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.
By Mark Baber
December 14 – US prosecutors have used a leak to the Financial Times newspaper to pile pressure on the banks, central to the FIFA corruption scandal, to provide more information of use to their corruption probe.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 14 – The failed joint 2018 World Cup bid by Belgium and Holland, hitherto untouched by the corruption allegations that have struck at the heart of FIFA and its related confederations, has suddenly become unwittingly embroiled in the saga.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 14 – Just days after being arrested as part of the new wave of US justice department indictments in the FIFA corruption scandal and then suspended by FIFA’s ethics committee for 90 days, Paraguay’s Juan Angel Napout has tendered his resignation as president of CONMEBOL.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 11 – Michel Platini’s hopes of running for FIFA president have suffered a potentially fatal blow, as has his entire footballing future, after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) refused to lift his interim ethics suspension.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 10 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport will announce its verdict into Michel Platini’s appeal against his provisional suspension at 10am tomorrow local time, giving the UEFA president just enough time to speed his way to chair the last session this year of his executive committee – provided he is cleared.
December 10 – Loretta Lynch, the US attorney general whose stunning raft of corruption-linked indictments has plunged world football into disgrace, has indicated her organisation will show no let-up in its pursuit of FIFA and its six confederations.
By Paul Nicholson
December 9 – The battle over who controls world football and the looming spectre of continued and deeper intervention into the business of FIFA by the US justice authorities will become a question in the Swiss parliament on Monday.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 9 – The final verdicts into alleged ethics violations by Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini will almost certainly be handed down on December 21 or 22, potentially handing them the worst possible Christmas present.
December 8 – FIFA’s refereeing chief Massimo Busacca (pictured) wants male and female referees to have the same level of expertise and a deeper knowledge of the game.