December 17 – The potential introduction of concussions substitutes took a step nearer with rulemaking body IFAB fast tracking trials of a new rule to begin in January 2021.
December 15 – In a remarkable interview with the online version of Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper, the disgraced former head of Haiti’s football federation – banned for life for sexual abuse – has launched a passionate defence of his behaviour by accusing FIFA of being corrupt, declaring he is being used as a scapegoat and arguing that he was given only 10 minutes to respond to the sickening accusations against him.
December 15 – Never one to miss out on a photo opportunity to boost his popularity, Gianni Infantino attended the official signing on Monday of a ground-breaking agreement between the football associations of the UAE and Israel.
December 14 – FIFA has appointed a normalisation committee for the Haitian Football Association after it found “strong indications” that the federation’s disgraced former president Yves Jean-Bart is still exerting his influence despite being banned for life last month following multiple accusations of systematic sexual abuse of female players.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 11 – Gianni Infantino’s increasingly bitter war with the Swiss justice authorities over whether he is guilty of corruption has taken another significant twist with a special prosecutor recommending a criminal investigation against the FIFA President for using a private jet in 2017.
December 10 – Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter was interviewed yesterday by the Swiss Special Prosecutor Stefan Keller who is investigating the criminal charges against FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
December 10 – Belgium have topped the world ranking for a third consecutive year to become the FIFA team of the year, the world governing body said on Thursday.
By Paul Nicholson
December 9 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino has said that the new 24-team format Club World Cup, when it eventually holds its first edition “in China, will be the best club competition in the world.”
December 8 – FIFA is reporting a record 480 teams entered into its FIFAe Club Series, a 150% increase on last season.
By Paul Nicholson
December 7 – Somewhat incredibly, perhaps incredulously, the much derided and unloved Club World Cup (at least by Europe’s clubs and more recently by FIFA itself), has survived to see another day, in fact two more days, in its current 7-team format.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 7 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino has leapt to the defence of VAR amid the chaos and confusion over marginal offside decisions and penalised accidental handballs that many feel are ruining the game as a spectacle.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 4 – The Club World Cup, which many assumed would be a thing of the past in its current anachronistic guise following its next edition in Qatar in February, is being continued by FIFA with Gianni Infantino declaring the importance of defending the interests of the “global” club game.
December 3 – Former Wales captain Laura McAllister looks set to become one of the most powerful women in world and European football.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 30 – With the five-year case against them by Swiss prosecutors seemingly going nowhere, Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini are under investigation for yet more alleged misdemeanours, this time for “fraud” and “breach of trust”.
November 27 – After a dark summer with almost no international football played, Autumn has brought some light with 160 full internationals played in November that in turn have impacted FIFA’s rankings.