In this week’s football review we congratulate Spanish side Sevilla on retaining the Europa League title and we wonder about all the goings on at FIFA. To help with understanding you can find explanations of key vocabulary in bold below.This week’s football review – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Sevilla, Blatter and FIFA
Good
Congratulations to Spanish side Sevilla on winning the 2015 Europa League after defeating Ukrainian side Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 3-2 in a thrilling final in Warsaw. This was their fourth win in the past ten years and Colombian striker Carlos Bacca’s brace meant they also retained the title they won last year against Benfica. The win also means that Sevilla will qualify for next season’s Champions League. Well done to the Andalucian side.
Bad
Sepp Blatter has been re-elected as FIFA president for the fifth time after defeating Jordanian candidate Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein by 133 votes to 73 votes. FIFA has been embroiled in many scandals under Blatter’s reign but despite many, many calls for him to step down he defiantly continues as leader of world football. Not such a good day for football.
Ugly
This week FIFA has been in the news for all the wrong reasons as officials from football’s world organising body have been arrested on corruption charges. Two FIFA vice-presidents, including the president of Concacaf Jeffrey Webb, and five other high-ranking officials were being questioned by police over fraud allegations and could face extradition to the USA, while the Swiss authorities are also investigating the process of deciding where the 2018 and 2022 World Cups would take place. This story is not over by a long way but it is a very ugly one indeed.
Vocabulary
thrilling : Exciting
brace: Two goals
Andalucian: Region in the south of Spain
re-elected: Chosen again
has been embroiled: Heavily involved in
to step down: To resign
corruption: Taking bribes
Concacaf: The North and Central American regional football organisation
face extradition: Be moved to another country to face trial
