July 7 – The dismissal of the appeal by Klubi Sportiv Skenderbeu to have their Champions League ban lifted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) could prove to be a landmark decision in the battle against match-fixing.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 6 – FIFA’s appeals committee has cut the suspension of former secretary general Jerome Valcke (pictured) from 12 years to 10 and reduced Asian football powerbroker Chung Mong-joon’s ban from six years to five, though both moves represent only partial success for the two senior officials who served under the Sepp Blatter regime and were determined to clear their names.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 4 – Speculation that the net could be closing in on FIFA president Gianni Infantino has been intriguingly stepped up following the publication of an explosive leaked memo, seemingly on official FIFA letter-headed paper, that accuses Infantino of a series of ethics violations.
The largest corruption threat to football is the one that its administrators frequently seem most reluctant to face aggressively. Match-fixing cannot be swept under the carpet but the anti-match-fixing fight does need more funding and the acceptance of objective benchmarks to evaluate the independence of the governing bodies in the front line.
July 1 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has banned two Thai referees for life for involvement in match-fixing following a meeting of its disciplinary committee.
By Andrew Warshaw and Paul Nicholson
June 29 – After some respite with media attention focussed on events on the field at Euro 2016 in France and the Copa America Centenario in the US, the pressure is back on FIFA president Gianni Infantino following yet more speculation that he is to be investigated by FIFA’s ethics committee over possible conflict of interest.
By Paul Nicholson
June 28 – A ruling last week in the Supreme Court in the US could well send shivers down the spines of football marketing executives and rights holders who haven’t been caught up in the US football corruption investigations, yet.
June 23 – Players in Britain who have been encouraged to invest in tax avoidance schemes are increasingly being caught offside by UK tax collectors. They need to act now before all is lost. By Tessa Lorimer, Withers
June 3 – Barcelona and Argentina superstar Lionel Messi, on trial for alleged tax fraud in Spain, has told a court he had no involvement in the management of his financial affairs.
June 3 – Another of the football officials indicted by the US Justice Department in the football corruption investigation has lost his battle against extradition from his home country to the US. A Peruvian court has ruled against former federation boss Manuel Burga’s request to remain in the country.
June 2 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) at a meeting of its Governance Reform Task Force has taken steps to implement a new and more detailed whistleblower policy, a first for a football confederation outside the area of match-fixing.
June 2 – A leading anti-corruption expert who was part of the original team commissioned by FIFA to recommend specific reform proposals has become Group CEO of the Qatar-based International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS).
By Paul Nicholson
May 27 – Details are slowly emerging that as many as 16 bank accounts were held by FIFA officials at Swiss private bank Julius Baer, with at least four of them held by officials indicted by the US Department of Justice in its investigation into FIFA corruption and money laundering.
May 24 – Efforts to crack down on match-fixing in Italy have been stepped up with the arrest in Naples of 10 people who, according to the authorities, conspired to alter the results of two matches in Serie B in 2014.
May 23 – The International Centre for Sport Security Europe (ICSS Europe) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the US Department of Health and Human Services Partners to promote healthy sport across the globe. The US.