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Two US Soccer Staff Members Mysteriously Suspended by FIFA Ahead of World Cup Loss

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Two U.S. soccer staff members were quietly suspended by FIFA for Monday’s match against Belgium.

Without public explanation from FIFA, team manager Sam Zapatka and U.S. Soccer Federation vice president of security Frank Pannell were banned.

The suspensions were announced on FIFA’s disciplinary previews for Monday’s game, but they did not make it until the third edition.

FIFA first posted about Folarin Balogun’s red card, then removed Balogun in the second edition, before adding the US staff members for the third.

These are the only two updates to a disciplinary preview so far this World Cup. (Read more from “Two US Soccer Staff Members Mysteriously Suspended by FIFA Ahead of World Cup Loss” HERE)

35 Missing Children Recovered Ahead Of World Cup Matches

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The United States Marshalls Service (USMS) recovered 35 missing children in Massachusetts in an operation preparing for the FIFA World Cup matches.

USMS published a statement Thursday announcing that the “District of Massachusetts (D/MA) and partner agencies at the Massachusetts State Police, Boston Police, and Essex, Plymouth, and Suffolk District Attorneys’ Offices” rescued 35 children and “safely reunited with family members or placed with appropriate protective services.”

The operation, which began in April, will run through the end of the World Cup in mid-July. The State Department estimates the U.S. will receive as many as 10 million tourists this summer for the World Cup games.

The children were recovered as a part of “Operation Yellow Card,” described as a “targeted, high-impact missing child operational initiative designed to locate and recover endangered youth within and from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts prior to and throughout the upcoming FIFA World Cup soccer tournament.”

Operation Yellow Card is in “anticipation of the influx of hundreds of thousands of international visitors and spectators,” according to the USMS statement. “Law enforcement agencies have implemented proactive measures to identify and protect vulnerable missing children who have an elevated risk of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.”

(Read more from “35 Missing Children Recovered Ahead Of World Cup Matches” HERE)