March 23 – And then there was one. Costas Takkas, close associate of disgraced ex-CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges that he participated in bribery schemes under the widespread the-US led football corruption investigation.
By Paul Nicholson
March 22 – Following on from the report by law firm Freshfields into the German 2006 World Cup bid process, FIFA has opened its own investigation into six individuals over potential vote buying and failure to report a breach of the FIFA ethics code.
By David Owen
March 22 – FIFA appears to have suffered a substantial fall in the revenue it receives from the Club World Cup. Notes contained in the governing body’s recently-published financial and governance report for 2015 state that revenue received from the competition last year reached only $20.45 million, a near halving from the $40 million recorded in both 2013 and 2014.
By Mark Baber
March 22 – As China’s Wanda steps in as one of FIFA’s top-level sponsors, its chairman Wang Jianlin says two more Chinese companies will sign up as FIFA partners this year.
March 22 – FIFA has extended four-year bans to apply worldwide for two Algerian players who tested positive for cocaine. And a third player who was found to have taken the stimulant methylhexaneamine has also had his four-year ban extended globally.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 18 – With symbolic timing in order to send out a clear message of intent, FIFA announced its first major sponsor in the post-Sepp Blatter era today as the Wanda Group became the first Chinese company to sign up as a top-tier World Cup partner.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 18 – A month after being handed a 12-year ban from football, former FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke has now joined his former boss Sepp Blatter under criminal investigation in Switzerland.
By David Owen
March 18 – The full scale of the financial damage wreaked by FIFA’s year of turmoil is now becoming apparent. Revenue from marketing rights to the World Cup – sponsorship to you and me – is down over $100 million, or 29%, in 2015 from the equivalent figure in 2011, the corresponding point in the previous four-year commercial cycle.
By David Owen
March 18 – And the answer, ladies and gentlemen, was $3,634,857. With the annual deficit widely expected, much the liveliest interest in FIFA’s just published 2015 financial report was always likely to concern disclosure of former President Joseph Blatter’s famously undisclosed remuneration. And there it is in unsparing detail on page 65, revealing not just his gross salary – $2,964,379 – but also how a variety of additional components,
March 18 – He may not be able to get his old job back but Sepp Blatter remains determined to clear his name in retirement.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 18 – The South African authorities have accused FIFA’s ethics committee of reneging on a promise to consult with them before making public any decisions regarding the notorious pre-2010 World Cup match-fixing case.
March 18 – The Brussels Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by Doyen Sports Investments, the Belgian second-division club Seraing United and the Spanish Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional (LFP) against FIFA, UEFA, the Belgian FA and FIFPro that sought a temporary injunction to suspend the worldwide ban on third-party ownership.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 17 – Furious at FIFA’s explosive revelation that bribes were paid to secure the 2010 World Cup, South African authorities hit back today by accusing football’s world governing body of seriously distorting the facts in order to protect its victim status.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 17 – The backlash against FIFA’s restitution request for tens of millions of dollars in order to restore its battered reputation and put it back on a financial even keel has begun with Ricardo Teixeira, the notorious former head of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), threatening to sue for damages in a counter action.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 16 – The full extent of football’s worst ever corruption scandal has been sensationally laid bare by FIFA which is demanding to be paid back “tens of millions of dollars” pocketed illegally by a raft of disgraced powerbrokers who brought the organisation to its knees and have pleaded guilty in the US-led probe into widespread bribery.