FIFA paid Ireland over Henry handball: FAI

Yahoo – AFP, 4 June 2015

French forward Thierry Henry (R) fights for the ball with Irish defender Richard

 Dunne during a World Cup 2010 qualifying football match on November 18, 

2009 at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, northern Paris (AFP Photo/

Lionel Bonaventure)

London (AFP) - FIFA made a payment to the Football Association of Ireland after Thierry Henry's handball stopped Ireland qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, FAI chief executive John Delaney revealed on Thursday.

"We felt we had a legal case against FIFA because of how the World Cup play-off hadn't worked out for us with the Henry handball," Delaney told Ireland's RTE Radio 1.

"We came to an agreement. That was a Thursday and on Monday, the agreement was all signed and all done. It was a payment to the association to not proceed with a legal case."

The payment is reported to have been worth five million euros ($5.63 million), but when that figure was put to Delaney, he refused to confirm or deny it, saying he was "bound by confidentiality".

France qualified for the 2010 World Cup at Ireland's expense after Henry blatantly handled the ball as he set up William Gallas for the decisive goal in a play-off match in Paris in November 2009.

Delaney's claim comes amid a corruption scandal engulfing FIFA that has seen president Sepp Blatter announce his resignation and former executive committee member Chuck Blazer admit to paying bribes.

Delaney said that Blatter's behaviour at the Soccerex football conference in Johannesburg 11 days after the match had hardened his resolve over the matter of compensation.

"The way Blatter behaved, if you remember on stage, having a snigger and having a laugh at us..." he said.

"That day when I went in (to discuss the agreement), and I told him how I felt about him, there were some expletives used."

Henry was derided as a cheat in the aftermath of the match at the Stade de France, which ended in a 1-1 draw that saw France win 2-1 on aggregate.

The FAI and the Irish government unsuccessfully petitioned world governing body FIFA for the game to be replayed or for Ireland to be admitted to the World Cup in South Africa as a '33rd team'.

Henry, then with Barcelona, backed Ireland's calls for a replay and declared himself "extremely sorry", but rejected the accusation that he was a cheat.

France went on to endure a disastrous World Cup, crashing out in the group phase after the players went on strike in protest at striker Nicolas Anelka's exclusion from the squad for clashing with coach Raymond Domenech.

Jordan's Prince Ali says will stand for FIFA president

Yahoo – AFP, 6 Jan 2015

FIFA vice-president Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan speaks during the Soccerex

Global Convention 2014 in Manchester on September 8, 2014 (AFP Photo/Paul Ellis)

Amman (AFP) - FIFA Vice-President Prince Ali bin Al Hussein said Tuesday he would stand against Sepp Blatter for presidency of football's world governing body, declaring that years of controversy surrounding "the beautiful sport" must end.

"I am seeking the presidency of FIFA because I believe it is time to shift the focus away from administrative controversy and back to sport," Prince Ali said on his official Twitter feed.

"The headlines should be about football, the beautiful sport, not about FIFA."

FIFA president Sepp Blatter at a press

 conference in the Moroccan city of 

Marrakesh on December 19, 2014 (AFP

Photo/Fadel Senna)

Prince Ali, a Jordanian who was elected FIFA vice-president for Asia in 2011, said he had been encouraged to stand in the May 29 election after discussing the forthcoming election with senior figures in the sport.

"This was not an easy decision. It came after careful consideration and many discussions with respected FIFA colleagues over the last few months," he said.

"The message I heard, over and over, was that it is time for a change. The world game deserves a world-class governing body -- an International Federation that is a service organisation and a model of ethics, transparency and good governance."

FIFA has been steeped in controversy and allegations of corruption since Russia and Qatar's successful bids to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Prince Ali, the 39-year-old son of the late King Hussein of Jordan, had been one of the most senior FIFA officials to call for the publication in full of a report last year into the winning bids.

But FIFA's executive voted to release only an "appropriate", edited version of top US lawyer Michael Garcia's report into the alleged corruption and Blatter last month ruled out any suggestion that Qatar could lose the tournament.

"It would really need an earthquake, extremely important new elements to go back on this World Cup in Qatar," Blatter said.

FIFA and Blatter have sought, without success, to silence critics of the Qatari and Russian bids, and it will now looks as if they will become the election battleground.

Prince Ali is the FIFA vice-president for Asia and founder of the Jordanian and West Asian Football Federations and is standing to prevent Blatter win a fifth term in office since the Swiss was first elected in 1998.

A computer generated image released by the Organising Committee of Qatar 2022

 on June 21, 2013, shows the stadium to be built in Al-Khor for the Qatar 2022 World

Cup (AFP Photo)

Frenchman Jerome Champagne had been the only other candidate to declare so far that he would stand against Blatter.

Prince Ali will need five of FIFA's 209 member countries to nominate him as a candidate before a January 29 deadline and is believed to have plenty of support, including that of European football governing body UEFA president Michel Platini.

The Jordanian is likely to gain much of his backing from FIFA's European federation, many of whose members have been vociferous in their objections to the victorious Qatar 2022 bid.

He will also lobby support from the Asian confederation, whose head is Bahrain's Sheik Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, and will get further backing from the United States and Caribbean nations.

Blatter: UEFA to introduce goal-line technology at Euro 2016

Sepp Blatter has said goal-line technology will be introduced for the 2016 European Championship. The FIFA President said that the technical aid has been a resounding success thus far at the World Cup in Brazil.

Deutsche Welle, 28 June 2014

"I spoke with the UEFA president, Michel Platini, who said he would introduce it for the European Championships 2016 in France," said Blatter.

However, Europe's ruling football body UEFA said that a final decision had not yet been made.

"The president has said on the record that UEFA will look at introducing GLT at Euro 2016," UEFA spokesman Pedro Pinto said in an emailed statement. "It is not a case of snapping his fingers and making it happen. It will be discussed at the referees committee and then still has to be approved by the executive committee."

Platini has been strongly against goal-line technology in his seven years at the helm of UEFA. However, he said in an interview in December that it could be an option for the Euros. UEFA currently uses additional referees for competitions including the European Championship, Champions League and Europa League.

"It helps the referee and the public and now there is no more discussion about whether a goal was scored or not scored, and ultimately scoring goals is the objective of football," said Blatter. "I am sure that professional leagues will follow.

World Cup debut

The technology is making its World Cup debut this year in Brazil. During the group stage of the tournament, it helped determine a French goal in a game with Honduras.

Goal-line technology was approved by FIFA in 2012 and first put to the test at a major international tournament during last year's Confederations Cup. It has been used by the English Premier League since last season.

Germany's Bundesliga rejected adopting the technology several months ago, but a new vote is expected in the near future.

Blatter also reiterated his call, made during the recent FIFA congress in Sao Paulo, that he'd like to "go one step further" and introduce video evidence to aid referees. He said coaches should be given the opportunity to make two challenges per half during a game, where play is interrupted. The referee would determine the situation via a sideline monitor. Blatter said such a policy would create "a little more justice" in the game.

dr/av (dpa, Reuters, AP)

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Blatter admits politics swayed Qatar World Cup award

Google –AFP, 18 Sep 2013

Sepp Blatter (right) and Qatar FA president Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa

bin Ahmed al-Thani in Doha on December 16, 2010 (AFP/File)

BERLIN — FIFA president Sepp Blatter has admitted that the choice of Qatar as 2022 World Cup hosts was partly influenced by political and economic interests.

"Yes, there was definitely direct political influence," Blatter told Thursday's edition of German weekly Die Zeit, Blatter.

"European leaders recommended to its voting members to opt for Qatar, because of major economic interests in the country."

He made the admission when asked if Qatar had been chosen by world football's governing body FIFA based on considerations other than sport.

While rumours of corruption still circulate around FIFA's decision in 2010 to award the 2022 tournament to the Arab state, Blatter said: "We have just set up a new, independent ethics commission to re-examine the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar".

Euro 2012 football stadiums provide grounds for Polish optimism

Construction industry boom helped Poland to become the only EU country that did not slide into recession in 2009

The Guardian, Julia Kollewe, Tuesday 5 April 2011

The National Stadium under construction in Warsaw, Poland. It will
host the opening game of Euro 2012. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

These days construction cranes are almost as ubiquitous as storks' nests in the Polish countryside. New football stadiums have sprung up across the country, airports are being expanded and hundreds of miles of roads and high-speed railway routes are being built as the country gears up for the Euro 2012 football tournament, which Poland is hosting with neighbouring Ukraine.

In Warsaw Europe's biggest open-air market has given way to a 55,000 seat stadium where the opening match of Euro 2012 will be played. Stadiums accommodating about 45,000 fans each are close to completion in the other Polish host cities, Gdansk and Wroclaw, while one in Poznan was opened by singer Sting last year.

Mikolaj Piotrowski, head of communications at PL.2012, which supervises the infrastructure projects on behalf of the ministry of sport, dismissed reports of delays. He said the stadiums were on track to be finished by the autumn so they can be tested before the first whistle is blown on 8 June 2012.

When his friends heard Uefa had chosen Poland and Ukraine, "they were happy because they knew that Poland would qualify automatically, but I was happy because of what it means for the whole economy. What is most important is the legacy. The whole country needs this modernisation."

He points to research that shows the three weeks of the tournament will generate a profit of 850m zloty (£186m) for Poland, while the infrastructure investments (which cost 88bn zloty) are estimated to add 28bn zloty to Polish GDP by 2020.

The construction boom benefited Poland during the financial crisis. It was the only EU country that did not slide into recession in 2009 and is forecast to expand by at least 4% this year. "Euro 2012 was a natural stimulator for our economy during the crisis and it will be until the first whistle, but also afterwards," said Piotrowski.

Construction accounted for 7% of Polish GDP last year – in the UK it is 6% – down from 7.3% in 2009 but up from a low of 5.5% in 2004. About 30,000 people now work in the industry.

"At the moment Poland is the biggest construction site in Europe, as Germany used to be in the 1990s," said Slawomir Majman, president of the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency in Warsaw. In Wroclaw (known as Breslau before the war when Silesia was part of Germany) the old Prussian railway station is being rebuilt from scratch.

Poland is currently the biggest beneficiary of EU funds, receiving €67bn (£59bn) for structural development between 2007 and 2013. "There is ample money; there isn't a financial problem – the problem used to be a legal one," said Majman. He explained that the building of high-speed railway lines ran into many legal obstacles and only picked up speed last year. The routes will take five more years to be completed.

"The problem was related to land ownership rights. Under the previous system [the government] sometimes had to go to court," he said. But a new Euro 2012 special law for highways, airports and railway routes, updated in April last year, has simplified procedures. By contrast, the roads have had a smoother ride, with a new motorway linking Warsaw with Berlin scheduled to be finished next spring.

Confidence in the construction sector, however, has weakened in recent months. Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit in London, said: "Even though business has reportedly been good in the opening months of 2011, it seems that the boost from Euro 2012 is being countered by deficit-fighting public sector spending cuts in other areas, which has darkened the construction industry outlook."

Nearly 80% of infrastructure projects related to the tournament are on schedule, according to Piotrowski. He added: "When we started, 20% of Poles believed we'd be ready for Euro 2012, now that number is over 65%."

He shrugged off fears that the event, which is expected to bring at least 1m football fans to Poland, could be marred by hooliganism, noting that 35 Polish public institutions were working on 155 projects to improve security and conduct social programmes among supporters.

"The number of incidents is already dropping," he said. One of Poland's slogans for Euro 2012 is "Have fun, feel safe".