JAMES NALTON celebrates Ruben Blades’s song Patria – played before Panama’s game against Ghana — a song inspiring hope instead of hate
Gender pay gap still an issue at the World Cup despite Fifa having the money to close it once and for all
WHEN world football executives receive Fifa’s annual report this year, they will see that $753,000 (£573,000) is funding a women’s league in Colombia, $588,197 (£447,000) is helping female players in New Zealand and girls in Botswana are benefiting from $341,600 (£260,000).
That’s merely a snapshot of the $270.3 million (£206m) that football’s world governing body has invested in projects between 2016 and 2018.
Four years since police raided the hotel and offices of football officials and Fifa’s Zurich headquarters in 2015 in a scandal that threatened the organisation’s existence, Fifa is awash with cash.
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