FIFA crisis: $550m down, but lawyers are coining $10m a month
By Paul Nicholson in Zurich
February 26 – FIFA is stumping up a massive $10 million a month for legal bills and is $550 million off its target.
FIFA
Costa Rica’s Li meets bail conditions but US takes several pounds of flesh
By Mark Baber
February 26 – After nine months in jail, including nine weeks in the notorious New York Metropolitan Detention Centre – known as ‘Brooklyn’s Abu Ghraib’ – former FIFA executive committee member-elect, CONCACAF executive committee member and Costa Rican Football Federation president Eduardo Li was finally granted bail after a posting a bond of $300,000 in cash, $800,000 in US properties and the salaries of nine supporters worth over $900,000.
FIFA vote through reform proposals with huge majority
By Andrew Warshaw and Paul Nicholson in Zurich
February 26 – Within minutes of being urged not to waste a one-off and essential opportunity to clean up their organisation of years of scandal and disgrace, FIFA’s global membership approved a radical new set of reform proposals by a huge majority today – but not with the unanimous backing the architects of the package might have wished for.
FIFA’s ‘reforming’ Congress opens to rallying call from Hayatou and Bach
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
February 26 – Arguably the most crucial summit in FIFA’s 112-year history got under way this morning with a final rallying cry from its outgoing acting president to endorse the much-touted detailed reform package designed to totally overhaul the culture of world football’s scandal-plagued governing body.
FIFA’s day of reckoning. Big day of big decisions in Zurich’s last chance saloon
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
February 25 – Deja vu, groundhog day. Same city, same conference hall. The difference of course is that this time the great survivor has no longer survived. Nevertheless the pantomime, even without its most notorious villain, goes on. The question is, which of the actors will emerge victorious? Anyone who tells you for definite that they know who is going to win the FIFA presidential election Friday afternoon and by exactly how many votes –
FIFA five in last gasp pitches as UEFA tub thump for their man
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
February 25 – Among friends it was inevitable that Gianni Infantino would claim the biggest acclamation when the five candidates for FIFA president made their final pitches as dusk fell over Switzerland’s banking capital today.
FIFA’s BIG week: Hayatou holds court at CONCACAF urging feds to back reforms
By Paul Nicholson in Zurich
February 25 – Acting FIFA president Issa Hayatou opened CONCACAF’s extraordinary congress in Zurich saying that this is one “of the most important weeks in the history of FIFA, and global football.”
Exclusive: Bility to call for FIFA congress to put presidential vote before reform vote
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
February 25 – Hopes of FIFA’s much-trumpeted reform measures being approved at tomorrow’s electoral congress have suffered their first potentially serious hitch. Just as Cameroon’s acting FIFA president Issa Hayatou passionately urged the six confederations to rubber-stamp the far-reaching proposals in order to save the organisation’s reputation, so the head of one of his own African federations threatened to throw a major spanner in the works.
Belize’s Vicente arrives in Zurich to vote but his exco claims he has been suspended
By Mark Baber
February 25 – Football Federation of Belize President, Ruperto Vicente, voting in tomorrow’s FIFA election in Zurich, has been suspended according to his Executive Committee, although he claims the suspension is not legal. FIFA and CONCACAF are yet to rule on the matter.
Platini openly backs Infantino and vows to fight the FIFA ‘bureaucrats’
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
February 25 – Banned UEFA president Michel Platini insists he will do everything he can to clear his name as he accused those now in charge of FIFA of being “bureaucrats” who engineered his downfall after seeing his eight-year suspension reduced by two years by the FIFA Ethics Committee.
No Congress for ‘old’ men: Blatter and Platini lose appeals
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
February 25 – Any chance of Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini making a triumphant fist-pumping return to football at Friday’s eagerly anticipated FIFA electoral congress were crushed today after their respective bans for breaking ethics rules were upheld on appeal.
CAS turns down Ali request to suspend vote, all eyes now on the voters
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
February 25 – An unholy spat that for a short while threatened to throw Friday’s election of a new FIFA president into chaos has been averted after sport’s supreme court as expected rejected a bid to call off the ballot from Prince Ali bin al-Hussein.
CONMEBOL block vote flakes as Brazil reconsiders support for Infantino
By Paul Nicholson in Zurich
February 25 – The FIFA presidential voting alignments took an unexpected shift today with Brazil rumoured to be moving their allegiance away from UEFA’s candidate Gianni Infantino towards Bahraini Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa.
Prince Ali says he is in it to win it and will stay to the end
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
February 24 – Prince Ali bin al-Hussein says he will not pull out of the Fifa presidential race if the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejects his bid to have Friday’s election postponed in the escalating row over voting procedures.
Collins butts heads with Salman and calls for England to boycott World Cup bids
By Paul Nicholson
February 24 – Shaikh Salman has responded immediately to an attack on his integrity by British Conservative member of parliament Damian Collins who used the legal protection of parliamentary privilege in the House of Commons to launch a series of accusations against Salman.