Support of women’s game will continue: FIFA
Swiss trial in 2006 WC case suspended, nears collapse
PARIS, April 22, (AP): Soccer’s international governing body says it will maintain funding for women’s soccer despite concerns about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Following the Women’s World Cup last year, FIFA President Gianni Infantino pledged to invest $1 billion in the women’s game over the next four years.
“In line with the FIFA Women’s Football Strategy and FIFA’s long-term vision for the development of women’s football, this funding will be invested into a range of areas in the women’s game including competitions, capacity building, development programs, governance and leadership, professionalization and technical programs,” FIFA said in a statement provided Tuesday to The Associated Press. “We can confirm that this funding has already been committed by FIFA and will not be impacted by the current COVID-19 crisis.”
The Guardian first reported that FIFA’s funding would not drop because of the coronavirus.
FIFA also said it is assessing the financial impact the pandemic is having on soccer worldwide, including the women’s game, and is exploring possible ways to provide assistance.
FIFA has said it sees a duty to offer a lifeline from its cash reserves, last reported at more than $2.7 billion, as the economic consequences of the pandemic ripple across global soccer.
Infantino reiterated the pledge in a video message to FIFA’s member associations.
FIFA’s commitment comes after FIFPro, the international players’ union, called for continued financial support of women’s soccer worldwide. The union issued a report saying COVID-19 is “likely to present an almost existential threat to the women’s game if no specific considerations are given to protect the women’s football industry.”
There are early signs the pandemic is already taking a toll on the women’s game, in addition to the cancellation and postponement of league play and tournaments worldwide. In Colombia, Independiente Santa Fe suspended all player contracts for its women’s soccer team recently but said its men’s team would only see pay cuts.
The pandemic struck at a time when women’s soccer was on the upswing, boosted by the success of last year’s World Cup in France.
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The first trial held in Switzerland’s five-year investigation of corruption in soccer moved closer Tuesday to ending without a judgment amid problems running a court during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Swiss federal criminal court said it extended a suspension of the prosecution – of three German organizers of the 2006 World Cup and a former FIFA secretary general from Switzerland – until next Monday.
On that same date, a statute of limitations will expire on fraud allegations linked to a 6.7 million euro ($7.6 million) payment 15 years ago that implicated German soccer great Franz Beckenbauer.
The court said judges will decide after Monday how to proceed with the case.
The trial in Bellinzona briefly opened March 9 when defendants and witnesses – most at least 70 years old – were already unwilling to travel close to a coronavirus outbreak area on Switzerland’s border with northern Italy.
Two members of the 2006 World Cup committee, Theo Zwanziger and Horst Schmidt, plus former FIFA administrator Urs Linsi, were charged with fraud last August.