‘FIFA still resistant to change’
Bundesliga boss wants shorter transfer window
LONDON, Sept 13, (Agencies): FIFA is struggling to implement reforms and change its operating culture because its leaders are more worried about their own political futures, a former top official said on Wednesday.
The global soccer body has been trying to overhaul its operations in the wake of the worst crisis in its history, sparked in 2015 by the indictment in the United States of several dozen soccer officials on corruption-related charges.
Miguel Maduro, a former head of FIFA’s independent governance and review committee, also told a British parliamentary hearing that FIFA’s leadership tried to persuade him not to block Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko from being re-elected to its top committee.
Neither FIFA nor Infantino could immediately be reached for comment.
The Bundesliga looks set to follow the example of England’s Premier League by voting to shorten the transfer window, with German Football League (DFL) chief Reinhard Rauball proposing changes.
Germany’s 36 professional clubs are set to hold a vote at their general assembly in December and Rauball wants the Bundesliga clubs to agree to close the transfer window before the season starts.
Last week, the English Premier League clubs voted to shut the 2018 close-season window before the start of the 2018-19 campaign in a move that sparked approval across the European game.
Now Rauball is hoping the German clubs will do the same.
Currently, the season in Germany starts in mid-August and the transfer window closes on the last day of the month, which can unsettle squads with players coming and going with fixtures already underway.
Infantino
Handsomely paid
Carlos Tevez is overweight and will not play again for Shanghai Shenhua until he gets fit, the Chinese club’s new coach has warned.
The 33-year-old Tevez is one of the best-paid players on the planet on reported weekly wages of about 730,000 euros (US$870,000) but has scored just twice this season and missed half the games with injury.
The former Manchester United, Manchester City and Juventus star has hinted that he will quit China at the end of the season in November and has been branded “very homesick boy” by angry Shenhua fans and Chinese media.
Spanish and European champions Real Madrid announced a two-year contract extension for Brazilian left back Marcelo on Wednesday, hours after the player’s appeal against a domestic suspension was rejected.
Now in his 12th season at Real, Marcelo is the second longest serving player after captain Sergio Ramos, having joined the Spanish giants from Brazilian side Fluminense aged 18 back in January 2007, and is the longest serving foreign player in the club’s history.