By Andrew Warshaw
April 15 – Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has hailed the dropping of criminal mismanagement charges against him by Swiss prosecutors as a partial success in his bid to clear name and has dragged his successor Gianni Infantino into the narrative by implying Infantino was partly behind a conspiracy against him.
April 15 – In a joint statement from SIGA (the Sports Integrity Global Alliance) and the President’s Council on Sport, Fitness and Nutrition (PCSFN) based in the United States, the two bodies have reaffirmed their cooperation and commitment to a sports integrity reform agenda.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 14 – Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter (pictured), still under a six-year global ban from football at the age of 84 despite always protesting his innocence, has won a partial victory against his accusers with federal prosecutors in Switzerland agreeing to drop one of two cases against him for suspected criminal mismanagement.
April 14 – In a move that will fuel further suspicion over his links with FIFA president Gianni Infantino, Switzerland’s federal court has prevented controversial Attorney General Michael Lauber’s (pictured) bid to rejoin investigations of corruption.
April 14 – Two former 21st Century Fox Inc. executives have been released on $15 million bail after pleading not guilty for their alleged roles in the FIFAgate scandal.
By Paul Nicholson
April 9 – The former president and board of the Trinidad and Tobago FA (TTFA) have followed through on their promise and yesterday filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against their removal and replacement by a FIFA Normalisation Committee.
April 9 – Rui Pinto, the Portuguese whistleblower whose string of incriminating revelations shook the footballing world before he was controversially extradited from Hungary to his native Portugal, has been released from pre-trial detention and placed under house arrest, his lawyers announced.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 8 – Qatar’s World Cup organisers, who thought they had finally moved on from years of suspicion and finger-pointing over the process by which they were awarded the 2022 tournament, have been forced to deny fresh allegations of corruption and bribery.
April 8 – The Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) and Inside World Football launch today the first edition of ‘4 Questions for 4 Leaders’, focusing on how the Olympic movement are dealing with the Coronavirus global pandemic, the impact on sport in different regions across the world and the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
April 8 – Former Brazil and Barcelona star Ronaldinho, detained in Paraguay after an investigation into the use of fake passports to enter the country, has been released but will remain under house arrest in the country.
April 7 – Franco Frattini (pictured left) is the,Justice and Chamber President to the Italian Supreme Administrative Court and the leading judge tackling mafia and organised crime in Italy. Frattini is also the chair the Sports Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA). In a joint statement with SIGA CEO Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros (pictured right), they say the battle against financial crime in sport must be harder and faster fought.
April 6 – On Sunday, Jose Maria Marin, 87, returned home to his native Brazil. The disgraced former football official spent five years detained overseas following his arrest and conviction in the FIFAgate scandal.
April 3 – The Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA), led by SIGA America, has set up a task force with the aim of developing Universal Standards on Youth Development and Child Protection in Sport.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 2 – One of the UK’s youngest and most courageous club owners has laid bare exactly what it means for teams outside the country’s four professional divisions to have their seasons closed down and all results expunged.
April 2 – The new president of the Namibia Football Association, Ranga Haikali, who vowed to rebuild trust and credibility when he took over in February, has revealed “damning findings” against the federation’s former leadership following a new financial audit reportedly ordered by FIFA.