By Andrew Warshaw
November 13 – FIFA’s electoral committee were unanimous in allowing Asian football chief Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa to run for the presidency and in banning Liberia’s Musa Bility from standing, Insideworldfootball has learned.
By Paul Nicholson in Manama, Bahrain
November 12 – Bahrain’s most famous footballer and the national team’s top scorer Ala’a Hubail, has told Insideworldfootball that he hopes “Shaikh Salman becomes president because he would be the first arab president and that makes me very proud.” He also said that the allegations swirling around Shaikh Salman’s candidacy are not true, “it is not in his character”.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 12 – The race for the FIFA presidency will be contested by five candidates, pending Michel Platini’s appeal against suspension, after Liberia’s Musa Bility was unexpectedly ruled out following integrity checks into the potential contenders to take over from Sepp Blatter on February 26.
November 11- Suspended Fifa president Sepp Blatter, who a few days ago was reported to be suffering from stress, has now been hospitalised for treatment after what has been described as a “small breakdown”.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 11- Uefa general secretary Gianni Infantino insists he will not give way to Michel Platini if he wins the Fifa presidential election on February 26.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 10 – Comprehensive integrity checks into six of the seven candidates running for FIFA president have now been completed by FIFA ethics investigators – but no recommendations have been made and the verdicts won’t be announced for several more days.
By Samindra Kunti
November 9 – The Dutch FA KNVB is considering possible legal steps against FIFA after Sepp Blatter’s controversial revelation that Russia was awarded the 2018 FIFA World Cup with a fixed agreement. The KNVB have contacted their Belgian counterparts for consultation.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 9 – The English Football Association has written to FIFA demanding answers to “important questions”, following Sepp Blatter’s revelation that a pre-arranged pact was made to hand the 2018 World Cup to Russia before the vote.
November 8 – Suspended FIFA president Sepp Blatter has been ordered to rest because of stress as he awaits the outcome of an ethics investigation into alleged financial misconduct.
By Andrew Warshaw
Nvember 5 – Critics of Sepp Blatter have long been calling for his head and while he has certainly been feeling the heat, residents in a small south of England town have taken the burning issue of his alleged role in FIFA’s unprecedented corruption scandal to somewhat incendiary lengths.
By Paul Nicholson in New York
November 5 – The US Department of Justice assault on FIFA has not been motivated by sour grapes over failing to win the bid for the 2022 World Cup, said former US attorney journal Eric Holder who was part of the initial investigation but left his post in April, before the arrests in Zurich and indictments were announce last May.
By Paul Nicholson in New York
November 3 – FIFA presidential candidate Tokyo Sexwale, speaking in New York at the Securing Sport 2015 conference, said that he felt FIFA’s sponsors had gone too far in issuing an ultimatum that either current president Sepp Blatter must go or they will pull their funding.
By Paul Nicholson
November 3 – The chair FIFA’s reform committee Francois Carrard says that he does not believe FIFA is systemically corrupt and that he hopes he will have the opportunity to speak to all the presidential candidates before the elections in February.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 3 – South Africa’s Tokyo Sexwale still has work to do before convincing his own African confederation that he should become their preferred candidate for the FIFA presidential election.
By Mark Baber
November 3 – Talks are continuing Tuesday, amidst high hopes, as a joint FIFA and AFC delegation meets with key stakeholders, including the Indonesian president, to find a solution for Indonesian football and to lift the country’s suspension which is causing increasing damage to the football infrastructure of one of SE Asia’s leading footballing powers.