UEFA

Footballer and journalist Aleksiander Ivulin spent two years in prison for ‘protests’. Despite human rights abuses of its citizens, including footballers, and state interference of the Belarusian Football Federation, Uefa and Fifa have not banned the country from international play. In fact, the Lukashenko-run federation’s biggest source of income is Uefa and Fifa funding.

Close to a thousand semi-professional and youth football matches from Europe are available for live-betting on a typical weekend, an audit of the global betting industry has found.

Three times Uefa has rejected a submission to investigate state interference in Belarusian football, neglecting evidence of human rights abuse, threats, torture and political appointment of officials.

In public, Gianni Infantino has disowned the doomed European Super League project. But a confidential document seen by Josimar strongly suggests that, in private, he has encouraged it, and that Fifa has been playing a double game all along in order to extend its control over world football and weaken its greatest counter-power, UEFA.

Uefa awarded brutal dictator Alexander Lukashenko the hosting rights of the 2025 women’s U19 European Championship. According to Amnesty International, the government of Belarus is violating human rights on a scale not witnessed since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Authorities persecute footballers who demand democracy.

He’s the head of the central bank in Finland and a rising hawk within the EU. So why is Olli Rehn, the vice president of Fifa’s governance committee, risking his reputation by publicly praising Fifa president Gianni Infantino, who is the subject of a criminal investigation?

The US capital is hosting an anti-Qatar conference this week. The programme is secret and it’s an invitation-only event. The organisers – the Middle East Forum – say that it’s not open to the public, citing security reasons. And lurking in the shadows is Jaimie Fuller, co-founder of New Fifa Now.

Is the UEFA president unduly interfering in the Icelandic elections? Aleksander Čeferin gives vocal support to candidate Guðni Bergsson to Icelandic media while insinuating that Iceland will struggle within UEFA if Bergsson’s opponent is elected.