Busy day of legal and political wrangling envelops FIFA scandal
European football leaders decided to stick by their suspended president, Michel Platini, for the time being amid more upheaval from the FIFA scandal. Also Thursday, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice approved the extradition of FIFA official Julio Rocha, the former president of the Nicaraguan Football Federation, to the United States, and then to Nicaragua. Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, meanwhile, submitted his candidacy for FIFA’s next presidential election scheduled for February. He lost FIFA’s May election to Sepp Blatter, who won a fifth term before announcing his surprise resignation just days later. In an emergency meeting, European football leaders debated whether they would still support Platini, despite his suspension for at least 90 days as president of UEFA. After the meeting at its Swiss headquarters in Nyon, the UEFA executive committee and 54 national associations issued a statement of support for him. "We support Michel Platini's right to ...