FIFA ‘told’ to recover cash

Tierney sidelined

LONDON, Dec 11, (Agencies): The FIFA governance committee has told the soccer body’s leadership to pursue legal action against Michel Platini to recover the 2 million Swiss francs ($2 million) that led to the former UEFA president being banned from the sport.

The payment was exposed in 2015 as having been approved by Sepp Blatter, which led to the Swiss official being ousted as FIFA president.

FIFA governance committee chairman Mukul Mudgal wrote to FIFA deputy secretary general Alasdair Bell saying the body had passed a resolution over the wrongful payment.

“The FIFA administration (should) take the necessary steps before the relevant authorities in Switzerland against both Mr Blatter and Mr Platini with a view to ensuring that the CHF 2 million unduly paid by Mr Blatter to Mr Platini is returned to FIFA (together with interest, at the appropriate rate) and the disciplinary fines and costs imposed are recovered,” Mudgal wrote in a Nov. 25 letter seen by The Associated Press.

Platini can work again in soccer because his four-year ban expired in October. But any comeback into a senior role would likely force him to first pay FIFA a fine of 60,000 Swiss francs ($60,300) that is three years overdue. Legal action would also seek that fine to be paid up.

Platini was the heir apparent to Blatter as FIFA president in 2015 until they were both toppled from power.

Blatter is still serving a sixyear ban, upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport after being imposed in 2015, for authorizing the payment to Platini in 2011 as backdated salary for work as his adviser a decade earlier. Blatter also approved extending his former protege’s FIFA pension plan.

Last month, a lawyer for Platini said the former France great was going to court to receive payments allegedly due in his UEFA employment contract worth 3 million Swiss francs ($3 million) in annual salary and bonus.

Platini

Arsenal defender Kieran Tierney faces a spell on the sidelines after dislocating his right shoulder in Monday’s Premier League win at West Ham United, the club said on Wednesday.

The 22-year-old left back was substituted just before the half-hour mark in Arsenal’s 3-1 derby victory at the London Stadium after falling awkwardly and used his shirt as a makeshift sling as he left the pitch.

The club said Tierney would have another assessment while British media reported that the Scotland international could be out of action for three months if he has surgery.

Arsenal, who won their first match in all competitions since late October, visit Belgian side Standard Liege in their final Europa League Group F match on Thursday and Tierney is among a number of senior players who will not make the trip.

Sporting Kansas City fulfilled its need for an elite striker Tuesday by swinging a deal with Mexican club C.D. Guadalujara for Alan Pulido, who signed a four-year contract with the Major League Soccer club after it paid a club-record transfer fee.

The 28-year-old Pulido has scored more than 100 goals for Guadalajara and the Mexican national team. He’s been part of five domestic championships, helped his club to the CONCACAF Champions League title last year, and finished atop the Liga MX scoring list with 12 goals during the Apertura season this past fall.

The club did not disclose the exact transfer fee, though it did acknowledge it was “multimillion dollars.”

Sporting KC is coming off a season in which it failed to make the MLS playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade. A big reason was its inability to score - top striker Kristzian Nemeth had just eight goals and the club did not renew his option.

Jim Smith, a familiar and popular figure in English football as a manager with nine different clubs in a coaching career spanning nearly 40 years, has died at the age of 79, it was announced.

Smith, a down-to-earth character known fondly throughout the game as the “Bald Eagle”, enjoyed success managing in the English top-flight at clubs including Birmingham City, Oxford United and Derby County.

“All at QPR are deeply saddened to have learned of the passing of former R’s manager,” said a statement from another of Smith’s old clubs, Queens Park Rangers, who reached the League Cup final under his stewardship.