By Andrew Warshaw
October 31 – The much-publicised slush fund allegations surrounding Germany’s hosting of the 2006 World Cup have exploded into fresh controversy amid claims that Franz Beckenbauer, who led the country’s bid, may have personally endorsed a financial inducement to Malta just weeks before its FIFA member was about to vote.
So now we know who’s in and who’s out. A list that at one stage comprised only two candidates suddenly burgeoned to eight – or rather seven after the David Nakhid debacle – in the final hours before the deadline last Monday with the anticipated rush of last-minute applications.
October 30 – In the latest of a series of cherry-picked interviews, Sepp Blatter has lashed out at American-based sponsors for undermining him and his organisation with their adverse comments about FIFA’s corruption scandal.
By Mark Baber
October 30- Barcelona defender Javier Mascherano admitted to two counts of tax fraud totalling 1.5m euros in a five minute hearing on Thursday in Gava near Barcelona.
By Paul Nicholson
October 30 – AFC president and FIFA presidential candidate Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa has issued a stinging rebuke of the reports that he led a task force that identified and prosecuted footballers active in Bahrain’s democracy protests in 2011.
October 30 – Lawyers acting on behalf of Eva Carneiro, the Chelsea team doctor who was verbally lambasted by manager Jose Mourinho and had her position downgraded, have served notice of a claim of constructive dismissal against the club after she failed to agree a severance package.
October 30 – The most powerful official in Asian sport says his continent and Europe should strike a deal to carve up support and avoid going head to head for the right to succeed Sepp Blatter as FIFA president.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 30 – FIFA’s reform guru Francois Carrard is being urged to address the question of gender imbalance as an immediate priority as part of the measures to lift football’s world governing body out of the dark ages.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 30 – The US Virgin Islands has been identified as the country that scuppered former Trinidad and Tobago international midfielder David Nakhid’s hopes of standing for FIFA president.
October 30 – Manchester City are supporting an ‘Innovation in Sport’ competition launched by Ideas Britain via its app which connects young people with great ideas to expert business coaches and brands.
October 30 – The chairman of FIFA’s Reform Committee François Carrard will make his first public appearance since his committee submitted its reform proposals at the Securing Sport 2015 conference in New York next week.
By Ben Nicholson
October 30 – Miami’s public education authority wants a piece of the Beckham action, having pitched Beckham’s group on the idea of developing a high school on the 10.5-acre city-owned site in Little Havana.
October 29 – Rejuvenated Inter Milan who currently top Italy’s Serie A after a 1-0 win over Bologna are reporting chart topping attendance records.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 29 – Four of FIFA’s biggest sponsors have once again denounced the ongoing corruption scandal and say the current reform process being spearheaded by former Olympics guru Francois Carrard is too much of an inside job and needs far more independence.
Everyone knows that putting living things in a vacuum is not to be advised. Apparently the tongue dries up and becomes covered in ice as consciousness is lost. Expulsion of digestive gases causes unpleasant things to happen with bodily fluids. The entire body then swells like a balloon and eventually the subject suffers fatal cardiac arrest. It is very nasty indeed.