Qatar's FA said on Saturday that "it fully backed" VP Saoud Al-Mohannadi, a day after a FIFA investigator "recommended he be banned from the game" for at least two and a half years over allegations of "non-cooperation with an inquiry." A FIFA statement did not "detail what the inquiry concerned but said it was not linked" to the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar --- one of the targets of "a series of wider investigations into corruption within FIFA" that have rocked the body since last year. The investigator also recommended a 20,000 Swiss franc ($20,400) fine against Al-Mohannadi (REUTERS, 8/27).
Kuwait’s "troubled football landscape has been plunged into further disarray" after the entire board of directors of the national federation "was sacked for unspecified financial irregularities along with that of the country’s Olympic committee." Kuwait’s General Commission for Sports announced it had named a new head and deputy head for both organizations (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 8/26).
Sources said that Brasileiro side São Paulo players Wesley and Michel Bastos "were reportedly among those injured when hundreds of fans invaded the team's practice and attacked several fans." The club is currently in 11th place in the league and "has only won one of its last nine games" (GOAL, 8/28).