By Andrew Warshaw
February 4 – The five rivals running for FIFA president have agreed to hold a private summit in mid-February shortly before the February 26 election to succeed Sepp Blatter, according to FIFA’s Russian powerbroker Vitaly Mutko, one of the most influential figures in European football.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 3 – The growing influence of Domenico Scala as the prime mover in the drive to clean up FIFA has been further underlined by this week’s unprecedented ruling to block $20 million of payments to CONCACAF and CONMEBOL, the two confederations most seriously damaged by football’s ongoing corruption scandal.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 3 – Just days after dismissing Gianni Infantino’s World Cup promises as pure electioneering, Russian football boss Vitaly Mutko says his federation will support him at the February 26 ballot to succeed Sepp Blatter.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 2 – In an unprecedented move that will heap even more hardship and anguish on to both scandal-hit confederations, FIFA has blocked a reported $20 million in funding to CONMEBOL and CONCACAF – just when they are trying to put their respective houses in order.
By Andrew Warshaw at Wembley
February 2 – If Gianni Infantino’s chances of clinching the presidency of FIFA on February 26 were judged on promotional opportunism and slick public relations, we may as well stop taking bets now.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 1 – Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini will have their appeals against their respective eight-year bans heard by FIFA’s appeal judges in the middle of February.
By Paul Nicholson
February 1 – FIFA presidential candidate Shaikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa has outlined more detail of how he would distribute FIFA’s funds to member federations focused on “need-based support”.
By Paul Nicholson
January 29 – FIFA presidential candidate Shaikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa has delivered a hard hitting rebuke to the financial proposals of some of his rivals saying that their campaign promises could never be delivered out of current FIFA funds and that if they tried to, they would bankrupt the world governing body over the next four-year cycle.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 29 – Four of the five candidates for the FIFA presidency are heading to Qatar for weekend meetings, with one of them, South African Tokyo Sexwale, suggesting the horse-trading and unofficial election pacts are in full swing ahead of the February 26 ballot even though all of the contenders are keeping any election deals firmly under wraps.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 29 – Swiss prosecutors say they have been given crucial information by a whisteblower in the criminal investigation of suspended FIFA president Sepp Blatter – and into FIFA itself.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 28 – With FIFA mired in its worst ever corruption scandal, presidential candidate Jerome Champagne has stirred up the debate by alleging UEFA has been equally guilty of wrongdoing but has got away with it.
January 27 – The 2022 World Cup should be handed directly to the United States if Qatar is stripped of hosting the tournament, according to FIFA presidential outsider Jerome Champagne.
January 27 – FIFA has confirmed as a formality the names of the five candidates battling for the presidency of football’s world governing body at the election on February 26.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 26 – FIFA presidential candidate Shaikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, the emerging favourite to take over from Sepp Blatter, has intriguingly left the door open for a deal with rival contender Gianni Infantino to become his number two if he wins next month’s election.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 26 – South Africa’s Tokyo Sexwale, increasingly regarded as an outsider, has been challenged by his own federation to explain his low-profile FIFA presidential campaign.