FIFA president Gianni Infantino said on Saturday he has scrapped a plan to allow private investment in the World Cup following fierce backlash from football officials worldwide. “Our purpose has always been — and will always be — to unite and improve,” Infantino said in a statement. “As a result, this proposal will not proceed.”…
Spain’s Ministry of the Interior said more than 25,000 migrants who arrived at the border of the tiny territory of Ceuta have been sent back to Morocco. More than 150 migrants are being removed from Ceuta per minute, the ministry said. The statement came shortly after the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, estimated that 60,000 migrants…
The pressure is rising on FIFA President Gianni Infantino to ditch a World Cup privatization plan that could draw investments up to $20 billion, but which has drawn widespread condemnation from most of soccer’s worldwide governing bodies. The latest rebukes of the plan came on Friday when a senior adviser to Infantino stepped down in…
Ukrainian Ambassador Olga Stefanishyna took note of what she said was an improved relationship between Ukraine and the U.S., telling reporters Thursday that the “overall dynamics” have shifted. In just the past six weeks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has had two phone calls and three meetings with President Trump, including one earlier this week. Stefanishyna,…
North America’s soccer body on Thursday rejected FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private equity investors, joining European nations in opposition. The 41-member Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football held an urgent meeting Thursday after UEFA, the European soccer body, had agreed to boycott the…
Every major European national soccer team threatened Thursday to collectively boycott competitions organized by global soccer’s nonprofit governing body FIFA over plans by the federation to sell off a minority stake in the World Cup tournament to private investors. A source close to Joshua Kushner’s company, Thrive Capital, dismissed criticism over the firm’s involvement in…
European football’s governing body UEFA said on Thursday it would boycott the World Cup should FIFA press ahead with its private investor plan. “No UEFA national teams will participate in any FIFA competition for so long as these proposals remain alive, unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety and binding assurances have been…
Kyiv, Ukraine — A Russian ballistic missile and drone barrage across Ukraine overnight into Thursday killed at least eight civilians, including children, and wounded dozens of others, officials said. The blitz expanded Russia’s almost daily bombardment of Ukrainian cities as Moscow apparently looked to exploit Kyiv’s critical shortage of Western-supplied anti-ballistic missile defenses. NATO member…
Two firefighters died Wednesday while battling a blaze on the Greek island of Crete, officials said, while crews in southern France worked to extinguish a massive, uncontained wildfire that had spread to roughly four times the size of Paris. Across Europe, firefighters confronted a dangerous combination of high temperatures, drought and powerful winds, compromising containment…
FIFA said Tuesday it plans to sell a stake in the business operations of the World Cup and its other competitions through the creation of a semi-private subsidiary. World football’s governing body said it would retain a majority share in FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) but hoped to raise $4.2 billion later this year by “carefully…
