Vatican refuses donation from S. American football confederation ‎

The Vatican has distanced itself from South American football federation CONMEBOL, refusing to accept its ‎donations, following corruption charges last month against its officials at football’s global governing ‎body, FIFA.  CONMEBOL ‎had signed an agreement in the presence of Pope Francis in the Vatican, ‎April 21, that for every goal scored during the Copa America or America Cup ‎football tournament that kicked off on Thursday in Chile, that CONMEBOL ‎would donate $10,000 to ‎Scholas Occurrentes, an educational project launched by Pope Francis to encourage social integration ‎and the culture of encounter.  Officials of Scholas Occurrentes posted a press statement its website saying it will ‎not receive any such fund until the ongoing judicial investigation has been cleared. “We reaffirm the mission ‎entrusted by Pope Francis of sowing values in football and in sports in general,” said Scholas Occurrentes, which functions under the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences. 

Seven well-‎known soccer figures were detained in Switzerland on May 27 as part of a U.S.-led investigation into ‎bribery and corruption by FIFA officials.  Former CONMEBOL presidents Nicolas Leoz and Eugenio ‎Figueredo are among those being probed in the scandal.