By Andrew Warshaw
December 21 – Defiant to the last, Sepp Blatter accused the very ethics committee he helped set up of portraying him as a liar and kicking him out of football without good reason.
In a passionate last-ditch stand after being banned for eight years along with Michel Platini – effectively bringing the curtain on his 40-year career at Fifa and almost 18 years in charge – Blatter was determined not to go quietly,
By Andrew Warshaw
December 21 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter and his would-be successor Michel Platini became the two most high-profile casualties of the organisation’s seismic corruption scandal today as their respective careers suffered a shattering blow when both were sensationally banned for eight years.
December 18 – The next FIFA president should not be in power for longer than two terms, according to Jordan’s candidate, Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, who lost last time to Sepp Blatter.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 18 – FIFA’s interim leadership has called on the organisation’s 209 member nations to approve the recently proposed package of reforms as a result of the corruption crisis “that has shaken global football governance to its core”.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 18 – It is unlikely to be a particularly restful weekend for Sepp Blatter – or Michel Platini for that matter. After appearing before the very ethics committee he helped create, the FIFA president runs the risk of never being able to return to the building from which he has run world football’s governing body, often controversially, for the best part of 18 years.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 17 – The Swiss Justice Ministry has frozen millions of Swiss francs related to FIFA as football’s worst ever corruption scandal took another unexpected twist.
By Paul Nicholson
December 17 – Three of the five FIFA presidential hopefuls will parade themselves before a Brussels forum next month to be grilled on their manifestos and plans for football’s world governing body.
December 17 – FIFA presidency candidate Tokyo Sexwale says he won’t let previous loyalties stand in his way if he wins the vote on February 26 next year.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 17 – After protesting his innocence, Sepp Blatter was returning to the building where he has reigned for almost 18 years this morning to make a last-ditch defiant stand to save his battered reputation.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 16 – UEFA president Michel Platini has confirmed he is boycotting Friday’s FIFA ethics committee hearing which will determine whether he is banned from football and has to relinquish his bid for the FIFA presidency.
December 16 – With the treatment of migrant workers in Qatar under continuing scrutiny in the build-up to the 2022 World Cup, FIFA has appointed a United Nations official to develop a global human rights strategy for the organisation going forward.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 16 – Sepp Blatter says he is “bewildered by the insinuations and accusations” against him and that FIFA’s ethics committee has no option but to acquit him when he appears before them tomorrow to try and clear his name over the infamous SFr2 million payment made to Michel Platini by FIFA.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 15 – Despite being suspended over the infamous SFr2 million payment deal allegedly struck with Michel Platini, FIFA president Sepp Blatter has written to all 209 member federations proclaiming his innocence as he prepares for his pivotal hearing this week before FIFA ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert.
December 15 – David Nakhid, the former Trinidad and Tobago midfielder who was excluded from the FIFA presidential campaign on a technicality, has failed in his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to have the ruling overturned.
By Paul Nicholson
December 14 – The Swiss government has responded to questions over whether it plans to shut down FIFA saying that it was not “currently” considering a state intervention at FIFA but fell short of ruling this out as a possibility.