{"id":10806,"date":"2015-06-02T22:40:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-02T22:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/is-anyone-surprised-a-vatican-response-to-the-fifa-soccer-scandal-28551\/"},"modified":"2015-06-02T22:40:00","modified_gmt":"2015-06-02T22:40:00","slug":"is-anyone-surprised-a-vatican-response-to-the-fifa-soccer-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/06\/is-anyone-surprised-a-vatican-response-to-the-fifa-soccer-scandal\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Is anyone surprised?’ A Vatican response to the FIFA soccer scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

Vatican City, Jun 2, 2015 \/ 04:40 pm (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Amid the new soccer corruption scandal that has rocked the sports world, a Vatican official has called for different sectors of society to unite in encouraging sports that contribute authentically to bettering humanity.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cIs anyone surprised by this news?\u201d asked Monsignor Melchor Sanchez de Toca, undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture and director of the council\u2019s Culture and Sport Division.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cEvery year around this time a new corruption scandal comes out in the world of sports, in soccer or the other sports,\u201d he told CNA.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cSports are troubled by great evils,\u201d he added, emphasizing the importance of different sectors of society helping to promote \u201cclean soccer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tOn May 27, Swiss police arrested a string of senior officials from FIFA (International Federation of Football Association), an organization that oversees soccer associations around the world.<\/p>\n

\tThose arrested are accused of taking bribes and kickbacks from the media and sports marketing companies for more than $100 million, in return for media broadcast and advertising rights in connection with soccer tournaments in Latin America.<\/p>\n

\tFollowing the arrests, FIFA president Joseph Blatter, who had newly been re-elected as head of the organization, announced his resignation.<\/p>\n

\tFIFA is based in Zurich and is governed by Swiss law. Swiss authorities acted at the request of the District Attorney of New York City, following a multi-year investigation by the United States.<\/p>\n

\tMonsignor Sanchez de Toca noted that there also have been other incidents of \u201ccorruption, victims of violence in the stands, athletes taking drugs, fixed games, the commercialization of sports\u201d and more.<\/p>\n

\tThe Vatican undersecretary emphasized that \u201c(s)ports express what is most noble in humanity\u201d but can also show \u201chis degeneration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI think it\u2019s evident that the world of sports by itself is not capable of overcoming its problems but instead it needs to form alliances with different sectors of society,\u201d he said, adding as an example, \u201cin Italy there\u2019s a network of 7,000 parish based teams that are genuine schools of clean soccer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tPope Francis has spoken repeatedly about the contribution of sports to society. In a May 7 address to the Lazio Sports Club, he said that true sports \u201cencourages the building of a more fraternal and supportive world, helping to overcome situations of injustice and social and human distress.\u201d
\n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vatican City, Jun 2, 2015 \/ 04:40 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Amid the new soccer corruption scandal that has rocked the sports world, a Vatican official has called for different sectors of society to unite in encouraging sports that contribute authentically …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vatican"],"yoast_head":"\n'Is anyone surprised?' 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