Former FIFA official received $1.2m after World Cup bid according to a newspaper report. The money came from a company controlled by former Asian Football Confederation president Mohamed Bin Hammam. 

It's the Daily Telegraph that today published the article claiming new evidence of payments from a Qatar former FIFA vice-president to board member Jack Warner. Critics have been questioning the reason for FIFA to choose Qatar since it was announced last year, and with the Jack Warner allegedly receiving money, the article is likely to put the World football's governing body under further pressure over awarding Qatar the 2022 World Cup. 

According to the allegations in the Telegraph, the payments to Warner were to "offset legal and other expenses, as well as "professional services provided over the period 2005-2010". Furthermore, at least $750,000 were paid to Warners sons, and a further $400,000 was paid to one of his employees. 

Bin Hammam was a senior official during the time of the bidding race, but was later banned from football for life after it emerged that he had bribed other senior officials in his battle for the presidency against Sepp Blatter. 

The Qatar 2022 committee has denied any involvement in corruption and have sought to distance themselves from Bin Hammam. More than half of the 22 men who voted to award the 2018 World Cup to Russia, and the 2022 edition to Qatar are no longer members of the executive committee. Warner, who left FIFA in 2012, have been surrounded by controversy in his 28 years in the executive committee.  

The Ballon D'or and the FIFA/FIFPro World XI ceremony took place yesterday, and not surprisingly Cristiano Ronaldo won the player of the year award. However, the World XI had some surprises.

The World XI is chosen by over 50000 professional football players from all over the world, who chose their favorites on every position on the team. This year the players chose their favorites from a shortlist of five goalkeepers, twenty defenders, fifteen midfielders and fifteen forwards. The short list looked as follow:

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon, Iker Casillas, Petr Cech, Manuel Neuer and Victor Valdes.

Defenders: David Alaba, Jordi Alba, Dani Alves, Leighton Baines, Jérome Boateng, Ashley Cole, Dante, Mats Hummels, Branislav Ivanovic, Vincent Kompany, Philipp Lahm, David Luiz, Marcelo, Pepe, Gerard Piqué, Sergio Ramos, Thiago Silva, Raphael Varane, Nemanja Vidic and Pablo Zabaleta.

Midfielders: Xabi Alonso, Gareth Bale, Sergio Busquets, Steven Gerrard, Andrés Iniesta, Isco, Mesut Özil, Andrea Pirlo, Marco Reus, Franck Ribéry, Arjen Robben, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Yaya Touré, Aturo Vidal and Xavi.

Forwards: Sergio Aguero, Mario Balotelli, Edinson Cavani, Diego Costa, Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba, Ramadel Falcao, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Robert Lewandowski, Mario Manduzik, Lionel Messi, Neymar, Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney and Luis Suarez.

Out of this short list of every managers wet dream, the 50000 players had to chose eleven making the World XI 2013 turn out like this:

Manuel Neuer

Dani Alves - Thiago Silva - Sergio Ramos - Philipp Lahm

Franck Ribery - Xavi - Iniesta

Lionel Messi - Zlatan Ibrahimovic - Cristiano Ronaldo

Quite a team with some of the best players in 2013. However, here at Great Dane Football Blog we have some alliterations to the team. First of all, there is no doubt that Manuel Neuer is the right man for the goal. The German has had a tremendous year and was one of the main players behind Bayern Munichs Champions League success as well as he is a safe name on the German international match sheet.

However, there is a different situation in the defend where especially Dani Alves and Sergio Ramos are questionable picks. Bayern Munichs David Alaba would have been the natural choice instead of Dani Alves as well as Mats Hummels deserves to take Sergio Ramos position. Both have had a great year in their respective club with Champions League final and close battle in the Bundesliga. 

Taking a look at the midfield a player as Xavi does not deserve to be on the team. The Barca midfielder have played his worst in ten years and should have been replaced by a player as Bastian Schweinsteiger or even Gareth Bale who was a one of the best players in the Premier League before joining Real Madrid. The attack looks fine though. Three competent strikers who have shown they are worth their monthly pay!

Well, this is only our view... What do you think about this year's World XI?

Tuesday FIFA announced the seeding pots for the World Cup 2014 in Brazil, and surprisingly decided to scrap the original plan - to use Octobers world ranking to determine which teams to join Brazil as top seeds - instead there will be a random draw of one of the nine UEFA sides.

The first team to be drawn out of the 31 nations to join Brazil, will be an UEFA side and will be put into a group headed by either Argentina, Columbia, Uruguay or the hosts.

If England are drawn out as the first team, they could then face a horror group with Brazil, Italy and USA, and even if they stay in pot 4 they are likely to face Spain, Chile and Mexico. However, the Three Lions can also be lucky to end in a group with Switzerland, Algeria and Costa Rica.

The confirmed pots looks as follows:

Pot 1: Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Germany, Colombia, Belgium, Uruguay, Switzerland

Pot 2: Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, Chile

Pot 3: Japan, South Korea, Australia, Iran, USA, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico

Pot 4: England, Bosnia-Herzogovina, Italy, Holland, Russia Greece, Croatia, Portugal, France

Every year FIFA honor the goal of the year with the Puskás Award. Great Dane Football Blog has taken a look at the goals, and found what we think are the 5 best. Remember to vote before December 9th! 

5. Juan Manuel Olivera

4. Lisa De Vanna

3. Peter Ankersen

2. Panagiotis Kone

1. Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Remember to vote befroe the 9th December HERE

Last week the men's shortlist from FIFA Ballon d'Or 2013 was released with 23 of the best footballers in

The shortlist contains 23 male candidates, which have been, drawn up by football experts from the FIFA Football Committee and by a group of experts from France Football and looks as follows:

Gareth Bale (Wales), Edinson Cavani (Uruguay), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Ramadel Falcao (Colombia), Eden Hazard (Belgium), Andrés Iniesta (Spain), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Robert Lewandowski (Poland), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Thomas Müller (Germany), Manuel Neuer (Germany), Neymar (Brazil), Mesut Özil (Germany), Andrea Pirlo (Italy), Franck Ribéry (France), Arjen Robben (Netherlands), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany), Luis Suárez (Uruguay), Thiago Silva (Brazil), Yaya Touré (Côte d'Ivoire), Robin Van Persie (Netherlands), Xavi (Spain) and finally, Great Danes true winner, Zlatan Ibrahimovic from Sweden.

The list is full of world class players, however, in my oppinion Zlatan is the right winner this year. True Gareth Bale, Edinson Cavani and Ramadel Falcao was class in their previous clubs but after their summer transfers they haven't really lived up to the past. True Phillipp Lahm, Thomas Müller, Manuel Neuer, Franck Ribéry, Arjen Robben and Bastian Schweinsteiger won the Champions League. True Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi keeps scoring in Spain, and Neymar became on of the worlds most expensive players. But, Zlatan Ibrahimovic has had an amazing career and deserves to be rewarded for it. In every club the Swede have played for he has won a trophy; 2 Eredivise, 1 KNVB Cup and 1 Johan Cruijff shield with Ajaz, 2 Serie A titles with Juventus, 3 Serie A titles and 2 Supercoppa Italia with Inter Milan, 1 La Liga, 2 Supercopa de España, 1 UEFA Super Cup, 1 FIFA Club World Cup with Barcelona, 1 Serie A and 1 Supercoppa with AC Milan, and so far 1 Ligue 1 and 1 Trophée des Champions with PSG. 

And if that isn't enough, Zlatan scored 16 goals for Barcelona where he had the worst period of his career. Despite his age of 32, Super Zlatan keeps entertaining us with world class goals week after week, and he really deserves to win the Ballon d'Or this year! Why? Because Zlatan makes football beautiful! Nicklas Bendtner once said that he aims to be as good as Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Well, there is a long way to go Bendtner! Especially because Zlatan despite his age may have at least four years left on the highest level and I believe we can expect to see more from the big Swede. Until then, celebrate him with the best price a football can get!

FIFA has accepted the goal-line technology after a series of doubtful situations. The technology has been discussed earlier on this blog but is highly relevant once again.

It has been discussed for a couple of years, but now it is a reality; FIFA has approved the goal-line technology. I have earlier expressed my fear for the future of football, if it got to technical and I am still not convinced this is the right solution to the “ghost-goal” problem. However, the EURO 2012 proved to us that adding an extra pair of eyes on the goal did not help on the problem. It was almost humiliating to see how a referee, which only job was to keep an eye on the goal, did not see whether the ball crossed the line. At the moment, the goal-line technology seems to be the only solution. That said, how often do we see a “ghost-goal”? 1 out of a 100 matches?

My fear for the future of football is not whether or not a ball crossed the line. It is the fear that adding one technology to the game will be followed up by another. Michel Platini said, during a press conference that the goal-line technology could be followed up by a ‘technology for offside decisions as well’. Platini is right; this current technology frenzy does not stop with the goal-line. Sooner or later we will have the offside technology, censors telling us if the player committed a foul or even a technology telling the referee whether or not the wall is in the correct distance from the free kick. As the UEFA-president said:

FIFA has now opened a door for the technology, and thereby for a new future for football. I can only hope that, at some point, this technology adventure will end, instead of making our beloved passion into a videogame. No matter what, I am going to miss the mystique about whether or not the ball crossed the line, but as humans has done for centuries: I’ll adapt to the changes.