Ronaldo Congratulates Fellow ‘Old Boy’ Klose

Football // Ronaldo was among the first to congratulate Miroslav Klose when the German striker joined him as the all-time leading scorer in the World Cup with 15 goals. “Welcome to the club, Klose. I can imagine your happiness!!!!” @ClaroRonaldo tweeted. But the Brazilian media have not been so magnanimous. Estado de São Paulo preferred to focus on how much longer Klose took to reach this mark than Ronaldo. The age is a source of pride, however, in Germany, with one headline noting: “Well done, Old Boy!”

Bribery, Robbery Allegations Ahead of Cup While allegations of bribery and corruption have plagued FIFA for years, British newspaper, The Sunday Times, recently published “proof” in the form of leaked documents. The cache of emails, allegedly from a “senior FIFA insider”, revealed that former FIFA executive committee member, Mohamed bin Hammam paid more than $5 million to secure support for Qatar’s 2022 World Cup bid. In 2012, the FIFA ethics committee had banned Mr bin Hammam, a Qatari national, from all football activities over “conflicts of interest”. According to the evidence, Mr Hammam reportedly lavished cash payments, gifts and trips upon FIFA’s executive and African officials in exchange for their votes. However, Qatar has denied any wrongdoing and has distanced itself from Mr bin Hammam. The revelations came as no surprise to many, and merely confirmed what had long been suspected: that Qatar’s successful bid had been “bought”. The scandal has thrown the spotlight onto FIFA’s secretive voting procedures and general lack of transparency.

Muntari Splashes Cash, Makes Friends Ghana’s Sulley Muntari is winning hearts and minds after a video emerged of him handing out cash in a poor community in Brazil. The Milan midfielder went on a walkabout near the team’s training camp at Maceió and clips, seemingly taken with a mobile phone, show him walking along a dusty street, surrounded by guards, but stopping along the side of the road to give bank notes to local residents. Such gestures were hardly needed to win the affections of the host nation, which was already firmly behind Ghana as was evident during Saturday’s superb performance against Germany.

Biggest Sporting Event Suggest Nos The opening matches of this World Cup have broken audience records all over the world, according to FIFA. In Brazil, Argentina, UK, Japan, Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy and Croatia, tournament broadcasts have recorded highest viewing figures of the year, while there have also been increases in the less established football markets of the US, Canada and Australia. Niclas Ericson, FIFA’s director of TV, said Brazil 2014 will be the biggest sporting event in history.