Offensive Push: FIFA Facing Challenge In Way Sport Is Run

Johansson Looking For More Power To Be Shifted To Confederations

One of soccer’s “leading administrators,” speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that FIFA “is facing a possible challenge to the way the game is being run,” according to Darren Ennis of REUTERS. The move could result in a “dilution of FIFA’s powers in enforcing their decisions globally.” The administrator said FIFA’s six regional confederations “will propose that FIFA is run by an executive [committee] purely made up from the six confederations which will be left to run the game in their own areas as they see fit. It is time for the confederations to have more say in how they run the game in their own regions.” Ennis noted the issue “has been brewing since earlier this year,” when UEFA President Lennart Johansson told FIFA President Sepp Blatter “of their intentions.” The administrator said under the new proposals, FIFA “will still be in charge of the game at [the] international level, such as running the World Cup, and so the revenue from that will still be divided evenly. But each confederation is different and needs to be treated as such. It cannot be just one size fits all.” Ennis noted Blatter and IOC President Jacques Rogge last month wrote the European Commission and EU sports ministers “protesting about proposed changes to the way [the] sport will be governed in the EU.” The pair said in the letter that the “governance of the sport should be left to soccer’s own rule makers” (REUTERS, 10/16).

BONUS BABIES: The ’07 women’s FIFA World Cup champion will earn a $1M bonus. FIFA said that it will give a total of $6M in bonuses to the 16 participating teams in China (USA TODAY, 10/17).