Britain’s Prince William has called for FIFA to reform and show that it “can represent the interests of fair play and put the sport first.”
William, who is president of the English Football Association (FA), was speaking ahead of the FA Cup final at Wembley in London on Saturday.
He asked sponsors to press for reform after a week which saw seven FIFA officials arrested and 18 people connected to football indicted on corruption charges by the US Department of Justice.
Photo: AP
William described the week as FIFA’s “Salt Lake City moment” — a reference to when, in 1998, Swiss International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Marc Hodler revealed that several of his fellow officials had accepted perks in return for voting to award Salt Lake City the 2002 Winter Olympics.
‘HUGE DISCONNECT’
“There seems to be a huge disconnect between the sense of fair play that guides those playing and supporting the game, and the allegations of corruption that have long lingered around the management of the sport internationally,” he said.
“The events in Zurich this week represent FIFA’s Salt Lake City moment, when the International Olympic Committee went through a similar period of serious allegations. FIFA, like the IOC, must now show that it can represent the interests of fair play and put the sport first.”
FORCE CHANGE
The Duke of Cambridge said that he feels those in power, be it the federations or those who help fund FIFA, should put pressure on the organization to force change.
“Those backing FIFA, such as sponsors and the regional confederations, must do their bit to press these reforms — we are doing football and its fans no favors if we do not,” he said.
“I have no doubt that when FIFA reforms, its mission to spread the benefits of the game to more people, especially those in developing countries, can only be enhanced,” he added.
David Gill has refused to take up Britain’s FIFA vice-presidency after saying it would be “futile” to serve under Blatter if he did not realize the “seismic” events of this week were a resignation issue, and the Duke praised the former Manchester United chief executive’s decision.
“At this juncture, if I may, I know I join with all of you in commending David Gill for his decision to stand down from the [FIFA executive committee], and to lead by example by doing so,” he added.
INJURY TURMOIL: Despite stunning French Open champions Paolini and Errani to advance, Chan was forced to pull out after her partner’s tearful women’s singles defeat Last year’s mixed doubles champions Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Poland’s Jan Zielinski on Monday crashed out of the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, leaving the Taiwanese star focused on pursuing a fifth women’s doubles title in London, while a partner injury forced compatriot Chan Hao-ching to give up on her doubles campaign. Hsieh and Zielinksi, who last year also won the Australia Open title, narrowly lost their opening set 7-6 (9/7), before Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani stunned the former champions 6-3 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The Taiwanese-Polish duo had been dominant in the first two
Real Madrid’s FIFA Club World Cup quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund had taken three crazy turns during nine minutes of second-half stoppage time when Marcel Sabitzer chested the ball and sent a right-footed volley toward Thibaut Courtois’ post. Courtois leapt to his right, extended the long arm on his 2m frame and just managed to get his gloved fingertips on the ball, knocking it down. Courtois hit the ground as the ball bounded up. He looked skyward, planted his right hand to regain his balance, grabbed the ball with both hands on the second bounce and fell onto it with his chest. Sabitzer turned
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus’ four-year suspension for doping, ruling that her positive test for a banned substance was caused by kissing her then-boyfriend, American fencer Race Imboden. Thibus, a silver medalist in team foil at the Tokyo Games, had tested positive for ostarine, a prohibited muscle-building substance, during a competition in Paris in January last year. However, CAS concluded there was no intentional wrongdoing, finding it scientifically plausible that repeated kissing over several days with Olympic medalist Imboden — who was taking ostarine at the time — led to accidental contamination. The court
‘SU-PENKO’: Hsieh and Ostapenko face a rematch against their Australian Open final opponents, the same duo Hsieh played in last year’s Wimbledon semi-finals Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday survived a near upset to the unseeded duo of Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, setting up a semi-final showdown against last year’s winners. Despite losing a hard-fought opening set 7-6 (7/4) on a tiebreak, the fourth seeds turned up the heat, losing just five games in the final two sets to handily put down Cirstea and Kalinskaya 6-3, 6-2. Nicknamed “Su-Penko,” the pair are next to face top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in a reversal of last
RSS