By Andrew Warshaw
February 9 – FIFA presidential candidate Gianni Infantino’s controversial World Cup expansion plan has suffered its first significant setback, with Europe’s major clubs coming out firmly against any change to the status quo.
By David Owen
February 9 – FIFA Presidency candidate Gianni Infantino hinted last week that if successful in his quest for the top job he might appoint an African general secretary.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 9 – Musa Bility, Liberia’s football leader who was excluded from being a candidate for FIFA president because he failed strict integrity checks, seems determined to do everything in his power to make life difficult for the official who barred him from taking part.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 8 – Banned FIFA president Sepp Blatter will be turned away from the upcoming election to replace him, as well as risk an even more severe sanction, if he dares attend the congress on February 26, Insideworldfootball has learned.
February 8 – Tokyo Sexwale may be clutching at straws but he refuses to give up hope ahead of the FIFA presidential election – for the moment at least.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 5 – African football officials are due to announce later today whether they will formally endorse the only candidate from their Continent in the FIFA presidential race, Tokyo Sexwale, or to back one of the other contenders.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 5 – Banned FIFA president Sepp Blatter could make a defiant farewell appearance at the Congress that will elect his successor – even if he has been unable to clear his name in time.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 4 – FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali bin al-Hussein is back on the offensive, this time over the controversial decision to block $20 million in funding to CONMEBOL and CONCACAF, the two confederations at the centre of football’s worst ever corruption crisis.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 4 – Speculation that Tokyo Sexwale will pull out of the race to become FIFA president has been fuelled by his continuing inability to secure the unequivocal backing of his own South African federation, let alone the African Continent as whole.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 4 – The five rivals running for FIFA president have agreed to hold a private summit in mid-February shortly before the February 26 election to succeed Sepp Blatter, according to FIFA’s Russian powerbroker Vitaly Mutko, one of the most influential figures in European football.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 3 – The growing influence of Domenico Scala as the prime mover in the drive to clean up FIFA has been further underlined by this week’s unprecedented ruling to block $20 million of payments to CONCACAF and CONMEBOL, the two confederations most seriously damaged by football’s ongoing corruption scandal.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 3 – Just days after dismissing Gianni Infantino’s World Cup promises as pure electioneering, Russian football boss Vitaly Mutko says his federation will support him at the February 26 ballot to succeed Sepp Blatter.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 2 – In an unprecedented move that will heap even more hardship and anguish on to both scandal-hit confederations, FIFA has blocked a reported $20 million in funding to CONMEBOL and CONCACAF – just when they are trying to put their respective houses in order.
By Andrew Warshaw at Wembley
February 2 – If Gianni Infantino’s chances of clinching the presidency of FIFA on February 26 were judged on promotional opportunism and slick public relations, we may as well stop taking bets now.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 1 – Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini will have their appeals against their respective eight-year bans heard by FIFA’s appeal judges in the middle of February.