Recently-elected FIFA President Gianni Infantino was told on Monday that "women are part of the solution" to the problems that have plagued football's scandal-plagued world governing body, according to Brian Homewood of REUTERS.
FIFA exec committee member Moya Dodd also suggested to Infantino that women's football "was an untapped asset as the federation looks to boost its revenues." Infantino, attending a women's football and leadership conference held at FIFA HQ, agreed that "gender equality needed to be a priority for his administration." FIFA "passed a raft of reforms which include allocating at least six places on the new 36-member FIFA council, which will replace the executive committee, to women." Infantino:
"I don't like to impose diktats or obligations but sometimes we need to have targets, and we need to work on having more women on the FIFA Council" (REUTERS, 3/7).
CORRUPTION PROBE: REUTERS' David Ingram wrote U.S. authorities "charged another individual in their sweeping investigation of corruption" in football and FIFA, bringing the number of known people and entities charged in the case to 42.
A federal judge in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Monday "unsealed papers saying that a defendant named Miguel Trujillo was charged with a felony on March 4." Trujillo's case "is related to publicly known" football-corruption cases.
However, the papers "did not disclose who Trujillo is or what the exact charges are that he faces." A prosecutor in the case "declined to comment, and it was not immediately known who would be representing Trujillo" (REUTERS, 3/7). The AP reported Switzerland's justice ministry said that former Venezuela Football Federation President Rafael Esquivel "has been extradited to face bribery charges" in the U.S. in the widening FIFA case.
The Swiss office said two American police officers "took charge of him in Zurich and accompanied him on the flight to New York."
Esquivel "should appear in federal court in Brooklyn within 24 hours" (AP, 3/8).
ITALIAN MATCH-FIXING: REUTERS' Joshua Franklin wrote FIFA "extended worldwide sanctions imposed on 23 players and officials in Italy over match-fixing and illegal betting between 2014 and 2015."
Italian authorities had "already imposed bans on taking part" in any football-related activities (REUTERS, 3/8).
