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.
November 20 – The Daily Fantasy Sports business is to get its first conference, hosted in Malta, later this week (November 23). The European Fantasy Sports Summit (EFSS) aims to give an international platform to a DFS focused agenda.
November 17 – A judge in Paraguay has authorised the extradition to the United States of former CONMEBOL boss Nicolás Leoz, alleged to have been one of the masterminds in the FIFAGate corruption scandal but who has so far managed to escape the clutches of US prosecutors.
November 17 – FIFA has been adjudged to have wrongly viewed chanting by Mexican fans towards opposition goalkeepers at World Cup qualifiers as homophobic.
By Paul Nicholson
November 16 – The second day of testimony by Alejandro Burzaco in the FIFA bribery case brought more drama to the Brooklyn court after one of the defendants, Peruvian Manuel Burga, was accused of twice making slashing motions across his throat towards Burzaco.
By Paul Nicholson
November 15 – The depth of the corruption around the sale of TV rights that has plagued South and North America and shattered the reputations of football officials worldwide, was unmasked in the federal court in Brooklyn yesterday. For the first time major broadcast networks Fox Sports (USA), and Televisa (Mexico) were dragged into the narrative alongside Brazil’s TV Globo, all of whom were accused of paying bribes for rights.
November 15 – Former FIFA vice president Chung Mong-joon has testified at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to challenge his five-year ban for failing to cooperate with ethics investigators.
November 15 – South African football officials, plagued over the years by match-fixing scandals, insist they will speedily investigate the latest claims – this time in a regional game of the country’s premier women’s league, Sasol.
By Paul Nicholson
November 14 – With jury selection complete, the trial of three South American former football administrators began in earnest with opening statements on Monday in the Brooklyn Federal court.