Swiss Attorney General Lied to Investigators During FIFA Corruption Probe; AIFF Conducts FIFA MA Classes for Referees and More (Football Round-Up)
Michael Lauber offered his resignation from the post after a Swiss Federal Court stated he lied to investigators, hiding details of his meeting with FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
A Federal Court stated that a top law enforcement official of Switzerland committed many violations and lied while his office investigated his links with the alleged corruption in FIFA.
The Federal Administrative Court said the statement made by Attorney General Michael Lauber regarding a confidential meeting with FIFA President Gianni Infantino was untenable.
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The court ruled that Lauber "intentionally made a false statement" to the supervisors and deliberately withheld details of the meeting.
"Overall, the court finds that Attorney General Lauber committed several breaches of official duty," the court said.
"I respect the decision of the Federal Administrative Court," Lauber said in a statement, further denying all the allegations against him and proposed to tender his resignation to protect the integrity of his office, "in the interest of the institution, I offer my resignation."
FIFA MA Course for Referees
The All India Football Federation (AIFF) conducted an online FIFA MA course for referees last week, attended by 50 referees with Uzbekistan's Farkhad Abdullaev as the course instructor.
The programme focused on new rules and regulations of the games, handball interpretations, penalty incidents and referees’ understanding of football.
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“We had a good chance to discuss amendments in the laws of the game 2020-21 and clarify many important aspects like accidental handball situations followed by an immediate goal or offside offences. We had an in-depth discussion on penalty area incidents and offside decisions,” Abdullaev stressed.
The Uzbek instructor has worked as the technical instructor in four FIFA World Cups. Russia 2018 was among the tournaments that he worked in, as well as two editions of the AFC Asian Cup. he further emphasised the importance of ‘real-match experience’ for a referee’s growth.
A FIFA referee,Rahul Gupta, hailed the course and said it helped him “enhance refereeing skills”.
Covid-19 Threat to Romanian League
The Romanian Football Federation chief stated that the country’s League is under the threat of being called off as dozens of Covid-19 cases were reported in the top flight cubs. There were postponements of several top division matches after many new cases came to light from various top teams.
Champions CFR Cluj reported 20 cases along with Cup winners FCSB, formerly known as Steaua Bucharest. The league leaders Universitatea Craiova have also been hit by positive cases with their Italian coach Cristiano Bergodi also testing positive.
The matches against Dinamo Bucharest's and Hermannstadt have now been called off due to the rising number of cases in Dinamo and there is possibility of the match against Cluj and FC Botosani to be scrapped.
"At the moment, I have enormous doubts that the current season in League 1 will end on the field, taking into account these cases that we have and that they are growing day by day," Romanian FA boss Razvan Burleanu told reporters.
Henderson Footballer of the Year
Liverpool Captain Jordan Henderson was awarded the title of England’s Footballer of the Year by the Football Writers’ Association (FWA) in the annual vote. Henderson led Liverpool to the Premier League title under Juergen Klopp’s management.
“As grateful as I am I don’t feel like I can accept this on my own. I don’t feel like anything I’ve achieved this season or in fact during my whole career has been done on my own,” said Henderson.“I owe a lot to so many different people – but none more so than my current team mates – who have just been incredible and deserve this every bit as much as I do,” he added.
The 30-year old Midfielder played 30 league matches for Liverpool this season scoring four goals. “I accept it on behalf of this whole squad, because without them I’m not in a position to be receiving this honour. These lads have made me a better player – a better leader and a better person,” he said
Kevin De Bruyne of Manchester City, Marcus Rashford of Manchester United, Virgil van Dijk and Sadio Mane finished among the top five in the voting.
Italy Might Allow Fans in Stadiums
Italian sports minister Vincenzo Spadafora said that Italy could allow spectators back into football stadiums with a limited capacity in September provided the coronavirus situation is contained.
While Serie A and Serie B resumed games in June after a three months hiatus, all matches since then have been played behind closed doors.
“If the epidemiological curve allows, fans can return to stadiums in September,” Spadafora told state broadcast Rai in a radio interview.
“Obviously, we cannot fill the stadiums as we did before, but we will have to respect a whole series of measures that are being studied at the moment,” he added.
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