By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
May 30 – A crestfallen Mohamed Bin Hammam has blamed FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke for helping to bring about his suspension as the unprecedented bribery scandal within football’s world governing body continued to reverberate around the globe.
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
May 29 – A furious Jack Warner tonight blasted back at being suspended by FIFA with a litany of mind-blowing corruption allegations against other senior officials, notably President Sepp Blatter and his number two Jerome Valcke that will ensure the row ripping the world governing body apart will continue for a long time yet.
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One is rarely quite 100 percent sure with FIFA.
But it now looks like Joseph Blatter will get the go-ahead on Wednesday to extend his stint in the governing body’s top seat to 17 years.
Unless 75 percent of the organisation’s 208 member associations vote down the congressional agenda, it is hard to see what can stop the ‘election’ from going ahead, in spite of a campaign that has achieved the seemingly impossible by turning FIFA into even more of an international laughing-stock than it was before.
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
May 29 – The four Executive Committee members, including Trinidad’s Jack Warner, accused by the former chairman of England’s 2018 World Cup bid chairman David Triesman of seeking sweeteners have been cleared by an independent report commissioned by the Football Association, FIFA disclosed today.
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
May 29 – The gravest corruption scandal in the history of FIFA exploded into controversy tonight when Mohamed Bin Hammam and Jack Warner, the two figures at the centre of the affair, were provisionally suspended pending a full inquiry but Sepp Blatter was given the all-clear to stand unopposed for a fourth term as the organisation’s President.
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
May 29 – The FIFA Ethics Committee hearing into bribery allegations involving three of football’s most powerful administrators got under way today amid speculation that at least two of them will be suspended and that the Presidential vote, scheduled for Wednesday (June 1), could be called off.
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
May 29 – Former International Olympic Committee (IOC) vice-president Dick Pound has given his backing to member countries breaking away from FIFA if there is no end to the spate of corruption scandals.
By David Owen
May 29 – FIFA’s chaotic Presidential election took a sensational new twist when the challenger, Mohamed Bin Hammam, unexpectedly withdrew his candidacy.
By David Gold
May 28 – Stan Kroenke’s takeover of Arsenal has been confirmed by the Premier League, and shareholders wishing to take up his offer for their shares have 14 days to accept.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 28 – Sepp Blatter suffered the humiliation of pulling out of the Champions League final today as pressure grew on FIFA to call off next week’s Presidential election because of the escalating bribery scandal.
Reform is the cry of the hour for FIFA. But, the question is: where does the reform start? It is not enough to open up FIFA in Zurich.
For real reform, we need to go to the heart of the organisation which extends beyond Zurich around the world. Without a worldwide fundamental structural reform, no amount of changes in Zurich will enable FIFA to come out of the crisis that has engulfed it.
By Duncan Mackay
May 28 – FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has promised a “football tsunami” during the next two days when he is due to appear before the Ethics Committee accused of corruption as the Presidential election threatens to turn into a farce.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 27 – The phenomenal pull of the Champions League was brought into sharp focus today when it was revealed that tomorrow’s glamour final between Manchester United and Barcelona will be the richest on record.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 27 – FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam today rejected all the evidence against him as “without substance” and has repeated his assertion that the opposing camp are out to smear him.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 27 – Next week’s FIFA Presidential election was plunged into total farce today when Sepp Blatter himself was dragged into the biggest bribery scandal ever to hit the organisation.