Messi demands retraction over false summer tour accusations

Messi friends

By Andrew Warshaw
December 17 – Already embroiled in a tax evasion case that has clouded his image, Lionel Messi, through his representatives, has fiercely denied allegations in a Spanish newspaper that his father is suspected of being involved in helping to launder Colombian drug money.

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Soccerex Rio cancelled in war of words over money and safety

rio2

By Andrew Warshaw
November 6 – The last minute cancellation of the Soccerex convention scheduled to be held in Rio later this month has sparked a war of words between the convention organiser Duncan Revie and Rio de Janeiro’s state government. Revie blames the government for pulling out due to civil unrest, the government says that the situation results from a commercial revenue shortfall.

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FIFA’s Football for Health spreads through the Americas

1443719 FULL-LND

By Paul Nicholson 
October 22 – FIFA chief medical officer Jiri Dvorak has announced an extension of the Football for Health programme in the CONCACAF region with three new pilot initiatives to be undertaken in countries from the three language groups in the region – English, Spanish and French. The markets have still to be chosen.

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Exclusive: Rio lab to learn its fate early next month

Doping control

By David Owen
August 16 – The UFRJ Rio de Janeiro doping control laboratory should find out early next month if it faces possible revocation of its accreditation, insideworldfootball has learnt. Under the International Standard for Laboratories (ISL), a facility whose accreditation has been revoked is ineligible to perform testing of doping control samples for any testing authority.

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Autopsy finds Ecuador’s Benitez had pre-existing heart condition

Christian Benitez

By Paul Nicholson
August 13 – Ecuadorian striker Christian Benitez who died in Qatar a day after playing his first game for the Al Jaish club on July 29, had a congential heart ailment that had gone undetected in numerous physical examinations. The 27-year-old Ecuadorian striker’s death had added fuel to the debate over whether to switch the 2022 Qatar World Cup to winter, partly so as not to endanger players’ health. However,

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Rio’s doping control lab suspended again

WADA

By David Owen
August 9 – The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has suspended the accreditation of the UFRJ doping control laboratory in Rio de Janeiro just 10 months before the 2014 FIFA World Cup is scheduled to get under way in Brazil. The move – likely to cause acute embarrassment to Brazilian authorities – comes less than a year after the laboratory, also known as Ladetec, was reinstated following a partial suspension from January 2012.

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