The 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the only major scheduled football event left unchanged after this year's calendar was wrecked by the coronavirus, has become the focus of fresh FIFA corruption allegations after the release of a new US Department of Justice indictment. According to the prosecutors, representatives working for Russia and Qatar bribed FIFA executive committee officials to swing votes in the crucial decision of world football's governing body.
Former Brazil striker Ronaldo has been invited to take a leading 2014 World Cup role and a formal announcement is expected in the coming days, a local organising committee (LOC) source told Reuters on Tuesday.
FIFA has dismissed allegations made by a British Broadcasting Corporation programme against three executive committee members, saying Swiss authorities had already investigated and the case had been closed.
Brazil great Pele played down his feud with Brazilian FA chief Ricardo Teixeira on Tuesday, saying the most important thing was that his country stage a memorable World Cup in 2014.
Ex-FIFA President Joao Havelange and his former son-in-law Ricardo Teixeira took multi-million dollar bribes on World Cup deals, Swiss prosecutors said in a legal document released on Wednesday, dealing a fresh blow to world soccer's ruling body.
Brazil have played four international friendlies since the World Cup in Europe.
The Brazilian football association (CBF) formally submitted its plans for staging the 2014 World Cup on Tuesday but kept the details close to its chest.
Brazilian police began investigating allegations of corruption in its soccer industry on Thursday, prompted by the arrests of top officials at world soccer body FIFA in a US bribery probe.
German football great Franz Beckenbauer on Wednesday became the latest FIFA official named as under investigation, along with FIFA vice-president Angel Maria Villar and several other former executive committee members.
US prosecutors may find it difficult to get a number of the people they have charged in the FIFA bribery scandal to face the music.
Ex-South American soccer chief in FIFA scandal under house arrest.
In an indictment released by the Department of Justice on Wednesday, Hawilla was one of four convicted defendants who helped US investigators build their case against 14 top global soccer officials and sports marketing executives accused of orchestrating more than $150 million in bribes and kickbacks.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
History is not likely to be so kind to the 79-year-old Swiss, who only recently compared himself to a mountain goat that keeps "going and going and going and cannot be stopped." Instead, his name is likely to be associated with the succession of corruption scandals which occurred on his watch.
The United States Soccer Federation said in a statement on the new charges that its hosting of the 2016 Copa America Centenario tournament would go ahead as planned.
Nike Inc and some other big international companies face a grilling over their powerful role in Brazilian soccer.
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