Swiss authorities "have searched more houses as part of their criminal investigation into suspected corruption" in world football and have added former FIFA General Secretary Urs Linsi "to their list of suspects." The Office of the Attorney General said, "The measures were carried out as part of the investigations relating to a payment of 6.7 million (5.68 million pound) made in April 2005 by the German Football Association (Deutscher Fussball-Bund, DFB) to Robert Louis-Dreyfus." That payment which went via FIFA, according to German authorities, to the late adidas boss Dreyfus, "was a return of a loan made years earlier when Germany was bidding to host the 2006 World Cup" (REUTERS, 11/30).
Gambian football club Banjul United "is facing an uncertain future" after the "departure of half their number on people-smuggling boats" to Europe. One by one, some 25 squad members of the tiny West African nation's top team "have left, crossing the Sahara and the Mediterranean in the hope of finding fortune" in Europe’s top leagues. Meanwhile, the performance of the Capital Boys, as the club is nicknamed, "has suffered." Having lost all its best players, Banjul United "was relegated from Division One to Division Two last season." The migration "has taken a heavy toll on the country's sporting scene" (London TELEGRAPH, 11/30).