By Samindra Kunti
December 15 – Brazilian football needs its own 1992 Premier League moment – with Bom Senso that moment may have finally arrived in the country that lit up the world stage with its teams and players.
By Andrew Warshaw in Amsterdam
December 15 – The head of the international players’ union FIFpro says football is facing its “worst ever crisis” because of the imbalance between rich and poor and has urged his members to stick together to safeguard the sport.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 15 – Hassan Al-Thawadi, head of Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organising committee who was the public face of the surprise ballot victory five years ago, says his team has not been contacted by any officials from either the US or Swiss investigations into widespread football corruption and has repeated he does not expect the Gulf state to be stripped of host status.
December 15 – David Nakhid, the former Trinidad and Tobago midfielder who was excluded from the FIFA presidential campaign on a technicality, has failed in his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to have the ruling overturned.
December 14 – Tickets for the Euro 2016 finals went on sale this morning following the draw of the championship schedule in Paris on Saturday. 800,000 tickets are on sale to fans in this window which closes January 18.
By Paul Nicholson
December 14 – The Swiss government has responded to questions over whether it plans to shut down FIFA saying that it was not “currently” considering a state intervention at FIFA but fell short of ruling this out as a possibility.
By Mark Baber
December 14 – US prosecutors have used a leak to the Financial Times newspaper to pile pressure on the banks, central to the FIFA corruption scandal, to provide more information of use to their corruption probe.
By Ben Nicholson
December 14 – The MLS has committed near an additional $37 million for clubs to spend on player salaries. In both the 2016 and 2017 seasons, $125,000 per season will be dedicated to clubs to use on signing Homegrown Players, and $800,000 per season will be made available to all MLS clubs in the form of Targeted Allocation Money (TAM).
December 14 – UEFA president Michel Platini may have long been opposed to goal-line technology but his organisation now realises it can no longer resist its implementation.
By Ben Nicholson
December 14 – The 2015 MLS season came to an end last week with the MLS Cup final between Portland Timbers and Columbus Crew. And while the league’s lofty ambitions have been creating international stir in recent months, the cup final failed to generate much of a domestic stir, according TV viewership figures.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 14 – The failed joint 2018 World Cup bid by Belgium and Holland, hitherto untouched by the corruption allegations that have struck at the heart of FIFA and its related confederations, has suddenly become unwittingly embroiled in the saga.
By Ben Nicholson
December 14 – The United Soccer League Players Association (USLPA) – consisting of those players employed in the United Soccer League (USL), which is considered the third tier of US soccer – is coming close to formal unionisation.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 14 – Just days after being arrested as part of the new wave of US justice department indictments in the FIFA corruption scandal and then suspended by FIFA’s ethics committee for 90 days, Paraguay’s Juan Angel Napout has tendered his resignation as president of CONMEBOL.
For years we have speculated about when China will host a World Cup. In 2030 maybe? Or 2034? Perhaps even 2026 in the (unlikely) event that the United States (or A.N.Other) somehow wrests the endlessly controversial 2022 competition away from Qatar.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 11 – UEFA’s top brass have given Michel Platini as much time as possible to try and clear his name to run for FIFA president – but could have a new chief in place themselves at the start of May if he is banned from the game.