September 21 – Not before time, FIFA is set to back down and lift its ban on British national teams displaying the poppy symbols on shirts and armbands to honour the war dead of World War 1 and all conflicts since.
September 22 – Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Paris St-Germain’s Neymar were selected Friday as the final three nominees for the Best FIFA Men’s Player award.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 22 – Russia’s new FIFA Council member, Alexey Sorokin, says his country fully deserves to maintain its place at FIFA’s top table. “The fact is it was important for Russia to preserve its place in the world governing body of football. We’ve had a role since 1947. We are a prominent football nation and we think we deserve a seat on the FIFA Council and deserve to take part in the overall management,” said Sorokin in an interview with Insideworldfootball.
By Mark Baber
September 20 – FIFA have confirmed they are investigating Chelsea for third time in eight years over possible breaches of regulations around signing youth players. Chelsea deny any wrongdoing.
By Paul Nicholson
September 20 – Champagne corks will be popping in Miami, New York, and Zurich following the decision by the FIFA Ethics adjudicatory chamber to ban Gordon Derrick, the president of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) and general secretary of the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association (ABFA), for six years.
By Paul Nicholson
September 19 – It is one of the most important positions in FIFA if done correctly, and in the past one of the most corrupted. FIFA has appointed CONCACAF president and FIFA vice president, Victor Montagliani as chairman of FIFA Ticketing AG, the FIFA subsidiary that controls and administers the global sale of tickets for the World Cup.
September 19 – Embattled Sierra Leone football leader Isha Johansen is to bid for re-election despite an increasingly bitter power struggle and a four-year reign blighted by in-fighting.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 18 – Last week’s remarkable testimony to a group of British parliamentarians by former FIFA governance guru Miguel Maduro not only exposed the way FIFA, under Gianni Infantino, tried to exert influence on independent judicial bodies but also highlighted serious misgivings about FIFA’s electoral process.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 15 – FIFA have announced a new format for the 2018 World Cup draw with teams to be grouped by their places in the world rankings rather than by Continent.
By Paul Nicholson
September 14 – At FIFA they come like buses, you wait for one and another follows right behind. No sooner had sacked former chairman of FIFA governance committee Miguel Maduro lifted the lid on new FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s manipulations of the ethics system, than another former governance committee member revealed that he had filed a complaint to FIFA Ethics.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 13 – Cornel Borbely (pictured), FIFA’s former ethics investigations chief whose work brought down a string of corrupt officials, has been barred from giving evidence to a British parliamentary committee, blatantly calling into question FIFA’s insistence it has nothing to hide and that the dark days of corruption are over.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 13 – FIFA’s entire approach to ethical standards under Gianni Infantino came under attack today by the man ousted as the organisation’s chief governance and electoral watchdog.
September 13 – After expressing serious reservations about the ruling, South African football chiefs have decided not to launch an appeal against FIFA’s order to replay last year’s World Cup qualifier against Senegal because of corrupt officiating.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 12 – As Miguel Maduro, axed as head of FIFA’s governance committee last May during a purge of senior ethics watchdogs, prepares for his appearance before a British parliamentary committee later today, it has come to light that both of FIFA’s former ethics chiefs are also set to go public to discuss their time at the organisation and the controversial circumstances of their removal.
September 12 – The knock-on effect of FIFA ordering a replay of the South Africa-Senegal World Cup qualifier because of corrupt officiating has taken another twist with group leader Burkina Faso criticising the move as unconstitutional.