By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
February 26 – And then there were four. Just a few hours before the election of a new FIFA president, rank outsider Tokyo Sexwale as expected withdrew from the race but not before stealing the show with a wonderfully humourous speech to FIFA’s voting members.
By Paul Nicholson in Zurich
February 26 – FIFA is stumping up a massive $10 million a month for legal bills and is $550 million off its target.
By Mark Baber
February 26 – After nine months in jail, including nine weeks in the notorious New York Metropolitan Detention Centre – known as ‘Brooklyn’s Abu Ghraib’ – former FIFA executive committee member-elect, CONCACAF executive committee member and Costa Rican Football Federation president Eduardo Li was finally granted bail after a posting a bond of $300,000 in cash, $800,000 in US properties and the salaries of nine supporters worth over $900,000.
By Andrew Warshaw and Paul Nicholson in Zurich
February 26 – Within minutes of being urged not to waste a one-off and essential opportunity to clean up their organisation of years of scandal and disgrace, FIFA’s global membership approved a radical new set of reform proposals by a huge majority today – but not with the unanimous backing the architects of the package might have wished for.
By Paul Nicholson in Zurich
February 26 – FIFA found out yesterday that it had a new stakeholder. The World League Forum officially announced its formation with French Football League President Frédéric Thiriez (pictured), saying: “We want to participate constructively in the reconstruction of FIFA.” The new groups aim is a seat on FIFA’s new governing council.
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
February 26 – Arguably the most crucial summit in FIFA’s 112-year history got under way this morning with a final rallying cry from its outgoing acting president to endorse the much-touted detailed reform package designed to totally overhaul the culture of world football’s scandal-plagued governing body.
By Samindra Kunti
February 26 – Brazilian governing body, the CBF, has released a report highlighting the inequality in wages between football players in Brazil’s domestic game. In 2015, 96 % of Brazil’s football players had a ‘maximum’ salary of just €1,150.
February 26 – Premier League Tottenham Hotspur have taken another step along the path in the £400 million renovation of their White Hart Lane ground, with Mayor of London Boris Johnson giving his stamp of approval and ratifying the scheme that is rooted in a regeneration of the local area.
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
February 25 – Deja vu, groundhog day. Same city, same conference hall. The difference of course is that this time the great survivor has no longer survived. Nevertheless the pantomime, even without its most notorious villain, goes on. The question is, which of the actors will emerge victorious? Anyone who tells you for definite that they know who is going to win the FIFA presidential election Friday afternoon and by exactly how many votes –
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
February 25 – Among friends it was inevitable that Gianni Infantino would claim the biggest acclamation when the five candidates for FIFA president made their final pitches as dusk fell over Switzerland’s banking capital today.
By Paul Nicholson in Zurich
February 25 – Having said all the ‘right things’, and then voted the ‘right way’, CONCACAF’s member associations will now proceed to, hopefully, ‘doing the right thing’. A big step forward was taken by the confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean and its member associations at their extraordinary congress in Zurich where they voted unanimously to approve a wide ranging package of reforms.
By Paul Nicholson in Zurich
February 25 – Acting FIFA president Issa Hayatou opened CONCACAF’s extraordinary congress in Zurich saying that this is one “of the most important weeks in the history of FIFA, and global football.”
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
February 25 – Hopes of FIFA’s much-trumpeted reform measures being approved at tomorrow’s electoral congress have suffered their first potentially serious hitch. Just as Cameroon’s acting FIFA president Issa Hayatou passionately urged the six confederations to rubber-stamp the far-reaching proposals in order to save the organisation’s reputation, so the head of one of his own African federations threatened to throw a major spanner in the works.
By Mark Baber
February 25 – Football Federation of Belize President, Ruperto Vicente, voting in tomorrow’s FIFA election in Zurich, has been suspended according to his Executive Committee, although he claims the suspension is not legal. FIFA and CONCACAF are yet to rule on the matter.
By Mark Baber
February 25 – The Turkish national team’s record goal scorer, former Inter Milan and Galatasaray striker Hakan Sukur, has been indicted for insulting the increasingly dictatorial Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Twitter, an offence for which he faces up to four years in a Turkish jail.