November 30 – Belgium remain top of FIFA’s latest rankings, just, with world champions France a close second and Brazil in third spot. Sweden and Serbia were among the big movers.
November 30 – Spain and Mexico will lock horns on Saturday to decide who takes gold at the U17 Women’s World Cup in Uruguay.
November 30 – FIFA have opened a regional office in South Africa to serve the interests of the 14 Council of Southern Africa Football Associations.
November 30 – FIFA finally look set to stop cash-rich clubs, like Chelsea, hoarding the best young players to the detriment of everyone else.
November 30 – FIFA’s ethics committee has imposed a four-year ban on Manuel Dende (pictured second left in happier times), former president of the Sao Tomean Football Association, for accepting a bribe believed to be from former Asian confederation chief and FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed bin Hammam.
November 29 – Just days after he was arrested and temporarily suspended, FIFA has lost a key governance official following Sundra Rajoo’s decision to resign as one of the deputy chairmen of the FIFA’s Ethics Adjudicatory Chamber, a position he has only held since last year.
November 27 – The Asian Football Confederation Executive Committee has pledged its support to the Palestine Football Association (PFA) after the latest interference in their football jurisdiction by Israeli military forces.
November 27 – FIFA has been urged by its own human rights advisory panel to set Iran a deadline for lifting its ban on women attending male matches in order to put an end to gender discrimination.
November 26 – FIFA gave the go-ahead for two Russian players to take part in the World Cup even though the Russian Football Union (RFU) had listed them as suspected dopers, according to email exchanges in the latest information provided by the Football Leaks website and widely reported over the weekend.
November 23 – In a move designed to stop cynical time-wasting, players will leave the pitch at the nearest goalline or touchline when substituted rather than walk, sometimes at a snail’s pace, to the technical area under new proposals recommended by football’s lawmakers.
November 23 – The 11-member Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) is backing FIFA President Gianni Infantino for re-election as his predecessor Sepp Blatter has called for an investigation into Infantino’s conduct.
November 23 – Defending champions Korea DPR progressed to the quarter-finals, but the United States were among the casualties as the U-17 Women’s World Cup in Uruguay reached the knockout phase.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 22 – In another hugely embarrassing blow to the credibility of FIFA’s supposedly revamped ethics process under the regime of Gianni Infantino, a leading FIFA ethics official whose lofty position gives him the right to pass judgement on corrupt footballing figures has himself been arrested on suspicion of corruption and temporarily thrown out.
November 22 – In what will be judged as bitter disappointment for both FIFA and regional confederations Concacaf and Conmebol, a US judge has ruled that they can collectively recoup just $2.63 million from two former officials convicted on bribery charges, a small fraction of the roughly $125 million they had sought.
By Paul Nicholson
November 19 – FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell off the rights to two new FIFA competitions for $25 billion has been revealed as being just a stepping stone for a movement of all FIFA’s competition rights, including the World Cup and its archive, into a newly created Swiss company that he would chair.