Paraguay Revokes Immunity of South America Soccer Body
Paraguay's president Horacio Cartes ratified on Thursday a law removing impunity from the South American confederation of soccer CONMEBOL and thus allowing investigators to enter the premises and search for documents and material related to corruption. A draft of the law was presented in the country's congress a few days after United States investigators launched a probe into the international soccer body FIFA last month, issuing dozens of arrests warrants for high-level figures within the organization. So far, 14 current and former officials within FIFA have been indicted over corruption charges involving more than $150 million in bribes.
Among those indicted was Nicolas Leoz, a Paraguayan national and former president of CONMEBOL, and Uruguayan Eugenio Figueredo, who ran CONMEBOL for a year after Leoz. Leoz is now under house arrest in a wealthy suburb of the Paraguayan capital, Asuncion. Figueredo is in detention in Switzerland.
However, it was not clear if the law would allow courts to use documents and digital files that were created before it. Reuters reported that, according to a legislator who drafted the law, the draft bill makes no reference to retroactive powers, allowing legal disputes over what might be permissible in court.
New Tokyo Olympic Stadium for 2020 Very Expensive
According to the Japanese Sports Council, the new Olympic stadium for Tokyo-2020 will cost some two billion dollars, 54 percent more than the fixed budget.
Despite reducing the original amount last May to one billion 372 million dollars, the present design will still be more expensive than planned.
This plan reduced the size of the Olympic stadium to 220 thousand square meters, 70 thousand meters less than originally intended.
The Japanese Minister of Sports, Hakubun Shimomura, has proposed that if the new Olympic stadium were built without the retractile roof and the number of seats were reduced, the cost and time of construction would be cut considerably,
Despite those modifications, government sources said that the final price of the project could go up by 700 million dollars due to the increase in prices of materials.
New modifications will be introduced to try to reduce the cost even more. Until then, it is reported that no contract will be signed with the companies in charge of the construction of the stadium.
According to Shimomura, organizers can look for alternative options to the original plan, designed by architect Zaha Hadid, and even offered a positive evaluation of the proposal presented at the beginning of the month by architect Fumi hiko Maki.
The design by Hadid has received many criticisms due to the great magnitude and high price of the project, besides generating a confrontation between the central Executive and the Tokyo Metropolitan Area on the distribution of the cost of the stadium.
The old Olympic stadium of the Japanese capital, scenario of the 1964 Olympic Games and a capacity for 48 thousand spectators, was already demolished and the construction of the new one will begin in September with the ambition of ending it before 2019, when it will serve as venue for the World Rugby event.
Bolivian President Inaugurates 'Hugo Chavez' Soccer Stadium
Bolivian President Evo Morales opened a new soccer stadium on Wednesday in the central department of Cochabamba, naming the new athletic facility after the late Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez.
The Bolivian leader has highlighted the legacy of former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez stating, “He was a leader who possessed so much solidarity, as a President he taught us not be afraid of those who try to dominate us.”
President Morales, an avid soccer fan who was signed to play on squad in the country’s first league, also emphasized the importance of government investment in sports related infrastructure projects. “Delivering a soccer field is sort of similar to building a hospital because athletic activity is healthy for everyone,” Morales said.
The 15,000-seat stadium was financed and constructed as part of President Morales’s flagship social welfare program, which has carried out over 5,000 small-scale infrastructure projects, including the construction of medical clinics, schools and gymnasiums.
Copa America 2015
And in news from Chile's Copa America 2015, Guerrero's hat trick, in Peru's win over Bolivia by a score of 3-1on Thursday, places him on top of the scorers' chart, albeit temporarily, for the second consecutive Copa America. He has registered strikes in the last three editions, confirming his consistency and reliability for his national team. Now, Peru will play host Chile in semifinals.
Argentina and Colombia play in Friday's Copa America quarterfinal clash.
