October 11 – FIFA’s controversial decision to disband its anti-racism Task Force was prompted in part by the indictment by US officials of its original figurehead, according to Piara Powar (pictured), director of Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE).
October 10 – A year and a half after his arrest as part of the FIFA corruption scandal, Costa Rica’s Eduardo Li pleaded guilty on Friday to three charges in a federal courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, admitting he took hundreds and thousands of dollars in bribes.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 10 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino says a joint British Olympics football team would not endanger the four home nations’ independent status.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 7 – In an extraordinary move given the significance of the occasion and the media interest worldwide, FIFA have scrapped staging a press conference following next week’s eagerly awaited first full meeting of its new 36-member ruling Council.
Who would have thought that a group of Norwegian bloggers could shatter the glass walls of FIFA, UEFA, etc. What they delivered in terms of conspiracy theories about UEFA’s new boss, and FIFA’s new Audit and Compliance chief is pretty cool – time will prove how correct their suppositions are but questions have been asked.
There is a very important fact worth bearing in mind when seeking to make sense of Gianni Infantino’s FIFA: the 46-year-old Swiss-Italian new boy faces re-election in less than three years’ time.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 6 – When the great and the good of FIFA’s new ruling Council converge on Zurich for next week’s eagerly awaited first full meeting, there will be no point in reporters seeking titbits of news by doorstepping the exclusive Baur au Lac hotel, for years the regular haunt of FIFA powerbrokers.
October 5 – FIFA has punished no fewer 11 national associations for “the discriminatory and unsporting conduct of fans” during recent World Cup qualifiers.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 4 – As John McEnroe famously said, you cannot be serious. Or maybe a line from Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’ might be equally apt: “He’s making it up as he goes along.” Not content with proposing a 40-team World Cup as part of his election manifesto, FIFA president Gianni Infantino now says he wants to go even further and expand the finals to 48 nations.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 4 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s plan to expand the World Cup finals to 40 teams has drawn a mixed reaction from Europe and Asia.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 30 – Ramon Vega may be better known as a former international footballer and highly successful financial asset management guru than an influential voice on FIFA matters.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 29 – Following the stunning abandonment of the Asian Football Confederation’s extraordinary congress in Goa, sparked by FIFA’s ban of Qatari Saoud Al-Mohannadi from standing for election to join its new ruling council because of an ongoing ethics investigation, attention has switched to Africa where another candidate has suddenly withdrawn from that region’s Council election being held today.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 28 – Markus Kattner (pictured), FIFA’s former secretary general who was sacked in highly controversial circumstances by the new administration of Gianni Infantino, has reportedly begun legal action to challenge the “unjustified” move.
By Paul Nicholson
September 27 – “This is the first award FIFA has given to India,” said Abhijeet Barse, CEO of Slum Soccer in accepting the inaugural FIFA Diversity Award at the Soccerex Convention in Manchester from FIFA’s general secretary Fatma Samoura.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 27 – When FIFA announced last week that Marco van Basten had been appointed as chief technical officer to help raise coaching standards, there were understandably few dissenting voices.