News

Teixeira heads for safe haven of Andorra and out of Brazilian reach

Ricardo Teixeira

By Paul Nicholson
September 2 – Ricardo Teixeira, the former FIFA executive committee member and head of the Brazilian football federation (CBF) for 23 years, has applied and, according to reports, been granted residency in Andorra. The landlocked micro-state in the Pyrennees, bordered by Spain and France, does not have an extradition treaty with Brazil, effectively putting Teixeira out of the reach of any potential Brazilian court summons.

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FIRA Robot World Cup kicks off with humanoids facing extermination

robot world cup

By Mark Baber
August 27 = The world-renowned Federation of International Robot-Soccer Association (FIRA) Roboworld Cup kicked off on Monday in Malaysia, with a hundred teams from universities around the world competing in categories including the Micro-Robot Soccer Tournament (MiroSot), the Simulated Robot Soccer Tournament (SimuroSot) and the Humanoid Robot Soccer Tournament (HuroCup).

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Exclusive: Boyce backs Blatter’s call for Winter 2022

Jim Boyce

By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
July 22 – Britain’s FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce (pictured) says he will support moving the 2022 Qatar World Cup to winter because it makes “common sense” for everyone involved, not least the players. Boyce is anxious to avoid getting into an argument with the English Premier League – which steadfastly opposes a winter tournament – but is backing FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s call for a switch.

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Libyans ban Women’s team from playing at Berlin tournament

Libyan muslim cleric

By Mark Baber
July 22 – The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has stopped its Women’s Team from participating in a tournament in Berlin, Germany, the organisers discovered as the team was due to fly in. The federation claims the reason behind the ban is to do with Ramadan, but the ban has been linked to threats and opposition to women’s football from Islamic extremists.

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Players to get panic buttons to report match fixers

match fixing

By Andrew Warshaw
June 28 – Players who are approached to fix matches or who suspect games are being rigged will be able to push a ‘panic button’ on their mobile phones to report their suspicions. The plan has been devised with European funding so that footballers across the continent can download an anti-match-fixing app to their phones and will be given a password to blow the whistle on fellow professionals via a red button.

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Doping agency WADA warns of cuts unless Government funding rises

John Fahey1

By David Owen
June 27 – The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will be forced to scale back its activities if Governments are not prepared to stump up more cash, chairman John Fahey (pictured) has warned. Writing in an annual report that reveals a 60%-plus advance in WADA’s annual deficit, Fahey describes limited funding as WADA’s “biggest constraint ahead”.

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FIFA reform process backed by Olympic frontrunner

thomas bach

By David Owen
June 9 – The frontrunner in the race for the most powerful post in world sport has backed FIFA’s reform process, saying world football’s governing body is “on the right track”. Thomas Bach, a German ex-fencer and Olympic gold medallist, is one of six candidates vying to succeed Jacques Rogge, as President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the organisation behind the Olympic Games.

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Pieth: progress would have been greater if politics hadn’t ‘hijacked’ the agenda

Mark Pieth

By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent, in Mauritius
June 3 – Mark Pieth, the Swiss governance advisor whose strongly-worded intervention at last week’s FIFA congress put a spanner in the works of Sepp Blatter’s reform measures, has taken another swipe at the FIFA president, this time accusing both him and UEFA boss Michel Platini of jointly “hijacking” the entire process in Mauritius for political gain.

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