Britain's Prince William has urged the FA to reform its governance structure to "avoid falling short of modern standards." The Duke of Cambridge, who is the FA's president, said, "Our governance structure is in danger of falling short of modern standards of best practice. As the country's national sport, we ought to be leading the way. There is a wind of change blowing through global sporting governance and we need to ensure we do not get left behind" (REUTERS, 4/7).
FOOTBALL BRIEFS ...
Under "suspicion in the fallout from the global offshore accounts investigation," Uruguayan lawyer Juan Pedro Damiani resigned as a FIFA ethics judge. Damiani was "already under investigation by FIFA ethics prosecutors after being identified on Sunday in a vast leak of data" from a Panama law firm specializing in tax avoidance schemes which can be exploited for money laundering. Damiani's formal resignation from the FIFA court was confirmed in a statement from the judging chamber without giving details (AP, 4/6).
FIFA has fined the Kuwait Football Federation 30,000 Swiss francs ($31,500) for failing to play two World Cup qualifying matches last month. Kuwait has been suspended by FIFA and unable to play since October "because of government interference in how the federation is run." FIFA says its disciplinary panel also reprimanded the Kuwaiti body for forfeiting games at home to Laos and at South Korea in March (AP, 4/6).
IN SPAIN: The second leg of Barcelona's Champions League quarterfinal vs. Atlético Madrid, which is scheduled for next Wednesday at Madrid's Vicente Calderón, "has been declared high-risk." Barcelona won the first leg of the quarterfinal 2-1 (AS, 4/7). ... Elche, Spain's Universidad Miguel Hernández announced that it canceled a sports law presentation scheduled for April 21, when Spanish Football League (LFP) President Javier Tebas was scheduled to give a speech. UMH said that the decision "was due to a lack of people who had registered." But "another possible factor is fans of La Liga side Elche being upset with Tebas over the club's administrative relegation" (AS, 4/7).
