By Andrew Warshaw
December 30 – The US sports television network ESPN has invited all five candidates in FIFA’s presidential election to participate in a round-table debate on how they would solve the scandal-hit organisation’s problems.
December 30 – Rafael Esquivel, one of the original ‘Zurich Seven’ arrested last May in the first crackdown by the US Justice Department on FIFA-related corruption, is to remain in custody in Switzerland after losing his latest request to be allowed to be held under house arrest.
December 29 – FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali bin al-Hussein has once again called for former FIFA ethics investigator Michael Garcia’s report into possible wrongdoing during bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to be published immediately.
December 29 – Outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter says he fighting for his honour as he bids to clear his name in the wake of being banned for eight years by FIFA’s ethics committee.
December 23 – The last words of Sepp Blatter at that extraordinary press conference he gave on Monday after being banned for eight years by FIFA’s ethics committee was “I’ll be back.”
By Andrew Warshaw
December 23 – Banned UEFA president Michel Platini has accused FIFA’s ethics committee of being “asleep”, between 2011 and 2015 following its decision to ban him for eight years.
December 23 – The failed Dutch-Belgian bid for the 2018 World Cup is to be submitted for a FIFA Ethics Committee inquiry following newspaper allegations of possible vote buying.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 23 – After years of debate, the traditionally conservative lawmakers of world football are moving a step closer to approving rugby-style video replays for referees.
By Mark Baber
December 22 – FIFA presidential candidate Tokyo Sexwale appeared before the US Grand Jury last week in relation to the Jack Warner bribery allegations and the infamous $10 million from South Africa. He then jumped straight on a plane to Africa where he continued his lobbying in the FIFA election at the COSAFA (Council of Southern African Football Associations) annual general meeting.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 22 – As European football takes stock of Michel Platini’s shock suspension from the game, the UEFA president has vowed to take the same action as Sepp Blatter to try and clear his name, calling his eight-year ban over the infamous SFr2 million payment a “pure masquerade”.
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.