Confederation of African Football president Ahmad Ahmad attends a press conference in Cairo ahead of the 2019 Cup of Nations.
EPA-EFE/Khalid Elfiqi
Leadership is a major constraint to the development of Africa’s most popular sport.
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Hosting a mega-event isn’t all it’s cracked up to be - and now some cities are starting to say ‘no’.
FIFA, world football’s governing body, continues to be embroiled in scandal.
EPA/Ennio Leanza
The recent untoward behaviours in sport are not limited to athletes alone. Rather, there are allegations of corruption throughout sports systems.
Jack Warner: under arrest.
EPA/Alva Viarruel
Reform of FIFA is clearly needed, but it must accommodate dissent of the anglo-centric world view.
Happier days in Africa.
Amr Dalsh/Reuters
Answers to the challenging question of why Africans unanimously supported Sepp Blatter for a 5th term – and what they portend for the future.
Time for a remodel.
EPA/Ennio Leanza
Getting rid of a morally tarnished leader is often the easiest part of cleaning up an organisation. The hard work begins now within FIFA.
Some anti-Blatter activists tied their loathing of him to accusations of “slave labor” in Qatar, the site of the 2022 World Cup.
Reuters
Blatter’s decision to step down shocked the world. We asked a few academics to weigh in on what it means.
Playing the game?
Ennio Leanza/EPA
Blatter has stepped down, but this may not be the last we see of him.
Full-time whistle has blown for Sepp.
Ennio Leanza/EPA
Blatter has resigned on his own terms, at his own pace. FIFA is not saved.
What does Blatter’s exit mean for the game?
Reuters
The FIFA chief’s surprise resignation was the only halfway decent choice he had left. Now it’s up to the reformers to clean house.
Still a beautiful game?
EPA/Alexey Nikolsky/Ria Novosti
Russia sees last week’s FIFA arrests as politically motivated mischief-making by the US. A UEFA boycott would add to this paranoia.
American justice at work.
Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
I have lived in the US for over three decades. And I have never seen soccer – that is, real “football” – dominate the front pages of US newspapers for so many days and with so many stories. In that sense…
UEFA could break away from FIFA.
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UEFA might lack the members to out-vote FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, but it’s got a lot of power in other forms.
Sepp Blatter managed to maintain his tight grip on FIFA, for now.
Reuters
The US move against corruption in FIFA, which has been both praised and condemned, strengthens America’s soft power around the world.
No really, don’t get up.
EPA/Walter Bieri
Blatter’s re-election reflects the powerful rejoinder he’s made to the Eurocentric view of football. But he’ll be hard pressed to outlive the latest crisis.
Product placement looming large.
EPA/Ennio Leanza
There is a growing business risk for sponsors from being associated with FIFA and they are better placed than UEFA even to push for reform.
The FBI’s net may fail to ensnare FIFA’s “teflon don,” but it could inspire other probes.
Reuters
Corruption at the pinnacle of sports sets a tone for all the rest. Targeting its roots is the right thing to do no matter what comes of the FBI’s investigation.
Looks pretty bad from where we stand.
EPA/Justin Lane
Football is a huge deal in Europe but less so in the states. So why did it take action from Loretta Lynch to topple FIFA?