By Andrew Warshaw
May 25 – Ten months after Lionel Messi and his father were given 21-month suspended jail sentences for tax fraud relating to the player’s image rights, Spain’s Supreme Court has confirmed both the sentence and the €2 million fine imposed on Barcelona’s Argentine superstar.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 25 – Costas Takkas, close associate of disgraced ex-CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb and like Webb one of the original ‘Zurich Seven’ arrested two years ago in that infamous hotel swoop that plunged FIFA into unprecedented crisis, has changed his plea to guilty to money laundering conspiracy as his trial gets closer.
By Samindra Kunti
May 5 – Neymar and his father will stand trial over alleged fraud and corruption in the player’s transfer from Santos to FC Barcelona in 2013. The other defendants will be the current and former Barcelona presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell, FC Barcelona, Santos and NN Consultoria. All have denied the charges.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 2 – Former CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb, one of the first arrests in the burgeoning FifaGate scandal and still the highest profile figure to be indicted, has had his sentencing date put off for the fourth time since he pleaded guilty to racketeering and money laundering.
April 27 – Secret payments made to players and agents is reported to be at the centre of the football tax fraud investigation launched by British and French authorities.
By Paul Nicholson
April 26 – Five days after CONCACAF filed a lawsuit in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, claiming $20 million in damages against former executives Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer, Warner has responded by saying he will file a suit against CONCACAF for $40 million claiming “persistent defamation” of character. He also says he is suing US Soccer Federation president and FIFA Council member Sunil Gulati personally.
April 11 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) have finally released a statement upholding FIFA’s recruitment ban on Belgian club RFC Seraing for breaching third-party ownership rules – but has confirmed is has reduced the sanction from four transfer windows to three.
By Samindra Kunti
April 7 – The Court of Arbitration CAS has dismissed an appeal lodged by Brazil’s Internacional over Vitoria Da Bahia’s problems with the player’s registration of Victor Ramos. The decision confirms Internacional’s relegation to Brazil’s Serie B.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 31 – FIFA’s hugely expensive 22-month internal investigation into the bribery and corruption that brought the organisation to its knees has been officially wound up, with mountains of potentially incriminating evidence passed to Swiss law enforcement authorities.
March 13 – Concerns that football’s worst ever corruption crisis may no longer be a priority under the Trump administration have been heightened by the resignation of Robert L Capers, among 46 United States Attorneys who have stepped down on the orders of new Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
March 10 – FIFA have welcomed the decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to uphold a recruitment ban on Belgian club RFC Seraing during four transfer windows imposed back in September 2015 for breaches relating to third party ownership.
February 21 – Barcelona’s troubles on the field are being matched by a serious distraction off it with the news that Brazilian star Neymar has lost his final appeal and will stand trial on corruption charges relating to his transfer from Santos to Barcelona four years ago.
By Paul Nicholson
February 20 – Egypt’s top court in Cairo has this morning (Monday) upheld death sentences for 10 men for their part in the violence that left 74 football fans dead in the Port Said stadium disaster in February 2012.
February 20 – A total of 18 people, including three players, are to stand trial in the latest match-fixing case to hit Spain. Former Real Betis trio Xavier Torres, Antonio Amaya Carazo and Jordi Figueras are accused of accepting payments to rig results at the end of the 2013-14 La Liga season in an effort to ensure Osasuna avoided relegation.
February 20 – US president Donald Trump’s executive order barring those from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen entering the country – now on hold – has nevertheless had its first high profile impact on a footballer.