By Paul Nicholson
August 10 – It has been a busy few days of letter sending by FIFA and its president Gianni Infantino who have scrambled to inform FA presidents their version of the circumstances surrounding the criminal investigation into Infantino’s meetings with the Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber.
August 10 – Rui Pinto, the Portuguese whistleblower whose string of incriminating revelations shook the footballing world before he was controversially extradited from Hungary to his native Portugal, has been freed from house arrest while remaining under judicial control.
By Paul Nicholson
August 10 – FIFA’s newly hired external PR teams went into overdrive at the weekend with a stunning assault, led by FIFA’s new-found media luvvie Alasdair Bell, the organisation’s deputy general secretary, on the FIFA reform process led Basel criminal law professor Mark Pieth (pictured) as being a useless waste of money.
August 7 – Scottish clubs Hearts and Partick Thistle have each been fined £2,500 by the Scottish FA for going to court to try and stave off their respective relegations.
August 6 – Amnesty International has written to the English Premier League proposing a new owners and directors test that covers human rights concerns and sport-washing following the collapse of the takeover of Newcastle United by a Saudi-led consortium.
August 5 – The unsavoury dispute over who was liable for Emiliano Sala’s €17 million transfer fee from Nantes to Cardiff City is set to drag on more than a year and half after the Argentine forward was tragically killed when the light aircraft carrying him to Cardiff two days after he signed crashed into the sea before he could play a single game.
August 5 – SIGA has announced the first set of speakers for the inaugural Sport Integrity Week, September 7-11.
By Paul Nicholson
August 4 – A long running dispute between the UAE and Qatar that began in January 2019 at the Asian Cup over the eligibility two Qatari players, has finally been settled at CAS with the UAE losing its appeal against the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) decision that the players were eligible.
By Paul Nicholson
August 3 – Musa Bility has made it a hat-trick of hard-hitting letters in the past week with his latest being to the FIFA Council demanding they force the standing down of FIFA president Gianni Infantino following the opening of a criminal investigation by the Swiss judiciary.
August 3 – Sepp Blatter has been quick to call for his successor, Gianni Infantino, to be suspended by FIFA after criminal proceedings were opened against the latter in Switzerland last week.
July 31 – Manchester City’s battle with UEFA over alleged financial fair play breaches is back in the spotlight after the German newspaper Der Spiegel, on whose leaked information UEFA originally based their case, claimed it had fresh evidence showing that City had lied to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
July 31 – The UEFA Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules are not completely in tatters after the Manchester City case. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has ruled against an appeal filed by Turkish club Trabzonspor that will see them banned from next season UEFA club competition.
By Samindra Kunti
July 30 – Saudi Arabia has appealed the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) ruling that it facilitated piracy of Premier League matches after the Kingdom had first claimed that the ruling had been in its favour. It is a move that could impact on Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund’s (PIF) controversial bid to acquire Newcastle United.
July 30 – The £7 million government grant to England’s Pitch Preparation Fund, administered by the Football Foundation grassroots charity, will see 40,131 teams given a boost.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 29 – Manchester City showed a “blatant disregard” for UEFA’s investigation into alleged Financial Fair Play (FFP) breaches but, crucially, no cover-up was committed by the club.