In brief: FIFA, World Cup bring in record $2 billion in revenue

ZURICH – The World Cup’s commercial power led to record revenue of $2 billion for FIFA last year, with $337 million in profits coming from the four-year cycle leading up to the 2014 soccer tournament in Brazil.

FIFA, which pocketed $140.7 million in profit in 2014 alone, added $91 million to its reserves, which now stand at $1.523 billion. The revenue of $2.096 billion in 2014 raised the four-year total to $5.718 billion.

Income should keep rising before the 2018 World Cup in Russia despite FIFA’s reputation being battered by corruption and vote-buying allegations.

“This success underscores the huge appeal of FIFA’s flagship tournament,” the governing body noted in its annual financial report published Friday.

FIFA’s expenses also soared, topping $5.38 billion in the past four years, including $1.955 billion in 2014.

Spending last year included: $261 million in World Cup bonuses to member federations and confederations; $27 million buying a four-star hotel near the world soccer museum site in Zurich; and $39.7 million in executive committee stipends and senior management bonuses.

A FIFA-appointed remuneration panel decided that senior managers were “within the range” of packages paid by comparable “global companies,” the report said.

Guardian names first woman to editor-in-chief post

LONDON – The Guardian newspaper on Friday appointed Katharine Viner, currently editor of Guardian U.S., its new editor-in-chief.

Viner is only the 12th editor in the Guardian’s 194-year history and the first woman to hold the post. She replaces Alan Rusbridger, who is stepping down this summer after 20 years.

As editor-in-chief of Guardian News & Media she will oversee the Guardian, its Sunday sister paper the Observer and the guardian.com website.

Viner said she intended “to lead a media organization that is bold, challenging, open and engaging.”

A graduate of Oxford University who joined the Guardian in 1997, Viner edited the newspaper’s hefty Saturday edition and launched the paper’s Australian operation before moving to New York last year.

Under Rusbridger, the liberal London-based newspaper expanded its digital presence and international impact.

It was instrumental in publishing documents obtained by the anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks and last year shared a Pulitzer Prize with the Washington Post for stories based on files leaked by ex-National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Olive Garden sales rise over back-to-back quarters

NEW YORK – Olive Garden is weaning diners off two-for-$25 dinners and luring them to splurge a bit on extras like drinks and desserts.

Those add-ons, a sign that customers might be more willing to open their wallets, helped push sales up for a restaurant chain that limped through the recession and a shift toward “better” fast food personified by Chipotle.

The struggling restaurant chain said Friday quarterly sales edged up 2.2 percent at established locations, marking the first back-to-back quarterly gains in five years. That’s partly because diners were ordering more extras like alcohol and desserts and Olive Garden pulled back on discounts.

“We are seeing a little bit healthier of a consumer,” said Gene Lee, CEO of Darden Restaurants, which owns Olive Garden and other chains.

The modest bump in sales follows a 0.5 percent increase in the previous quarter, making it the first time since 2010 Olive Garden achieved consecutive quarters of sales gains. Still, it’s not necessarily a sign that a turnaround is underway; customer traffic was still down in the period, and the improvement came after a 5.4 percent decline in sales a year ago.