By Nick Harris 17 October 2010 As a Fifa investigation gets underway into reports in the Sunday Times (subscription, BBC story here) that two Fifa Executive Committee members were apparently prepared to sell their 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting votes, the scope of the inquiry is likely to move beyond the responses of those ExCo […]
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Fifa ExCo member Hammam: ‘Best bids may not win 2018 and 2022 World Cups’
By Alex Miller at the Leaders in Football Conference, London 7 October 2010 Mohamed bin Hammam, the Fifa ExCo member from Qatar and one of football’s major political figures, has said today that a lack of clear judging criteria may mean Fifa fails to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to the nations with […]
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David Beckham to launch football festival in home of Fifa power broker Jack Warner as race to host 2018 World Cup hots up
20 September 2010 The statement below was released today by the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation, announcing that David Beckham will launch a football festival in Trinidad this weekend. This highlights the influence of Beckham as a tool in the bid for England to win the right to stage the 2018 World Cup. A key […]
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Fifa inspectors praise 2018 bid, send best to PM, SamCam and Flo-Ro Endellion
By Nick Harris 26 August 2010 Fifa’s inspection of England’s proposed facilities for the 2018 World Cup ended today in praise, and with reassurance that not seeing a Premier League game and not getting to meet the Prime Minister would not harm England’s chances of staging the event. David Cameron is on holiday, and his […]
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Why Fabio Capello might not cost as much as £12m to sack; and why Fifa’s excuses on technology are a bit rich
** THE SPORTS LAWYER is actually a posse of Britain’s brightest lawyers, from theSport & Media team at UK law firm, Thomas Eggar, who will be contributing features, analysis and insight on a regular basis on the key sports law issues. In TSL’s latest column, Chris Bain, employment law specialist, looks at Fabio Capello’s contract, while Andrew […]
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IN VIDEO: As Fifa defend Jabulani ball, Chelsea’s Frank Lampard and Petr Cech praise it
By Pete Wilson 15 June 2010 Football’s world govering body Fifa has defended the Adidas Jabulani ball today, saying it has not received a single official complaint from the Football Associations of any of the 32 competing nations at the World Cup. Adidas has also defended the ball again, with spokesman Thomas Schaikvan saying: “I wouldn’t […]
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Fifa’s ‘class’: a posh box for the World Cup, and Naomi Campbell
By Nick Harris 1 June 2010 For an organisation that purports to represent the interests of everyone in the global game, Fifa has a habit of appearing rather elitist at times. Its regulations that the World Cup trophy can be touched only by “heads of state and former winners” hardly speaks of a people’s game, […]
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Beckham stars for England as 2018 bid team talk Fifa’s language: cash
By Nick Harris 14 May 2010 England’s bid for the right to stage the 2018 World Cup was blessed with the stardust that is David Beckham in Zurich today as the nine bid teams seeking the 2018 and/or 2022 events began the push in earnest to win the game’s biggest prize from Fifa. Beckham, who […]
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Fifa sends clear anti-bribery message to 2018 World Cup bidding countries
By Nick Harris 16 March 2010 Fifa has launched a preemptive strike against those who might seek to corrupt the bidding process to stage the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments with bribes by writing to remind all the bidding nations “that they have signed regulations to respect fair play in this contest”. The World […]
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Fifa’s inclusive message mocked by its exclusive trophy rules
12 March 2010 One of the more preposterous facts that’s come to our attention this week is that Fifa says the World Cup trophy can be touched only by “heads of state and former winners”. So much for the people’s game, eh? This titbit came to our intention in this CNN video, which features an […]
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