By Andrew Warshaw
October 17 – Palestinian officials and human rights organisations will be disappointed at FIFA’s refusal to take a decisive stand over the issue of Israeli clubs based in occupied territory.
If 2016 has taught us anything, it is not to kid ourselves that we can see too far into the future. With that proviso, it looks ever more probable, almost a decade before the first ball is actually kicked, that the United States will have a leading role in hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 14 – It is full of detail about transparency and good governance but will it really restore public faith in an organisation brought to its knees by scandal and skullduggery?
By Andrew Warshaw
October 14 – FIFA will decide in January whether to expand the World Cup finals from 32 to either 40 or 48 teams as part of Gianni Infantino’s detailed blueprint for change after eight months in charge of the scandal-wracked organisation.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 13 – Gianni Infantino insists FIFA has “turned a page” and become far more credible and trustworthy in the first seven months of his presidency despite all manner of allegations against him and the feeling in some quarters than the organisation has actually gone backwards.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 12 – As FIFA’s enlarged ruling Council prepares to meet for the first time, the United Nations official responsible for sport has written to the organisation re-iterating that a solution must be found as soon as possible regarding Israeli league teams situated in occupied territory.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 12 – With precision timing just as FIFA president Gianni Infantino prepares to preside over the first full meeting of his expanded ruling Council, FIFA has announced the appointment of Sarai Bareman as its first ever Chief Women’s Football Officer.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 11 – In an unprecedented move, FIFA is facing a lawsuit over the exploitation of migrant workers in Qatar on construction sites as the Gulf state intensifies preparations for the 2022 World Cup.
By Paul Nicholson
September 1 – Argentine investigations into corruption and money laundering by former President Néstor Kirchner between 2003 and 2008 look set to touch on FIFA and at least one of its former officials, as well football investments within the Swiss market.
October 11 – FIFA’s controversial decision to disband its anti-racism Task Force was prompted in part by the indictment by US officials of its original figurehead, according to Piara Powar (pictured), director of Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE).
October 10 – A year and a half after his arrest as part of the FIFA corruption scandal, Costa Rica’s Eduardo Li pleaded guilty on Friday to three charges in a federal courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, admitting he took hundreds and thousands of dollars in bribes.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 10 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino says a joint British Olympics football team would not endanger the four home nations’ independent status.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 7 – In an extraordinary move given the significance of the occasion and the media interest worldwide, FIFA have scrapped staging a press conference following next week’s eagerly awaited first full meeting of its new 36-member ruling Council.
Who would have thought that a group of Norwegian bloggers could shatter the glass walls of FIFA, UEFA, etc. What they delivered in terms of conspiracy theories about UEFA’s new boss, and FIFA’s new Audit and Compliance chief is pretty cool – time will prove how correct their suppositions are but questions have been asked.
There is a very important fact worth bearing in mind when seeking to make sense of Gianni Infantino’s FIFA: the 46-year-old Swiss-Italian new boy faces re-election in less than three years’ time.