By Andrew Warshaw
December 17 – The most damaging scandal in the history of FIFA came to an abrupt conclusion today when Mohamed Bin Hammam dropped his long-running fight to clear his name, walking away after being banned for life by FIFA for “repeated violations” of the world governing body’s code of ethics while he was head of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
By Andrew Warshaw
December 17 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter is to contact his opposite number at UEFA, Michel Platini, to question the meagre sanctions handed to Serbia by Europe’s governing body in the wake of the racism and violence that marred the under-21 tie against England in Kruševac in October.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 17 – Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner insists Mohamed Bin Hammam would have had a “great chance” of beating Sepp Blatter in last year’s FIFA Presidential race had bribery allegations not derailed his campaign.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 17 – FIFA has given Indonesia one final chance to put its house in order in what President Sepp Blatter described as a “Christmas gift”.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 14 – Bulgarian police have detained 12 players and two alleged organisers in the first arrests of an ongoing investigation into match-fixing.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 14 – A hugely symbolic development in relations between the football authorities on both sides of the political divide in Cyprus will take place in the New Year when the President of the Cyprus Football Association (CFA), Costakis Koutsokoumnis, holds a formal meeting with representatives on the Turkish-controlled north of the island.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 14 – The FIFA-appointed corruption buster looking into the conduct of Mohamed Bin Hammam, the man who tried to challenge Sepp Blatter for the FIFA Presidency, has admitted no new charges will be brought to support the claim that Bin Hammam bribed Caribbean officials during his doomed election campaign.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 14 – Despite UEFA President Michel Platini’s oft-quoted insistence that his organisation favoured a zero tolerance approach to racism, Serbian authorities were handed a series of less than drastic sanctions today in the wake of their fans’ behaviour at the now infamous under-21 fixture against England in October.
December 13 – Speaking at the International Football Arena (IFA) conference in Japan, Khaled Mortagy, a board director of Egyptian champions Al-Ahly and the African qualifiers for the FIFA Club World Cup, gave a brutally honest presentation outlining the journey the game was taking away from the dark days of football corruption, Government interference and the scenes of shocking violence.
December 13 – Speaking at the International Football Arena (IFA) Roundtable in Tokyo, FIFA general secretary, Jerôme Valcke said that the future of football lies in the development of grassroots activities, “which must be dominated by a strong infrastructure that is centered around club football anywhere in the world.”
By Andrew Warshaw
December 12 – European football’s governing body is clamping down hard on third party ownership – by which footballers are partly controlled by outside parties when it comes to access and transfer rights.
By Tom Degun
December 12 – The Indonesian Government has formed a football task force in a last-ditch attempt to avoid a FIFA suspension following a major row between two rival soccer factions in the country.
By Duncan Mackay
December 12 – Issa Hayatou is set to extend his 25-year reign as head of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) unopposed after Jacques Anouma’s challenge to be President was thrown out.
By Emily Goddard
December 11 – Christine Sinclair, who led Canada’s women’s football team to a bronze medal at the London 2012 Olympics – the team’s first podium finish since 1936 – has been named the winner of the 2012 Lou Marsh Award.
By Tom Degun
December 11 – Attorney General Dominic Grieve has made an application to quash the original Hillsborough inquest verdicts.