The man who refers to himself in 3rd person is going to, for the first time in his career, humble himself whilst  FIFA and UEFA investigate his involvement with a Malta-based gambling company. Should Zlatan Ibrahimović be found guilty, he is looking at a career-ending 3-year ban from football. All because he was stupid enough to keep ties with a betting company while still playing. 

This is sooo UnZlatan-like. 

Zlatan’s Stockholm-based company Unknown AB owns 10 per cent of the shares of Bethard, a gambling site with offices in Malta. FIFA and UEFA regulations do not allow footballers who play in their competitions to have a financial interest in gambling companies.

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Ibrahimović may have thought he found a loophole when he moved to the United States’ Major League Soccer. When he signed to the MLS and stopped playing for the Swedish National Team he figured he wasn’t subject to the FIFA and UEFA rules on betting anymore. That changed when he moved to Milan and returned to the National Team.

Somebody should have told him:

1. MLS is governed by USSF, in turn, governed by CONCACAF that is part of the 6 confederate federations in FIFA. Art. 1 and 2 on the FIFA code of ethics state that the betting article (26.2) must be part of the confederations and the players are covered by this regulation. It came into force in the summer of 2018. So he was part of these rules when he played in MLS.
2.  FIFA and UEFA take conflicts of interest over betting quite serious since the match-fixing scandals from a few years back.  Zlatan was so arrogant he even appeared in an advertisement for the betting company.

It seems as though Zlatan was begging for a ban with his actions. Let’s hope for his sake he gets a slap on the write the game would be the same without the Lion. 

By Cheez

Don’t forget to tune into ‘The Soccer Podcast With No Name’ podcast every Thursday at 17h00 pm. Also follow me on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.