FIFA settle row with MasterCard for €66.9m

FIFA have agreed to pay a staggering £45million (€66.9m) in compensation to sponsors MasterCard for misleading the credit card giant in negotiations for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.

The huge settlement brings an end to legal action in the USA and Switzerland and MasterCard’s rivals VISA will n ow be sponsors for the next two tournaments.

A US court judge said last year that FIFA executives had “lied repeatedly” in negotiations with MasterCard, and in response the game’s world governing body sacked four officials although marketing chief Jerome Valcke has since been reinstated.