Want Backheel Breakfast in your inbox? Sign up for the email version here.
FIFA, UEFA presidents could face investigation for allegedly unethical loan
Gianni Infantino isn’t any better at keeping his name away from rumors of corruption than Sepp Blatter was.
Milos Bicanski/Getty Images
You will be unsurprised to learn that two rounds of United States Department of Justice indictments and the ouster of Sepp Blatter is unlikely to have cleaned up FIFA for good. New president Gianni Infantino might end up under investigation by the FIFA ethics committee because of a questionable loan made from UEFA to the Slovenian FA while Infantino was UEFA general secretary.
According to a report in Norwegian publication Josimar, Infantino sidestepped the UEFA finance committee and approved the loan by himself. The money was then allegedly used to buy shares in a betting company. Aleksander Ceferin, who was the president of the Slovenian FA at the time, is the new president of UEFA.
“The Finance Committee was not ‘sidestepped,’ as this article mistakenly suggests,” said UEFA in a statement, refuting the report. “The loan was granted in accordance with an established framework procedure approved and agreed by the UEFA Finance Committee. The purpose for which the loan funds was used was also fully legitimate.”
Whether or not FIFA is able to find that their ethics code was breached, we should assume that everyone in charge of a major soccer governing body will always be shady, forever and ever. For our own sanity.
Goal of the day
Hotaru Yamaguchi’s winner for Japan against Iraq. (r/soccer)
In the news
Atlanta United will kick off their inaugural season at Georgia Tech’s stadium. (MLS)
Joey Barton has been charged with betting on 44 games since joining Rangers. (Guardian)
Oh look, the big leagues are threatening UEFA again. (AS)
RB Leipzig’s Oliver Burke says he went to the Bundesliga because he thought a big Premier League club would just loan him out repeatedly. (Bundesliga)
Scotland’s children’s commissioner isn’t thrilled with Celtic playing a 13-year-old against full professionals. (BBC)
You should be reading
Stephen Wood on the history of Cuban soccer defections. (Paste)
Mark Neale on Italian soccer pioneer William Garbutt. (The Gentlemen Ultra)
Gabriele Marcotti on the World Cup expansion idea why it’s bad. (ESPN FC)
What to watch on Thursday (click for listings, all times ET)
World Cup qualifying -- There are games all around the world all day. We recommend Italy vs. Spain at 2:45 p.m., Ecuador vs. Chile at 5 p.m. and Peru vs. Argentina at 10 p.m.
See More:
