Cup assistant referee Adel Range Marwa accepting a $600 gift from an undercover journalist posing as a Ghanaian soccer official. Marwa, the only referee from Kenya set to participate in the Worl...

Your Guide To The CONIFA World Cup, The World Cup For Not-Quite-Countries<em></em>
LONDON — “We have nothing against FIFA,” CONIFA General Secretary Sascha Düerkop told a tittering press corps on Wednesday. We were all sitting in the basement of a student accommodation block in North London. “They are very great to learn how not to do things.” ...

World Cup Construction Workers Go Months At A Time Without A Day Off
A consultant group serving as the “External Compliance Monitor” for the 2022 FIFA World Cup released its second annual report on Wednesday detailing labor conditions at construction sites in Qatar. The tone of the accompanying press release is positive, touting “a new spirit” and labor law reforms (...

America's World Cup Hosting Bid Might Fail Because Everyone Hates Donald Trump
In a blessed confluence of somewhat unexpected events, Donald Trump’s presidency has thus far avoided bringing permanent ruin to the country and the world. The sheer odiousness of his status as president of the U.S. does, however, appear at risk of ruining this country’s shot at hosting the 2026 Wor...

Jury Finds Two Ex-Soccer Leaders Guilty Of Conspiracy In FIFA Trial
After six days of deliberations, jurors in the FIFA corruption trial returned today with a partial verdict. According to multiple reports, José Maria Marin and Juan Ángel Napout were found guilty of racketeering conspiracy in federal court in Brooklyn. Marin also was found guilty of money laundering...

FIFA Medical Officer Fired While Investigating Russian Doping, Which Is Totally Just A Coincidence
Jiri Dvorak was once FIFA’s chief medical officer. For 22 years he worked for soccer’s governing body, and in that time he led programs that researched injuries, sought ways to prevent them, and investigated the use of performance enhancing drugs by players. Dvorak was fired without warning or expla...

Hope Solo Says Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter Groped Her At Awards Show
In an interview with Portuguese paper Expresso, former USWNT keeper Hope Solo says she was sexually harassed by former FIFA president Sepp Blatter before the two presented an award together at the 2013 Ballon d’Or ceremony....

Megan Rapinoe Calls FIFA "Old, Male, And Stale" After Awards Controversy
Following the bizarre nomination of an amateur player for FIFA’s female Player of the Year award, USWNT and Seattle Reign midfielder Megan Rapinoe has criticized soccer’s governing body, calling them “old, male and stale” in an interview with BBC....

Ghana Effectively Knocked Out Of World Cup Qualifying By Bullshit Offside Call
Raphael Dwamena’s match-winning goal with 15 seconds remaining in added time against Uganda came off the board as South African referee Daniel Bennett inexplicably ruled Dwamena to be offside, effectively eliminating Ghana from World Cup contention. ...

U.S./Mexico/Canada World Cup Bid Cuts Host City List To 32
On the same day that Brazilian federal police made early-morning corruption arrests of three Olympic committee executives, including the head of the Rio 2016 Committee—a good reminder that people do financially benefit from hosting major international sporting events, just never the people that are ...

FIFA Wants To Know Who Dele Alli Was Flipping The Bird To<em></em>
It’s a little hard to summarize this one, so I’ll start with just the facts and explain later: Late on during Monday’s England-Slovakia World Cup qualifier, Dele Alli raised his middle finger at ... someone, and now FIFA is looking into it to determine if the target of Alli’s bird was someone who co...

FIFA Orders World Cup Qualifier To Be Replayed After Referee Banned For Life
Last November, South Africa beat Senegal 2-1 in a World Cup qualifying match, their only win through four qualifying games. However, a few months after the game, Joseph Lamptey, the referee in charge, was found guilty of “unlawfully influencing match results” and was subsequently banned for life. He...

FIFA Executive Chuck Blazer Has Died
Chuck Blazer, an influential and controversial figure in the history of American soccer, has died, as first reported by Jack Bell and confirmed by Andrew Das of the New York Times. He was 72....

French Guiana Says Fuck It, Starts Ineligible Player In Gold Cup
In last night’s Gold Cup match between French Guiana and Honduras, former Chelsea winger Florent Malouda played the whole 90 minutes for the national team of his native French Guiana, despite having been ruled ineligible before the tournament because he had already capped 80 times for the French nat...

How Qatar Used Its Youth Soccer Academy To Influence The World Cup Bidding Process
The Aspire Academy’s listed mission statement is to “develop well educated sports champions” and “foster Qatar society realizing a healthy, active lifestyle.” The Qatari government founded Aspire in 2003, building a state-of-the-art sports complex in Doha with the aim of identifying and training ath...

FIFA: Computer-Destroying Russian Bid Committee Did Nothing Corrupt
Today brought the release of the 430-page report on World Cup corruption that FIFA fought to keep secret for nearly three years. One section of that report details the FIFA Ethics Committee’s investigation into potential corruption by the Russian bid committee that secured the 2018 World Cup. The re...

FIFA Finally Releases Full World Cup Corruption Report
Nearly three years after it was completed, FIFA has at long last released in full the internal report on alleged corruption relating to the bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups that it had previously been so determined to keep secret. This didn’t happen from any change of heart on FIFA’s part, natu...

Report: FIFA Is Investigating The Entire Russian World Cup Team For Doping
The Mail on Sunday today reported that FIFA is investigating the Russian 2014 World Cup soccer team for doping—literally every member of Russia’s 2014 World Cup team:...

Russia Has A Lot To Prove At The Confederations Cup
The start of the Confederations Cup is essentially the first day of Advent before the Christmas that is the World Cup. Played in the World Cup’s host country the year before and consisting of 8 teams—the champion of each continent, the host, and the defending World Cup champs—this tournament is unim...