December 19 – When FIFA secretary general Fatma Samoura (pictured right) visited Sierra Leone last month on a working trip that was partly to mediate in the ongoing dispute between the national association and the government over the way football there is run, she somewhat surprisingly suggested that the country bid for the under-17 women’s World Cup.
December 19 – Court papers filed by prosecutors in the US allege that an affiliate of a major broadcasting company in Latin America paid millions of dollars in bribes to obtain the rights for the next four World Cup tournaments in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
By Paul Nicholson
December 19 – The hunting down of Jack Warner by the US Department of Justice suffered a second setback in six months when a judgement at the Hall of Justice, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, refused the US access to join the legal team making the case for his extradition from the island.
December 16 – FIFA’s new video review system, championed by those who have long argued goalline technology alone does not go far enough, has not got off to the most auspicious of starts.
December 16 – As widely anticipated, German football supremo Wolfgang Niersbach, not so long ago touted as a possible UEFA president in succession to Michel Platini, has lost his appeal against a one-year ban in relation to Germany’s 2006 World Cup bid.
December 16 – Former Saudi Arabia international Mohammed Noor, one of his country’s most successful players, has been handed a four-year ban for doping by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
By Andrew Warshaw
December 15 – Any suggestion that Gianni Infantino will get an easy ride over his plans to expand the World Cup has been called into question with Europe’s clubs issuing a hard-hitting statement warning of the consequences.
December 15 – Football history was made Wednesday during the Club World Cup semifinal in Japan as the semi-final became the first official fixture to make use of video technology to award a penalty.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 13 – Gianni Infantino’s plan to expand the World Cup to either 40 or, more likely, 48 teams has encountered its first major obstacle from within one of its own confederations.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 12 – Sepp Blatter has confirmed once and for all that he is calling it a day by deciding not to appeal to the Swiss federal courts to clear his name but has launched a major rebuke over the way he perceives he was treated – and the way his successor Gianni Infantino is now running the show at FIFA.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 9 – Former South African Football Association (SAFA) president Kirsten Nematandani (pictured) has been banned for five years by FIFA’s ethics committee in connection with a match-fixing scandal involving the national team in the build-up to the 2010 World Cup which it hosted.
December 9 – It is common knowledge that Sepp Blatter and his successor Gianni Infantino were not exactly bosom buddies. But now the ex-FIFA president has laid bare the tensions that pervade their relationship by accusing Infantino of a lack of respect by not returning phone calls.
December 9 – Even the great survivor is now calling it a day. Delia Fischer, almost part of the furniture in FIFA’s media department who worked tirelessly for the organisation for 15 years, often having to balance her commendable loyalty with answering the most sensitive of questions – increasingly during the ongoing corruption scandal – is finally on her way out, the latest stalwart to leave following Gianni Infantino’s election.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 8 – It will not be formally agreed by the FIFA Council until early January but it now seems likely future World Cup finals after 2022 will feature 16 groups of three in a 48-team tournament if Gianni Infantino obtains sufficient support for the idea.
December 8 – Julio Rocha, one of the original un-magnificent Zurich Seven, who was responsible for overseeing FIFA’s development programme in Central America, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to his role in the US-led global football bribery investigation.