Kurtis Haiu 1984 -2016 #RIP

Kurtis Haiu 1984 -2016

Former Blues Super Rugby player Kurtis Haiu has died from a rare form of cancer, aged 31. Haiu played 53 games for the Blues between 2006 and 2011 and 75 for provincial club Auckland before retiring because of a rare form of bone cancer.

“The Blues family are deeply saddened by this news. Several of our players were close to Kurt and have spent time with him over the past weeks and months,” Blues chief executive Michael Redman said on behalf of the team’s players and management.

He said the franchise would discuss an official response on Thursday. The Rugby Players Association said Haiu had tried a variety of treatments for the cancer, Ewings Sarcoma, including alternative treatment in Switzerland and surgery.

Blues Captain Jerome Kaino said Haiu’s battle with cancer was characteristically brave. “I loved playing footy with Kurtis and I will treasure those memories of my Blues brother and pray that he rests in peace,” he said.

Haiu also represented New Zealand at the under-19 and under-21 levels and played for Auckland’s Marist Rugby Club. “It is with great sadness that we inform our Marist Family of the passing on of a Marist son, Kurtis Haiu. No doubt there will be more said about you Kurtis and your devotion to our beloved club but for now, we just bid you farewell,” the club posted on its Facebook page.

Tributes are already flowing in social media, including from former All Black Keven Mealamu who tweeted: “Rest well my Brother, Much Love and Blessing”.

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Infantino in Dark About FIFA Pay

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Gianni Infantino said on his first full working day he still did not know what he would be paid as the Fifa president.

Infantino said he expected the bidding process for the 2026 World Cup, delayed last year by a scandal that has engulfed Fifa, should begin in the next couple of months. The 2018 and 2022 tournaments, to be staged in Russia and Qatar, had to be the “best in history”, he said.

Speaking after an informal football match with Fifa employees and guests, Infantino said he had not discussed his salary following his election on Friday. “I have no idea yet. I know you can’t believe it but it’s not [for the] money that I was candidate to become Fifa president. I have not discussed with anyone about my pay or what my pay will be. We will see.“

The salary of Infantino’s predecessor Sepp Blatter, suspended for six years, has never been made public. Reforms agreed by Fifa last week to overcome the corruption scandal included provision for salaries to be open to scrutiny.

He said bidding for the 2026 World Cup hosting, which was supposed to have started in 2015 with a decision due in Kuala Lumpur next year, should begin before the Mexico City congress in May.

“Definitely I think we need to launch the bidding process in the next couple of months, probably before the next congress in May,” Infantino said.

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FIFA Sack Secretary General Valcke

Jérôme Valcke, the suspended secretary general of Fifa and Sepp Blatter’s long-time associate, has been sacked with immediate effect.

The Frenchman is facing a nine-year ban after an ethics investigation considered several alleged offences, including being connected to the black-market sales of World Cup tickets. He denies wrongdoing.

The ethics committee’s investigatory chamber recommended a nine-year ban and a 100,000 Swiss francs (£67,500) fine as it passed the case to the adjudicatory arm, headed by the German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, for a final decision.

In December Blatter and Michel Platini, the Uefa president who was his heir apparent, were banned from football for eight years following an investigation into a £1.35m “disloyal payment”. Both men protested their innocence.

Valcke has been suspended since 17 September, but a meeting of Fifa’s emergency committee has now decided to dismiss him from the organisation.

Fifa said in a statement: “The employment relationship between Fifa and Jérôme Valcke has been terminated… The provisional suspension … extended on 6 January 2016 continues to be valid. The duties of the Secretary General will continue to be assumed by the Acting Secretary General, Dr Markus Kattner.”

It is the second time Valcke has been dismissed by Fifa. In 2006 a New York judge said Valcke, as head of marketing, had “lied repeatedly” to potential sponsors, with a lawyer saying that among Fifa’s “white lies, commercial lies, bluffs, pure lies, straight untruths and perjury, Mr Valcke even lied when testifying about his lies”. 

Blatter rehired him eight months later.

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Eight Year Ban for Sepp and Michel

ifa president Sepp Blatter and Uefa boss Michel Platini have been suspended for eight years from all football-related activities following an ethics investigation.

They were found guilty of breaches surrounding a £1.3m ($2m) "disloyal payment" made to Platini in 2011.

The Fifa ethics committee found Blatter and Platini had demonstrated an "abusive execution" of their positions.

Both men deny wrongdoing. The bans come into force immediately.

Fifa boss since 1998, Blatter, 79, had already announced he was quitting ahead of February's presidential election.

Platini, 60, was tipped as a future leader of football's world governing body and had hoped to succeed Blatter.

A three-time European Footballer of the Year and former captain of France, he had been in charge of Uefa - European football's governing body - since 2007.

Blatter and Platini have also been fined £33,700 ($40,000) and £54,000 ($80,000) respectively.

A spokesman for Blatter confirmed he will appeal against the ban and is prepared to take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. Platini is expected to follow suit.

Blatter and Platini were found guilty of ethics code breaches over the "disloyal payment".

Both claimed the payment was honouring an agreement made in 1998 for work carried out between 1998 and 2002 when Platini worked as a technical adviser for Blatter.

The payment was not part of Platini's written contract but the pair insisted it was a verbal agreement, which is legal under Swiss law.

German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, the chairman of Fifa's adjudicatory chamber, held disciplinary hearings for the pair last week.

Charges included conflict of interest, false accounting and non co-operation, with investigators submitting a file of more than 50 pages

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FIFA - Blatter Suffers Breakdown

Sepp Blatter is to remain in hospital until next week after suffering what has been described as a "small emotional breakdown" but his stay will not prevent him from fighting against his provisional ban imposed by Fifa's ethics committee, his advisor has said.

Blatter, the outgoing Fifa president who is currently suspended for 90 days, was admitted to hospital in Zurich for a check-up due to stress last week and is expected to remain there until the beginning of next week. Sources close to Blatter said he was admitted after "a small emotional breakdown".

His advisor Klaus Stoehlker said: "He is in hospital but he has just been told to relax for a few days and he will be back to work on Tuesday.

Blatter still plans to fight his suspension from Fifa

"His most important message is that he is fully preparing himself to go ahead with his fight against his 90-day suspension. He is deeply convinced that the ethics commission cannot force him out.

"He said to me yesterday 'I was elected president by the 209 members of the Congress and no commission can put me out of the game'. He's fighting against this suspension."

Stoehlker added that Blatter said he had no involvement in the events surrounding Germany's 2006 World Cup bid which has led to German FA president Wolfgang Niersbach resigning.

Germany's bid leaders, including Niersbach and Franz Beckenbauer, have been accused of using 6.7million euros to set up a slush fund to buy votes. They have denied any wrongdoing.

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Oceans Eleven at FIFA

FIFA has confirmed it is investigating 11 of its own officials, including Sepp Blatter, Michel Platini, Franz Beckenbauer and the head of the Spanish FA, Angel Maria Villar Llona.

Blatter and Platini are currently suspended for 90 days over a controversial payment made between them - a judgement they are appealing - while secretary general Jerome Valcke has also been banned on suspicion of misuse of expenses.

But two new names have now been thrust into the spotlight - the Germany legend Beckenbauer and Spain's football head Villar - who both refused to co-operate with the investigations into the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Beckenbauer, 68, was on the executive committee which awarded the 2022 finals to Qatar and claimed last year that FIFA's chief investigator Michael J Garcia had "no power whatsoever" to make him comply to his probe into the controversial 2010 decision.

Villar, who has been head of the Spanish FA since 1988 and was elected for a seventh term in 2012, is the second-most powerful man at UEFA behind Platini and led the unsuccessful joint-bid between Spain and Portugal to host the World Cup in 2018, which was given to Russia.

A statement on Wednesday confirmed that "proceedings relating to the two officials Angel María Villar Llona and Franz Beckenbauer have already been passed on to the adjudicatory chamber".

FIFA also confirmed that "formal investigation proceedings relating to the suspicion of infringements of the FIFA Code of Ethics are among others ongoing against Worawi Makudi, Jeffrey Webb, Ricardo Teixeira, Amos Adamu, Eugenio Figueredo and Nicolas Leoz".

All six are former FIFA executive committee members, and Makundi, Webb, Figueredo and Leoz were arrested on corruption allegations in June this year.

Teixeira was the former head of the Brazilian FA until 2012 and was also indicted by the FBI on corruption allegations in June, while Adamu was banned for three years by FIFA in 2010 after being found guilty of breaching bribery rules.

The ethics committee statement on Wednesday said: "The investigatory chamber shall examine all circumstances of the cases equally. In this sense, all parties are presumed innocent until a decision has been passed by the adjudicatory chamber."

In relation to the on-going investigation into the £1.35m payment made by Blatter to Platini in 2011, the statement said: "The investigatory chamber will do everything in its power to ensure that a decision can be taken by the adjudicatory chamber of the ethics committee, chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert, within the 90-day suspension period [which began on 8 October 2015] of the two football officials."

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Footie Quotes - Sepp Blatter

"Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball. They could, for example, have tighter shorts. Female players are pretty, if you excuse me for saying so, and they already have some different rules to men – such as playing with a lighter ball. That decision was taken to create a more female aesthetic, so why not do it in fashion?"

Sepp Blatter, FIFA

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