FIFA names Havelange, Teixeira in kickbacks case

GENEVA (AP) ― Former FIFA president Joao Havelange and one-time Brazilian soccer leader Ricardo Teixeira received millions of dollars in a World Cup kickbacks scandal, soccer’s world governing body confirmed on Wednesday.

FIFA finally published a Swiss court dossier which detailed that Teixeira received at $13 million from 1992-97 in payments from World Cup marketing partner ISL.

The Swiss-based agency’s collapse into bankruptcy in 2001 sparked a criminal probe and exposed the routine practice of buying influence from top sports officials.

The 41-page document showed Havelange received a payment of about $1 million in 1997, one year before he was succeeded as FIFA president by Sepp Blatter.

Payments “attributed” to accounts connected to the two Brazilians totaled almost $22 million from 1992-2000.

The scale of kickbacks tied to World Cup broadcasting and marketing deals was revealed in a report by a prosecutor in the Swiss canton (state) of Zug who investigated Havelange and Teixeira for “embezzlement, or alternatively disloyal management.”

The document had been blocked from publication since June 2010, soon after prosecutors, FIFA and two of the most powerful men in world soccer reached a settlement deal to close the criminal investigation.

Cole defends teammate Terry

LONDON (AP) ― Chelsea defender Ashley Cole defended captain John Terry against accusations of racism on the third day of his teammate’s trial, saying Wednesday that the case should never have come to court.

Terry is accused of calling Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand a “black (expletive)” in a racially aggregated verbal attack during a match after being goaded over an alleged affair.

Terry lost the England captaincy for the first time in 2010 when allegations surfaced he had an affair with the ex-girlfriend of then England-teammate Wayne Bridge.

Cole took to the stand to say he heard Ferdinand say “Bridgey,” “black” and the expletive. But Cole, who is black, said he never heard Terry’s response at Loftus Road and insisted that his teammate is not racist.

Cole backed Terry’s defense that he repeated the offensive term to Ferdinand during the confrontation in October to counter what he believed the QPR player was accusing him of saying.

“If I repeated something that I thought you said, that’s totally different than if someone just says something,” Cole said.

Maradona wants to hold talks

BUENOS AIRES (AP) ― Diego Maradona said he wants to hold talks with Al Wasl to try and save his job, one day after being fired as coach by the Dubai club.

The club said the former Argentina star was being “relieved” of his duties Tuesday because it wanted to move in a new direction.

In a letter to the club published Wednesday on his website, Maradona said he and the club had been talking about possible player signings before he was fired. He said if budget restrictions were an issue, then he wanted to talk about it soon with club officials in the hope of reversing the decision.

“If it’s impossible for the club to buy players because of budget reasons, there will always be the chance to talk about it with club’s board of directors and look for solutions,” Maradona wrote. “I hope to have a meeting soon to deal with all these matters. I am completely sure they will be disposed to reach a good agreement.”

UAE’s Al Sarkal to run

DUBAI (AP) ― United Arab Emirates Football Association chief Yousuf al-Sarkal will run for the top job in Asian soccer if Mohammed bin Hammam is not reinstated.

The Asian Football Confederation is expected to hold elections after the Court of Arbitration for Sport hands down its ruling on bin Hammam, who is appealing his life ban from the sport for vote-buying in the FIFA presidential election. The ruling is expected in the coming weeks.

Al-Sarkal, a close ally of bin Hammam who is also an AFC vice president, says he would bring the kind of “experience” the Asian soccer body needs after spending more than two decades with the organization.