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International Football

Football Notes: FIFA Funding To CONCACAF To Be Unfrozen

FIFA's funding to the scandal-hit North American football confederation CONCACAF "will be unfrozen," but the $10M will only be released to CONCACAF when "further conditions are met." FIFA halted payments to CONCACAF as well as CONMEBOL while "seeking greater assurances about how money was being spent in the confederations." Six recent presidents of CONCACAF or CONMEBOL have been indicted on corruption charges in the U.S. and FIFA "has to be certain that its funding will not be abused again." FIFA's audit officials will also assess CONCACAF's risk of "being charged in the U.S. corruption investigation and check the organization's latest accounts" (AP, 5/10).

RENEW THE FEUDLa Liga President Javier Tebas has "renewed his old feud with Angel Maria Villar," saying that he "hopes the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) chief becomes head of UEFA because it will mean him leaving his current position." Villar has been acting president of European football's ruling body "since Michel Platini was provisionally suspended in October." He is "now expected to run for election as UEFA's permanent leader after Platini resigned." Tebas "has long been a critic of Villar." Tebas said, "The president of the federation will have my total support to be president of UEFA. It could be very good if Angel Maria Villar would dedicate himself exclusively to Europe and someone else lead Spanish football" (REUTERS, 5/10).

GET IT TOGETHER: FIFA warned the "troubled" Nepal FA (ANFA) to "reinstate suspended executive committee members and immediately call a congress or risk intervention" of world football's governing body. In a letter, acting FIFA Secretary General Markus Kattner said that ANFA "had failed to act" according to its own statutes and should this issue persist it could establish a FIFA "normalization committee." Former ANFA President Ganesh Thapa was banned in November for 10 years and fined 20,000 Swiss francs "for a series of acts of misconduct." Members of ANFA's exec committee, "including two former vice presidents, who were critical of Thapa and had taken the issue to FIFA last year, have been dismissed for allegedly missing meetings" (REUTERS, 5/11).

FOOTBALL BRIEFS ...
Indonesian
Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi said that the country has "lifted sanctions on its national football body the PSSI." Indonesia’s sports ministry "froze the PSSI and the Southeast Asian nation’s football competition following a row over which teams could play in the top league." But FIFA suspended Indonesia last May for "government interference, a move which bars its teams from international competition" (AFP, 5/11).

FIFA has "suspended the Benin Football Federation (FBF) from global football after a court ruling in the country blocked upcoming elections." A FIFA statement said, "The Benin Football Association (FBF) was suspended with immediate effect due to a recent injunction by a local judicial court which impeded the holding of the due election." A court ruling in Benin on May 4 "prevented the FBF from holding presidential elections and the suspension will be lifted only once a new Executive Committee has been installed" (BBC, 5/11).

The introduction of video assistant referees (VAR) "will be given the green light early next year." England, Holland, Italy and 13 other nations meet to discuss video technology in Amsterdam next week, "after which countries and competitions have the chance to sign up for the first wave of experiments involving VAR." There will be “offline testing,” meaning no contact with the referee during the game, from late this year (LONDON TIMES, 5/11).

The Spanish Football League (LFP) "has studied a possible change to the format of the Copa del Rey." The project "would consist of turning the semifinals and final into a Final Four, in the style of the Euroleague's Final Four." The suggested format change "came about during an extraordinary assembly in Madrid last week, with the idea of four teams traveling to the same city to compete in the semifinals in one week, with the final over the weekend" (SPORT, 5/10).

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