December 5 – A prominent Brazilian businessman testified on Monday that he participated in a bribery scheme to buy the influence of key FIFA officials in order to win commercial rights to major tournaments, a decision he later regretted.
November 30 – A former accountant working with Argentina-based marketing firm Torneos y Competencias has told the FifaGate trial in New York how he handled the payment of millions of dollars in bribes to powerful south American officials in exchange for the rights to broadcast tournaments and matches.
November 30 – Gambia has bowed to FIFA pressure after the country’s sports council chairman, Bori Darboe, reinstated the national FA’s executive committee.
November 30 – Real Madrid’s Croatian midfield star Luka Modric has become the latest high-profile player in Spain accused of tax fraud on revenue from his image rights.
November 28 -Fresh revelations at the FifaGate scandal trial in New York have heaped more unwanted publicity on 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar with the former president of Colombia’s federation testifying that a sports marketing executive told him that up to $15 million in bribe money was potentially available for South American officials to back Qatar’s bid.
November 24 – The son of disgraced former Ecuador FA president Luis Chiriboga (pictured) has testified against his father in the FIFAgate corruption trial in New York, admitting he facilitated bribery payments.
By Samindra Kunti
November 23 – Dutch Minister for Sport Bruno Bruins wants the Dutch FA (KNVB) to consider narrowing the salary gap between professional men’s and women’s football in the Netherlands.
November 23 – The former owner of Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala has reportedly been questioned for two days in France following his arrest on suspicion of tax evasion.
November 22 – With just days to go until the much-trumpeted draw in Moscow on December 1, the spectre of doping continues to hang over 2018 World Cup hosts Russia and their main organiser Vitaly Mutko.
November 22 – Despite Qatar’s World Cup organisers being at pains to stress that the FIFAGate corruption trial in New York has nothing to do with them, yet another connection – however tenuous – has emerged between the 2022 bid process and the three football powerbrokers on trial for allegedly taking multiple bribes.
November 22 – Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku has avoided a possible jail sentence in the United States by agreeing to compensate police in Los Angeles for their repeated callouts over loud parties he held at a house he was renting in the summer.
November 21 – A prosecution witness in the increasingly revelatory FIFAGate corruption trial in New York says eight South American officials who received bribes in exchange for broadcasting and sponsorship rights were all given code names relating to different car brands, logged in secret Excel spreadsheets.
November 21 – Days after Mexican broadcaster Televisa was named in the New York corruption trial as paying bribes for World Cup rights, one of its senior executives, Adolfo Lagos Espinosa, was shot dead in Mexico City. It is unclear whether this was related to the courtroom revelation.
November 21 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has launched a mobile whistleblower app which will enable fans, players and officials to report suspicious activities or supply information on match-fixing and other forms of corruption in football.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 20 – “We’re round the corner and watching you, FIFA…” That’s what many may read into a new partnership between the two former heads of FIFA’s ethics department who have gone into business together in Zurich to advise on good governance in sport.