Sports

Swiss police arrested some of the most powerful figures in global soccer on Wednesday, announcing a criminal investigation into the awarding of the next two World Cups and plunging the world's most popular sport into turmoil.In addition to the Swiss criminal probe, nine soccer officials and five sports media and promotions executives face extradition to the United States on corruption charges involving more than $150 million in bribes, U.S. authorities said.

Those arrested did not include Sepp Blatter, the Swiss head of FIFA, but included several just below him in the hierarchy of the wealthiest and most powerful sports body on earth.Of those 14 indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice, seven officials of soccer's governing body FIFA, including FIFA vice president Jeffrey Webb, were arrested in Zurich. Four people and two corporate defendants had already pleaded guilty to various charges, the department said.

The Miami, Florida, headquarters of CONCACAF, the soccer federation that governs North America, Central America and the Caribbean, were being searched on Wednesday, the DoJ said."As charged in the indictment, the defendants fostered a culture of corruption and greed that created an uneven playing field for the biggest sport in the world," said FBI Director James Comey. "Undisclosed and illegal payments, kickbacks, and bribes became a way of doing business at FIFA."

 The arrests by plain-clothes Swiss police were made at dawn at a plush Zurich hotel where FIFA officials are staying ahead of a vote this week where they have been expected to easily anoint Blatter for a fifth term in office. FIFA said the arrests were a "difficult moment" but Blatter would not step down and upcoming World Cups would go ahead as planned.Separate from the U.S. investigation, Swiss prosecutors said they had opened their own criminal proceedings against unidentified individuals on suspicion of mismanagement and money laundering related to the awarding of rights to host the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Data and documents were seized from computers at FIFA's Zurich headquarters, the Swiss prosecutors said. The U.S. Department of Justice named those arrested in its case as: Webb, Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, FIFA vice-president Eugenio Figueredo, Rafael Esquivel and José Maria Marin. The DoJ said the defendants included U.S. and South American sports marketing executives alleged to have paid and agreed to pay "well over $150 million in bribes and kickbacks to obtain lucrative media and marketing rights to international soccer tournaments".

"The indictment alleges corruption that is rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted both abroad and here in the United States," U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement. "It spans at least two generations of soccer officials who, as alleged, have abused their positions of trust to acquire millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks," she said.

BILLIONS

The international governing body of soccer collects billions of dollars in revenue, mostly from sponsorship and television rights for World Cups. It has persistently been dogged by reports of corruption which it says it investigates itself, but until now it has escaped major criminal cases in any country.

In particular, the decision to award the World Cup to Qatar, a tiny desert country with no domestic tradition of soccer, was heavily criticized by soccer officials in Western countries. FIFA was forced to acknowledge that it is too hot to play soccer there in the summer when the cup is traditionally held, forcing schedules around the globe to be rewritten to move the cup.

Qatar's stock market fell sharply as news of the Swiss investigation emerged. A Russian official said his country would still host the 2018 World Cup.Three years ago FIFA hired a former U.S. prosecutor to examine allegations of bribery over the awarding of the World Cups to Qatar and Russia, but last year it refused to publish his report, releasing only a summary in which it said there were no major irregularities. The investigator quit, saying his report had been mischaracterized.

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Ngwa Bertrand

26.May.2015

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The 18th edition of the University Games, which kicked off 24th May 2015, was launched with a strong demonstration of the resolve of the Cameroonian people to fight boko haram. The opening ceremony was full of pump as the fan clubs stole the show with each fans clubs matching and dancing to the rhythm of their region of origin. Major highlighting of the launching ceremony was the lighting of the Olympic flame by Cameroon’s Roving Ambassador Roger Milla who later handed it over to the athletes.

For the next one week, the athletes from the state and private higher institutions of learning will be competing in nine Olympic disciplines namely: Basketball, football, volleyball, athletics, wrestling, judo, table tennis, lawn tennis and handball and Paralympic disciplines such as, throwing Javelin, table tennis and Powerlifting.

The National Federation of University Sport (FENASU) has introduced in this year’s competition women's wrestling, competitions in Open challenge, Miss and Master of the competition. The 18th edition of the University Games has been organised under the theme “Patriotic drive for growth and development” The ceremony that was attended by six government ministers will end on the 31st May 2015.

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Ngwa Bertrand

25.May.2015

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A last-gasp leveller from Samuel Eto'o helped misfiring Sampdoria to a 1-1 away draw with Empoli but the Genoa-based side's hopes of Europa League qualification remain in the balance. Sampdoria travelled to the Carlo Castellani stadium looking for the win that would have pulled them level with sixth-placed Fiorentina. However Sinisa Mihajlovic's men spurned a series of goalscoring chances before settling for a 16th draw of the campaign which kept them in seventh place, three points behind Fiorentina ahead of their trip to Palermo. Sampdoria remain in contention for a place in Europe's second tier competition but only because city rivals Genoa, who sit in fifth, were earlier this week denied a licence to use the Luigi Ferraris stadium for European competition.

Sampdoria share the stadium but have already lodged Sassuolo's Mapei stadium as the venue for European home games in the event they qualify for Europe. Genoa have lodged an appeal but if it is not successful Sampdoria could benefit to snatch the third and final Europa League spot. Samp coach Mihajlovic, however, was less than happy with a scenario which means his side must beat Parma in their final game of the season and hope results elsewhere go their way. "We've claimed a point, now we need to win our last game and see what happens elsewhere," Mihajlovic told Sky Sport. "Genoa are ahead of us and I take my hat off to them... but it would only be a small consolation for us if we got into the Europa League because of their misfortune."

The visitors found themselves a goal down just before the hour when Manuel Pucciarelli muscled his way through the Samp defence to beat Emiliano Viviano at the 'keeper's far post with a bouncing angled strike. Eto'o replaced Luka Djordjevic immediately after the goal and soon had a penalty appeal when he came down in a tangle of legs with Elseid Hysaj, but the referee was not convinced. Samp spurned three chances to level in a lively second half, home 'keeper Davide Bassi turning away a side-footed shot from Joaquin Correa on 75 minutes, leading to a counter-attack that saw Piotr Zielinski flash a shot just wide of Viviano's post.

Lorenzo De Silvestri then rose to meet a corner but his effort was straight at Bassi, and then Eto'o arrived just too late to get his toe to a cross fired across the goalmouth.Samp looked to be heading for a costly defeat but Eto'o secured a point for the visitors when he collected on the edge of the area and turned to fire past Bassi at the keeper's far post.

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Ngwa Bertrand

25.May.2015

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Ghana and Marseille midfielder Andre Ayew has been named the winner of this year's edition of the Marc-Vivien Foe Trophy.

The 25-year-old beat Ivory Coast's Max-Alain Gradel (Saint-Etienne)and Tunisia's Aymen Abdennour (Monaco) to the Marc-Vivien Foe Trophy.

It is set to be the last thing he will achieve as a Marseille players as he has stated he is leaving the club at the end of the season.

Ayew scored 10 goals in 27 appearances for the French giants this campaign.

He joined the club in 2007, going out on loan to L'Orient and then Arles-Avignon in the early part of his career before becoming a key member of the team.

"The president (Vincent Labrune) has spoken thus everything has been brought out into the open more or less," said Ayew, who has played 158 games and scored 43 goals for Marseille.

"I am going to leave the club and it is a page turned.

"There are lots of things behind the decision. We tried to find a solution which would enable me to stay but for both parties it was complicated, whether it be for sporting or financial reasons.

"I was expecting more, I hoped the club would have a more competitive team for next year that could be title contenders and that's not certain.

"Also the club cannot offer me the same salary that I'm on at the moment."

Ayew, whose younger brother Jordan was also at Marseille before leaving for Lorient at the beginning of the season, has attracted interest from several English Premier League clubs.

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Ngwa Bertrand

18.May.2015

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