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Six soccer officials arrested in Switzerland U.S. authorities are preparing to unveil a criminal indictment against officials of soccer’s international governing body that will detail allegations of widespread corruption, according to people familiar with the matter. The indictment against officials of the International Federation of Association Football, known as FIFA, was expected to be unsealed in Brooklyn federal court against multiple individuals as early as Wednesday, the people said. Early Wednesday morning six soccer officials were arrested in Zurich, Switzerland, the country’s Federal Office of Justice said in a statement, adding that they had been detained pending extradition. The FOJ...

May 27, 2015 Loretta Lynch's Justice Department unsealed a 47-count indictment Wednesday morning laden with racketeering, corruption and conspiracy charges against 14 people associated with FIFA, the world soccer association, and international soccer organizations.

Swiss authorities began an extraordinary early-morning operation here Wednesday to arrest several top soccer officials and extradite them to the United States on federal corruption charges. As leaders of FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, gathered for their annual meeting, more than a dozen plain-clothed Swiss law enforcement officials arrived unannounced at the Baur au Lac hotel, an elegant five-star property with views of the Alps and Lake Zurich. The officers went to the registration desk to get keys, then headed upstairs toward the hotel rooms. One FIFA official was led by the authorities from his room to a side-door exit...

I posted this question in another thread but got no response so...Who else has been watching the Barclays Premier League for the last 5 years on "the networks of NBC Universal" (and before that, ESPN)? Anyone else notice that when a player comes off for a sub (or after the game), they applaud their team's fans? Who besides me thinks that looks a little gay?I'm considering stopping watching soccer for that reason (although I'll watch Newcastle try to stave off relegation tomorrow [only recently did I tire of the returned applause gesture (just a wave will do IMO)]).ff

Italian Official Under Fire For Allegedly Calling Female Footballers ‘A Bunch of Lesbians’ Marcus Christenson 16 May 2015 An Italian football official is under pressure to resign after allegedly referring to female players as a “bunch of lesbians”. Felice Belloli, the president of the county’s amateur football association, allegedly made the comments when discussing funding for women’s football in the country. The Italian Football Association (FIGC) opened an investigation on Friday after it was sent the minutes of the meeting of the Lega Nazionale Dilettanti (LND). Belloli allegedly said: “That’s enough, we can’t always talk about giving money to this...

TEL AVIV – A Palestinian previously convicted of multiple terrorism charges is the official currently leading the dialogue with a prestigious international soccer federation from which the Palestinian Authority is seeking to get Israel expelled. If the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, or FIFA, suspends or boots the Jewish state, the move would have a dramatic impact on Israel’s ability to compete in international soccer competitions. As part of a larger boycott movement against Israel, the PA’s Palestinian Soccer Association has filed a formal complaint with FIFA to have Israel’s membership suspended. The PA’s main complaint is that Israel does...

Israelis appear to have been banned from buying tickets to see the Paris St. Germain soccer team in action, NRG reported Sunday night. The discovery was made by an Israeli couple planning a trip to Paris who wanted to attend a game – and could not find a listing for Israeli orders on the group's ticket ordering web site. Guy Schleider of Ramat Gan perused the team's web site and went to the ticket buying area, where a drop-down list allowed residents of countries around the world to choose their home countries where tickets would be sent to. Included on...

Anti-Semitism has been rampant in Holland, but a new incident has taken the Jew hatred to new levels as Dutch soccer fans chanted anti-Semitic slogans during a match on Sunday, calling for Jews to be burned and sent to gas chambers. Dutch police have launched an investigation, after video footage captured fans belting out the anti-Semitic slurs and clapping during FC Utrecht’s 1-1 draw with Ajax, reports The Independent. Dutch media revealed the chants included “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas,” and a longer one filmed by someone in the stands and viewable below, in which the fans roared “my...

I'm not a soccer fan, but I am a big fan of humor and well done parody. If this doesn't make you laugh, nothing will! (I clicked excerpt to make the link easy)

Russia's Euro 2016 qualifier in Montenegro was abandoned after multiple violent incidents in Podgorica on Friday. Just seconds in, Russia goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev was struck in the back of the head by a flare thrown from the stands at Stadion pod Goricom. While the teams played on, a second incident during the second half led to the abandonment. Roman Shirokov had a penalty saved by Montenegro goalkeeper Vukasin Poleksic in the 66th minute. The ball went out for a throw-in, which Dmitri Kombarov went over to take – only to refuse to when he appeared to be struck by an...

A teenager has been arrested on suspicion of sending a racist tweet aimed at Arsenal striker Danny Welbeck. SNIP The 15-year-old boy SNIP

Multiple sources say it's a done deal that World Cup 2022 will take place in November and December of 2022 in Qatar. A FIFA task force will meet in Doha next week and make that recommendation, and the FIFA Executive Committee is set to make the decision final at its meeting in Zurich next month.

Fifty four years after a Douglas DC-3 crashed in Chile’s Andes – killing all 24 people aboard, including members of a Chilean soccer team and three referees – a team of mountaineers discovered the remains of the crash. The 1961 LAN 301 air crash was deemed at the time one of the world’s major air disasters involving athletes – surpassed maybe only by the 1972 Uruguayan plane crash that stranded members of a rugby in the high Andes. The plane’s whereabouts has been one of the great unsolved aerial mysteries.

**SNIP** What caused the violence wasn't immediately clear. Security officials said Zamalek fans tried to force their way into the match without tickets, sparking clashes. Fans have only recently been allowed back at matches and the Interior Ministry planned to let only 10,000 fans into the stadium, which has a capacity of about 30,000, the officials said. Zamalek fans, known as "White Knights," posted on their group's official Facebook page that the violence began because authorities only opened one narrow, barbed-wire door to let them in. They said that sparked pushing and shoving that later saw police officers fire tear...

ISIS jihadists publicly executed 13 teenage boys for watching a soccer match. The young fans were reportedly watching an Asian Cup match between Iraq and Jordan on TV last week when they were caught by the militants in the Iraqi city of Mosul, which ISIS, or the Islamic State, controls. The group of teens was executed in public by a firing squad that used machine guns, according to Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, an activist group that exposes ISIS atrocities. Before the kids were killed, their “crime” was announced over a loudspeaker, reports said. “The bodies remained lying in the...

ISIS Execute 13 Football Fans By Firing Squad For Watching Iraq Play Jordan On TV in Islamist-Controlled Mosul By SARA MALM 19 January 2015 ISIS militants have executed 13 teenage boys for watching the Asian Cup football match between Iraq and Jordan last week. The young football fans had been caught watching the game on television in the Iraqi city of Mosul, which is controlled by the Islamic State. The teenagers were rounded up and publicly executed by a firing squad using machine guns, anti-ISIS activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently reports. Horrifying: ISIS militants rounded up the 13...

ISIS jihadists publicly executed 13 teenage boys for watching a soccer match. The young fans were watching an Asian Cup match between Iraq and Jordan on TV last week when they were caught by the militants in the Iraqi city of Mosul, which the Islamic State controls, the Daily Mail reported. Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, an activist group that exposes ISIS atrocities, reported that the teens were executed by a firing squad. “The bodies remained lying in the open and their parents were unable to withdraw them for fear of murder by terrorist organisation,” the group posted on its website....

A member of Team Zaryen plays soccer. Credit: Daniel Ibanez / CNA. Vatican City, Jan 10, 2015 / 02:32 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After losing a leg during Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake, Wilfrid Macena became a prosthetic technician and founded an amputee soccer team--and says his life can’t be topped years after the disaster. “The process has really helped me because I was only welding before the earthquake. I never could have believed that I would be a technician making prosthetics and helping the children in Haiti,” Macena told CNA Jan. 9. “Every time they came to check our prosthetics, I...

Spanish soccer team FC Barcelona has reportedly decided not to renew its sponsorship deal with a Qatari group linked to the country’s royal family because of Qatar’s alleged involvement in funding Islamic extremist terrorist groups. Israel’s Channel 2 reported Friday night that Barcelona, arguably the world’s most popular soccer team, will not renew the deal, which has so far brought in close to $200 million, because of mounting concerns related to the gulf state’s involvement in financing terrorism. Israeli leaders have frequently charged that Qatar funds Hamas, the terror group that rules Gaza, and the TV report also cited alleged...

First leg dates: 17 February: PSG v Chelsea; Shakhtar v Bayern Munich 18 February: Schalke v Real Madrid; Basel v Porto 24 February: Man City v Barcelona; Juventus v Borussia Dortmund 25 February: Bayer Leverkusen v Atletico Madrid; Arsenal v Monaco Second leg dates: 10 March: Real Madrid v Schalke; Porto v Basel 11 March: Chelsea v PSG; Bayern Munich v Shakhtar 17 March: Atletico Madrid v Bayer Leverkusen; Monaco v Arsenal 18 March: Barcelona v Man City, Borussia Dortmund v Juventus