2010 SAFWC

The corruption scandals hit FIFA is dragging back the hosts for the World Cup next year. Russia is reportedly facing financial challenges as sponsors avoid the whole situation.

The Swiss police are carrying out investigations if Russia officials bribed its FIFA counterparts in a bid to distort the World cup bidding process in their favour. They are making the investigations with the help of the United States and France.
Since the scandals came to light in 2015, FIFA have had just one sponsor Alfa Bank based in Moscow. On the international level, just China’s Wanda Group is supporting it next year. Other top firms that could have joined in are reportedly put off by the investigations of the FBI into the bribery allegations.

So far, Seep Blatter and Michel Platini have been banned from football but over 40 other officials are awaiting trial for various offences. Over 20 corporate entities were supporting the body but most have backed out as the brand became toxic.

The financial issues would be thrashed out Soccer Venues when the members meet for the annual congress in Bahrain. The Sponsorship and broadcasting rights weigh in heavily on the total costs spent on World Cup tournaments. Sponsors are uncomfortable about Russia, and the tensions in that region with the North Korea/South Korea issues make it worse. Less than thirty percent of required sponsors are on board as Russia face a race against time for the World Cup 2018.

Real Madrid forward Gareth Bale is expected to feature for his national team side Wales when they play Ireland on March 24 after he recovered from his long-term ankle injury.

The former Tottenham Hotspur player returned to action only last week for Madrid, scoring within 12 minutes of joining the team. Madrid defeated Espanyol 2-0 in the La Liga, but it was the 27-year old that netted the second of the match.

Wales assistant Osian Roberts says that the player is now looking forward to the Ireland game as there were fears he might return in time.

“He’s now confident he’ll be in the team and ready to fight for his place,” the coach said.

“He’s coming along very well, he’s in a good place both physically and mentally. He’s been working extremely hard. He was in a good mood, we watch him train and he looked very good physically and fresh of course,” Roberts added.

Roberts joined head coach Chris Coleman as the pair travelled to Madrid to check on their star player. He added that they expect that Bale would get more action under Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane ahead of the Ireland clash next month.

Bale picked up the injury in November last year but he has recovered six weeks earlier than initial estimates. Roberts attributed the pace of his recovery to hard work from the player, and not just nature.

“We see Gareth when he scores goals for Wales and Real Madrid and amazing things on the field but what most people do not see is the hard work he puts in behind closed doors, in private, that gives him a base so he can make the most of the special talent he has,” Roberts said.

The coach added that Bale is a “well-disciplined” player who readily sacrifices. He also said that the medical staff did their best for the player and assure theoretical long-term guarantees against any setbacks.

The European Club Association led by Karl-Heinz Rummenigge says world football governing council, FIFA should reconsider the plan to expand the current number of world cup participants from 32 to 48.

In the proposed format, 16 groups constituted of three teams each will involve the top two teams advancing to a 32-side knockout round. However, the 220-club constituted ECA says the number of games played each season “has already reached an unacceptable level.”

“In the interest of the fans and the players, we urge FIFA not to increase the number of world cup participants,” pleaded the chairman in a letter addressed to FIFA.

In a move many see as commerce-focused and politically motivated, the Infantino-led council seems to have made up their minds to increase the number of invitees to the quadrennial summer party especially in the one slated to be hosted in North America come 2026.

This will see an additional 368 players and 16 teams joining the one month (tourney). Many pundits and critics claim to see right through Infantino’s “chess-moves” claiming that his re-election hopes rest mostly on the promises he made to FIFA’s 211 member federations – something an expanded and more lucrative 2018 World Cup will aid him in fulfilling.

The Italian initially promised to expand the number of World Cup slots to 40 and double development grants to $5 million to member nations from each World Cup.

Rummenigge, also Bayern Munich chairman, maintains that the interest of the beautiful game should be put first before any other form of satisfaction. According to him “politics and commerce” should not be exclusive priority in football

Armando Perez is the interim president of the Argentine Football Association (AFA) and he has faith that the Argentine national side has what it takes and will become the next world champions.

Argentina has recently been struggling as they lost against Ecuador on October 8 of 2015 and sustained successive draws after facing off with Paraguay as well as with Brazil. All of these matches were played last year on 2015 which was a fairly long time ago but even now in 2016, the Argentine national side continues to underperform and this is evident by one of their latest matches which saw them losing against Paraguay and only being able to draw against Peru.

Despite all of these recent underwhelming results that Argentina has experiencing, for some reason the head interim president of the Argentine Football Association (AFA) has stated that Argentina will become the next world champions as he said:

“We are going through a challenging phase, but we will overcome it and we will move forward thanks to deep commitment and outstanding dedication. We are very busy working in full transparency and we are taking great care to ensure the national team is not affected by the administrative problems we have at the institution.”

“Argentina will now need to work towards Russia 2018 in order to renew their challenge. Hence, we decided together to work with young Argentine football players, including Under-23 players, to see if we really have the chance to renovate the team and infuse fresh blood into the national selection, and this takes time. There is no doubt we will be the next world champions,”

The last time that Argentina was claimed as the best national side in the world was back in 1986 which were 30 years ago and Armando Perez is certain that they can do it once again despite their recent struggles.