By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
June 19 – After all the talk and concerns about Russia’s record on racism being at the centre of attention at the World Cup, it is a visiting team’s fans who have tarnished the early stages of the tournament.
June 19 – The Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) has opened the application process for its Global Mentorship Programme for Aspiring Female Leaders.
By Samindra Kunti in St Petersburg
June 17 – Iranian women, who have been banned from attending football in the Islamic state since 1980, have protested at Iran’s World Cup opening game against Morocco, seizing the exposure the world’s biggest sporting event, the World Cup, offers.
June 15 – On the day Portugal opened their World Cup campaign in Russia against Spain, their superstar player Cristiano Ronaldo has accepted a suspended prison sentence to settle his tax fraud case, and agreed to pay £16.4 million to the Spanish tax authorities.
June 14 – The Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) has signed a cooperation agreement with the George Washington University (GWU) in the US that will kick start the ‘SIGA University Network’ as the alliance adds other leading academic institutions worldwide.
By Paul Nicholson
June 11 – UEFA and FIFA’s failure to get any kind of control or governance over Greek football is reaching unprecedented levels even by their own woeful standards. The integrity of the game in Greece was hammered again with news that champion club AEK’s owner Dimitris Melissanidis is under investigation for accounting fraud.
June 8 – Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), speaking at the opening of a conference on safeguarding sport from corruption in Vienna emphasised that investing in fighting corruption in sport was an investment in our economic and social future.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 7 – The tit-for-tat row over the cancellation of Argentina’s friendly with Israel this coming Saturday has intensified with the Israelis demanding FIFA investigate what it said were threats against Argentina players and laying the blame squarely at the feet of the Palestinian authorities.
June 7 – A Croatian court has sentenced the former boss of Dinamo Zagreb, Zdravko Mamic (pictured right with brother Zoran), to six-and-a-half years in prison for tax evasion and siphoning off profits from player transfers, allegedly including that of Luka Modric to Tottenham Hotspur and Mateo Kovacic to Inter.
June 7 – England manager Gareth Southgate (pictured) says his squad have a plan to deal with any outbreaks of discrimination at the World Cup after fullback Danny Rose said he had told his family not to come to Russia for fear of racism.
June 6 – FIFA has filed a criminal complaint in Switzerland against the ticket website Viagogo on the eve of the World Cup as part of a crackdown on unauthorised sales.
June 5 – Just weeks after receiving a rapturous send-off after his final game for Manchester City, Yaya Toure has launched a remarkable broadside against title-winning coach Pep Guardiola.
June 4 – Eighteen months after the Swiss criminal investigation into corruption allegations over the awarding of the 2006 World Cup to Germany was broadened to include former FIFA general secretary Urs Linsi (pictured), he is now reported to be among four former leading administrators charged by German prosecutors with serious tax evasion.
June 1 – First he was in, then he was out, he appealed, he lost, he appealed again. And now Peru captain Paolo Guerrero can play after all at the World Cup following a Swiss tribunal’s final verdict.
June 1 – A member of Russia’s World Cup squad could be guilty of a doping violation according to famed whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov.