FC Barcelona extends UNICEF partnership until 2020

Barca and UNicef

By Mark Baber
February 26 – Barcelona have extended their agreement with UNICEF to 2020, continuing a key relationship which has endeared the Catalan club to supporters around the world and helped them ride out the storm over their breaking the regulations aimed at preventing the child trafficking of young footballers.

Read more …

Costa Rica’s Li meets bail conditions but US takes several pounds of flesh

Eduardo Li

By Mark Baber
February 26 – After nine months in jail, including nine weeks in the notorious New York Metropolitan Detention Centre – known as ‘Brooklyn’s Abu Ghraib’ – former FIFA executive committee member-elect, CONCACAF executive committee member and Costa Rican Football Federation president Eduardo Li was finally granted bail after a posting a bond of $300,000 in cash, $800,000 in US properties and the salaries of nine supporters worth over $900,000.

Read more …

FIFA vote through reform proposals with huge majority

FIFA sign

By Andrew Warshaw and Paul Nicholson in Zurich
February 26 – Within minutes of being urged not to waste a one-off and essential opportunity to clean up their organisation of years of scandal and disgrace, FIFA’s global membership approved a radical new set of reform proposals by a huge majority today – but not with the unanimous backing the architects of the package might have wished for.

Read more …

World League Forum is born and immediately heads for the top table

Frederic Thiriez

By Paul Nicholson in Zurich
February 26 – FIFA found out yesterday that it had a new stakeholder. The World League Forum officially announced its formation with French Football League President Frédéric Thiriez (pictured), saying: “We want to participate constructively in the reconstruction of FIFA.” The new groups aim is a seat on FIFA’s new governing council.

Read more …

FIFA’s day of reckoning. Big day of big decisions in Zurich’s last chance saloon

iwf raid2

By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
February 25 – Deja vu, groundhog day. Same city, same conference hall. The difference of course is that this time the great survivor has no longer survived. Nevertheless the pantomime, even without its most notorious villain, goes on. The question is, which of the actors will emerge victorious? Anyone who tells you for definite that they know who is going to win the FIFA presidential election Friday afternoon and by exactly how many votes –

Read more …

CONCACAF takes big reform step forward as rehab begins for real

Concacaf flag

By Paul Nicholson in Zurich
February 25 – Having said all the ‘right things’, and then voted the ‘right way’, CONCACAF’s member associations will now proceed to, hopefully, ‘doing the right thing’. A big step forward was taken by the confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean and its member associations at their extraordinary congress in Zurich where they voted unanimously to approve a wide ranging package of reforms.

Read more …