By Andrew Warshaw
March 3 – A majority of fans are still worried about corruption in football despite Gianni Infantino’s pledge when he took over as FIFA president a year ago that the crisis was over.
By Paul Nicholson
March 2 – Argentinian football is in a mess and it doesn’t look to be clearing up despite the efforts of a FIFA normalisation committee parachuted in last July to take over the running of the federation and attempt to bring order to the chaos.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 2 – Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the FIFA-appointed official who led the inspection team that evaluated the credentials of all 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding candidates, is going to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in a last-ditch attempt to clear his name and overturn a three-year ban for seeking unpaid intern work in Qatar for relatives.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 1 – Asian football’s governing body has urged FIFA to urgently resolve the festering dispute in the Middle East amid speculation that a call for Israel to be thrown out of world football will be revived in May.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 1 – Amos Adamu (pictured), one of Africa’s most notorious footballing figures, has been banned for a second time by FIFA’s Ethics Committee for unethical conduct, almost certainly bringing the curtain down on a career that has long been shrouded in controversy.
March 1 – German football supremos Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Reinhard Grindel have given a firm thumbs down to Gianni Infantino’s first year as FIFA president.
March 1 – Morocco is reportedly considering a new strategy to challenge north America for the 2026 World Cup, almost certainly the first edition to involve 48 teams.
By Paul Nicholson
February 28 – FIFA’s firing of all its development staff across Africa and the closing of offices in four countries was met with a barrage of criticism within the region last December. Now the governing body of world football is facing a series of legal challenges from former employees to whom it has allegedly refused to make severance payments in accordance with national law.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 28 – I’ll see you in court if necessary. That is the defiant message issued to FIFA by former South African Football Association (SAFA) CEO Leslie Sedibe (pictured) who has served world football’s governing body with a claim for $5 million for defamation of character after being banned for five years over the 2010 matchfixing scandal along with three other SAFA officials.
February 28 – UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin says Donald Trump’s immigration policies could potentially work against the United States in their bid to stage the 2026 World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 28 – Jerome Valcke (pictured), former number two to Sepp Blatter who spectacularly fell from grace after spending years as the organisation’s go-to troubleshooter, is taking his 10-year ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
By Andrew Warshaw
February 27 – Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Some might suggest that in Gianni Infantino’s case they have actually got worse.
By Paul Nicholson
February 23 – FIFA is continuing its meeting of member nations in regional workshops with the latest stop on their schedule being Jamaica, March 1-4, where 14 Caribbean member associations will be gathered.
February 23 – The regional fight for more slots in an expanded World Cup from 2026 is already under way with Africa stating it is looking for 10 places, double its current quota.
By Samindra Kunti
February 23 – New Caledonia and New Zealand have qualified for the Under-17 Football World Cup in India after defeating Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea in two nail-biting semi-final clashes at the U17 OFC Championship.