Tag: world cup

Mike Woitalla reporting from South Africa
As U.S. Senator John Kerry leaves the lobby of his Cape Town hotel three days before the World Cup Preliminary Draw in Durban, he shakes a few hands and says he’s in South Africa on “some business.” The former presidential candidate adds, “I’ll be back for the World Cup.” If all goes as World Cup 2010 organizers plan, the former presidential candidate will be just one of very many Americans arriving when the finals begin in 631 days.

Argentina, Paraguay and Colombia won South America qualifiers over the weekend. Singapore, Syria, Thailand and Turkmenistan clinched berths in Asia’s group stage.Featuring MLS players Andrew Boyens and Duncan Oughton in the starting lineup, New Zealand escaped from Vanuatu with a 2-1 win on a stoppage-time goal in Oceania qualifying. For all the results and standings …

Construction workers in South Africa are threatening to stop work at stadiums being built for the 2010 World Cup over a wage dispute at the Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban.

The United Arab Emirates gained revenge for its loss to Vietnam in the quarterfinals of this summer’s Asian Cup with a 1-0 win on the road Monday in the first leg of their first-round World Cup 2010 qualifying series, the first step in Asian qualifying for the South Africa finals. The only other team to lose its home leg was Palestine, a 4-0 loser to Singapore.

If we were to project out the implications of a proposed in FIFA system’s to award World Cup hosts, don’t count on the World Cup returning to the United States any time before 2026. That appears to be the effect of the proposed new FIFA bidding process revealed by Reuters’ FIFA sources on Thursday in Monaco, where much of Europe’s top soccer brass was assembled for the ceremonial kickoff to the new soccer season, the UEFA Champions League draw and other UEFA events.

Bolivian President Evo Morales looks to have won the day in his fight to get FIFA to relent on its ban on World Cup qualifiers taking place at high altitude.

A day after FIFA’s executive committee modified the ban — raised from 2,500 meters (8,200 feet) to 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) — FIFA president Sepp Blatter said he will reconsider a ban on high altitude matches, noting that it was “not a scientific or medical decision, it is a sports political decision.” Blatter’s remarks followed a meeting on Thursday with Morales, who has objected to the ban on qualifiers in La Paz, situated at 3,600 meters (11,800) above sea level.

FIFA named Frenchman Jerome Valcke as its new general secretary on Wednesday — less than eight months after it had “parted company” with Valcke and three other employees in its Marketing & TV Division he headed after being discredited in a multi-million dollar lawsuit with long-time sponsor MasterCard.

FIFA and MasterCard settled the latter’s lawsuit, paving the way for FIFA to go ahead with its sponsorship agreement with MasterCard rival Visa International. MasterCard, which had sponsored the World Cup for 16 years, will drop its sponsorship of the next two World Cups under a $90 million settlement with FIFA announced on Thursday. FIFA will pay $87.5 million by June 30 and $2.5 million by Sept. 30.

Igor Vrablic, a star on Canada’s 1986 World Cup team, was one of two men arrested in Waterloo, Ont., last week in connection with a drug raid that netted 8.5 kilos of marijuana, 3,000 ecstasy pills and drug paraphernalia, as well as $11,000 in Canadian money and another $6,000 in U.S. currency. The Slovakian-born Vrablic scored in Canada’s 2-1 victory over Honduras that clinched a berth in the 1986 World Cup finals — Canada’s only appearance in the finals — and started in two of the games in Mexico.

Urs Linsi, FIFA’s general secretary the last five years, is leaving world soccer’s governing body. Linsi, 55, took over following the departure of Michel Zen-Ruffinen in 2002. Markus Kattner, FIFA’s finance director, will be its acting general secretary.

Prior to the 2006 World Cup, Germany’s policy of legal prostitution came under fire from groups predicting the tournament would spur a trafficking of women from other nations, especially eastern Europe, forced into prostitution work during the month-long tournament. Media widely reported estimates of the trafficking of 40,000 foreign women. But the International Organization for Migration reports only five confirmed victims. “The estimate of 40,000 women expected to be trafficked was unfounded and unrealistic,” said the 48-page report.