By Andrew Warshaw
July 6 – Sepp Blatter has long maintained that politics played a part in the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. But now he has named names in terms of the supposed guilty governments: France and Germany.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 2 – The United States has formally asked Switzerland to extradite the seven senior FIFA officials arrested in Zurich in May on charges of alleged bribery and corruption – but it could take several months, possibly up to a year, for the request to be processed.
July 2 – In his most hard-hitting interview since announcing he is quitting as FIFA president, Sepp Blatter has dismissed any suggestion that he is corrupt, insists he is clean and says his detractors “should go to jail.”
June 30 – FIFA’s main crime-buster has expressed his regret at Interpol’s decision to end the two organisations’ “unique collaboration” because of the corruption scandal that has rocked world football’s governing body.
By Paul Nicholson
June 30 – News that Trinidad & Tobago had received extradition papers from the US seeking former FIFA vice president Jack Warner, who was indicted in the FIFA investigation, have been quickly denied by the US Department of Justice which said it has not sent “any final requests” regarding the extradition.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 29 – Dominico Scala, independent chairman of FIFA’s audit and compliance committee, has said that the time for playing the politics of the media is over, as FIFA prioritises its reform agenda and prepares for a change of leadership.
June 29 – News of the FIFA seven arrested in dawn raids at their Zurich hotels on May 28 has been sparse. But last Friday a Swiss court reported that it had turned down an application for bail from one of the arrested, believed to be Uruguayan Eugenio Figueredo, as it said he posed a “risk of flight”.
By Mark Baber
June 26 – The lawyer for Eduardo Li, president of Costa Rica’s Football Federation and a CONCACAF and FIFA executive committee member, has described the case against his client as a “legal absurdity” saying there is no evidence his client took bribes or participated in a criminal enterprise. Li was picked up in the Swiss police swoop on FIFA executives prior to the congress in Zurich last month.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 26 – Where will FIFA president Sepp Blatter make his first overseas public appearance since he announced he is stepping down in the wake of the corruption scandal that has enveloped his organisation?
June 25 – FIFA has launched a scholarship programme for female coaches in a bid to boost the number of A licenced coaches.
June 25 – With the Women’s World Cup in Canada the focus of world football attention, FIFA has launched the first edition of the Female Leadership Development Programme with the first module scheduled to kick off in Vancouver July 4, just before the Women’s World Cup final.
By Mark Baber
June 23 – Whilst most attention has been focused on the role of the FIFA President and General-Secretary in relation to the current US and Swiss investigations of corruption in football, a largely unnoticed statement by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – the inter-governmental body whose responsibility it is to promote policies to protect the global financial system against money laundering – has pointed a finger of blame at financial institutions.
June 22 – Former FIFA and Brazilian powerbroker Ricardo Teixeira has spoken openly for the first time about his role in the 2018 and 2022 bid process, describing claims that he took bribes as “nonsense.”
By Andrew Warshaw
June 22 – Writing in the latest edition of FIFA magazine, president Sepp Blatter talks of the need to “strengthen democracy within the ‘FIFA government’.”
By Paul Nicholson
June 19 – Zurich-based private bank Julius Baer is emerging as one of the key conduits for South American and US money in the FIFA corruption scandal. The bank has reacted by freezing the accounts of several football officials as well as blocking credit cards linked to those accounts.