ManU is within its rights to "pay agents multi-million pound sums as part of transfers," FA Chair Greg Clarke said -- but the sport "needs a debate about the issue," according to the BBC. FIFA President Gianni Infantino "called for more transparency around transfers." World football's governing body is "looking into Paul Pogba's world-record transfer" from Serie A side Juventus to ManU in Aug. '16. Clarke said, "If that's what they're [ManU] going to pay, that's what they're going to pay. They are accountable to their owners; they're accountable to their fans. ... If football wants to change that and limit the amount of money that agents get we're going to have to sit down as a game, led by the professional game, the Premier League and the EFL [English Football League] and the clubs and talk about that." FIFA has written to ManU "to seek clarification on the deal" (BBC, 5/11). In London, Martyn Ziegler reported Infantino said that the transfer system "needed to be updated" but that the move was "not connected to revelations" that Pogba's agent, Mino Raiola, was paid £41M for the player's transfer. Infantino also admitted that FIFA's decision to scrap agents' regulations in '13 had "mixed feedback." Infantino said, "When it comes to transfer fees these are huge amounts of money circulating throughout the world, and the same as FIFA wants to be transparent in its accounts, it is also a duty for clubs and agents and all those who want to be serious to come to some better ways of dealing with this" (LONDON TIMES, 5/11).
FAST-TRACK: ESPN.com's Sam Borden reported FIFA's full membership voted to approve a plan to "fast-track the 2026 World Cup host bidding process" on Thursday. Ninety-three percent of the 209 voting members of the congress approved the '26 plan, setting the U.S.-led North American bid "on course to officially land the hosting rights" as early as June '18. Any other nations interested in bidding "have to express interest by Aug. 11; bids then have to meet a list of FIFA's technical specifications" by March '18. Given the "quick turnaround and FIFA's restrictions on which confederations are allowed to bid," the North Americans are "prohibitive favorites" (ESPN.com, 5/11).
GHANAIAN ELECTED: The BBC also reported Ghanaian Anin Yeboah, a supreme court justice, has been elected chair of FIFA's Disciplinary Committee. He was "voted in for a four-year term." Yeboah was a member of FIFA's Ethics Committee last year. He was "one of several Africans voted onto committees at the congress," including Rwanda's Martin Ngoga as deputy chair of the investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee (BBC, 5/11).
