Raphael Stevens

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    in Soccer

    FIFA Is Warned That Banning Top Games in U.S. May Breach Antitrust Laws

    For more than five years, the United States Department of Justice has pursued a corruption case against the highest levels of international soccer, charging dozens of the sport’s senior officials with crimes like money laundering and fraud. Now its antitrust division has joined the fight.The antitrust division is focused on a yearslong dispute over where matches can take place. FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, is considering strengthening rules that keep teams from playing competitive regular-season games outside their home countries.The antitrust division’s interest comes as a sports promotion company based in New York, Relevent Sports, is suing FIFA and the United States Soccer Federation, accusing the organizations of conspiring to block Relevent from bringing regular-season games from overseas leagues to North America.Relevent, which is owned by Stephen M. Ross, the real estate developer and principal owner of the Miami Dolphins, filed its antitrust suit last September after its efforts to stage a Liga game featuring Barcelona in Miami in 2018 met opposition from FIFA and the Spanish federation, which blocked the teams from playing overseas. A later effort to bring two teams from Ecuador to the United States failed after the U.S. Soccer Federation refused to give its permission for the game to be played.Makan Delrahim, the assistant attorney general for the antitrust division, wrote in March to the FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, and Cindy Parlow Cone, who heads U.S. Soccer, to express his concerns after learning an influential FIFA advisory committee had recommended to FIFA’s governing council that “official domestic matches should take place on the territory of the member association concerned.”The FIFA Council has yet to ratify the recommendation.“We specifically are concerned that FIFA could violate U.S. antitrust laws by restricting the territory in which teams can play league games,” Delrahim wrote in the letter, which has not been previously disclosed. Relevent included the letter as part of its amended complaint when it filed a new lawsuit in the Southern District of New York on Tuesday.FIFA did not immediately reply to a request for comment.The Justice Department’s involvement adds a new dimension to the case brought by Relevent. FIFA has tried to cultivate a close relationship with U.S. authorities since the corruption indictments were handed down in 2015, dismantling the top tier of international soccer’s leadership. FIFA’s top lawyers have been in regular contact with American justice officials in an attempt to prove the organization has changed significantly and should be repaid some of the hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution seized from defendants who admitted to participating in bribery and kickback schemes.Despite the changes, FIFA is still mired in legal troubles. The most serious of them concerns its president, Infantino, who was informed in July that he is the subject of a criminal investigation over his meetings with the Swiss official overseeing the FIFA corruption inquiry. Infantino has said any claims of improper behavior are “absurd.” The official, Michael Lauber, has resigned as attorney general and last week was stripped of immunity from prosecution.FIFA has also invested significant time and effort in strengthening its relationships in the United States after awarding the right to host the 2026 World Cup to a U.S.-led bid that included Canada and Mexico. Infantino has visited the White House for meetings with President Trump, and was also invited in January to address guests at a dinner that Trump hosted at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.Relevent’s announcement of a deal with La Liga for regular-season games to be played in the United States, starting with the 2018 game between Barcelona and Girona, has revived a contentious issue that had largely been dormant since the English Premier League was forced to withdraw plans for an international round of games, proposed in 2008, after an outcry at home and overseas.While efforts like Relevent’s continue to face opposition from national federations and traditionalists, the growing popularity of European teams beyond their traditional markets has increased a demand for competitive matches played far from teams’ home arenas. Such games would be worth millions of dollars in additional revenue for participants. In recent years, Spain and Italy have signed contracts to play cup games in Saudi Arabia.Staging such games could pose a threat to interest in local competitions, like Major League Soccer, the professional U.S. league. Don Garber, the league’s commissioner, who sits on the FIFA stakeholders committee that recommends prohibiting overseas games, expressed his opposition this year. “I feel very strongly that local fans should have the opportunity to see local games, and not for other purposes have those games played outside the home market,” Garber told ESPN in February.FIFA rules currently allow games to be played on overseas territory only under “exceptional circumstances.” After the outcry over the plan to play the Liga game in Miami, the FIFA Council doubled down, issuing a declaration after a quarterly meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, in 2018.“The council emphasized the sporting principle that official league matches must be played within the territory of the respective member association,” FIFA said at the time.Top U.S. sports leagues like the N.F.L., the N.B.A. and Major League Baseball have in recent years embraced taking their teams abroad for official games in hopes of reaching new audiences, with regular-season football becoming a feature of London’s sports scene. Relevent is arguing that American audiences are, by contrast, being deprived of the opportunity to see the best soccer.“This geographic market division unreasonably restrains competition in the U.S., reduces output below competitive levels in the relevant market, and directly inflicts antitrust injury on promoters, like Relevent (who directly participate in the relevant market) and on U.S. fans of top-tier men’s professional soccer leagues,” Relevent said, according to a copy of its filing reviewed by The New York Times. More

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    in Football

    After New Harassment Claims, Snyder Vows More Oversight of Washington N.F.L. Team

    Two dozen women described experiencing bullying, harassment and fear during their time working for the Washington N.F.L. team, according to a report published Wednesday by The Washington Post. The women described an office culture where managers were unwilling or unable to hold front office executives accountable for abusive behavior.Tiffany Bacon Scourby, a former cheerleader, accused the team owner Daniel Snyder of propositioning her to join his close friend in a hotel room. Brad Baker, a former staff member who worked for the team’s former play-by-play announcer and senior vice president, Larry Michael, said that at Snyder’s behest Michael made a lewd video recording of the outtakes of a cheerleader photo shoot.The report came on the heels of an article published by the newspaper last month in which 15 women said they faced pervasive sexual harassment while employed by the team. A number of front office executives, including Michael, resigned or were fired in the days surrounding the report’s release.Snyder has not spoken publicly about the issues raised in the articles, relying instead on formal statements, including one released on Wednesday in which he denied many elements of The Post’s reporting, including the proposition allegation. “I want to unequivocally state that this never happened,” Snyder said. He also denied knowing about any video recordings, saying, “I did not request their creation and I never saw them.” He said he believed them to be either “unauthorized or fraudulent.”Snyder said that the new article was his first time hearing of these women’s accusations.The statement on Wednesday went further than Snyder’s previous comments after the July article. In the wake of the first report, Snyder hired the law firm Wilkinson Walsh to investigate the claims raised by the women and disavowed the behavior they described as having “no place in our franchise or society.”This time, Snyder reiterated that stance but added, “I take full responsibility for the culture of our organization.” He went on to say that he had been operating the team at a remove and vowed to be more involved in its running, noting that he had hired several new executives to change the team’s culture on and off the field.Still, Snyder pushed back at The Post, claiming that the article was “riddled with questionable and unnamed sources” and describing it as a “hit job.” He claimed that there were former team employees willing to speak on the record to dispute some of the women’s claims, but that they were not included in the story.Roger Goodell, the N.F.L. commissioner, also released a statement in response to the new accusations. “We strongly condemn the unprofessional, disturbing and abhorrent behavior and workplace environment alleged in the report which is entirely inconsistent with our standards and has no place in the N.F.L.,” he said.The allegations raised in both investigations are some of several crises confronting Snyder and the team. In just the past few months, he ditched the team’s 87-year-old name and logo after a revolt by sponsors, began a legal battle that has implicated a co-owner of the team who wants to sell his part of the franchise and, last week, learned that the head coach he hired to revive the team, Ron Rivera, would have treatment for cancer. More

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    Lionel Messi Tells Barcelona He’s Leaving

    The Argentine star invoked a clause in his contract that would allow him to leave without a transfer fee before the end of his contract. The club is expected to argue his decision is not valid. More