By David Owen
March 18 – The full scale of the financial damage wreaked by FIFA’s year of turmoil is now becoming apparent. Revenue from marketing rights to the World Cup – sponsorship to you and me – is down over $100 million, or 29%, in 2015 from the equivalent figure in 2011, the corresponding point in the previous four-year commercial cycle.
By David Owen
March 18 – And the answer, ladies and gentlemen, was $3,634,857. With the annual deficit widely expected, much the liveliest interest in FIFA’s just published 2015 financial report was always likely to concern disclosure of former President Joseph Blatter’s famously undisclosed remuneration. And there it is in unsparing detail on page 65, revealing not just his gross salary – $2,964,379 – but also how a variety of additional components,
March 18 – He may not be able to get his old job back but Sepp Blatter remains determined to clear his name in retirement.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 18 – The South African authorities have accused FIFA’s ethics committee of reneging on a promise to consult with them before making public any decisions regarding the notorious pre-2010 World Cup match-fixing case.
March 18 – The Brussels Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by Doyen Sports Investments, the Belgian second-division club Seraing United and the Spanish Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional (LFP) against FIFA, UEFA, the Belgian FA and FIFPro that sought a temporary injunction to suspend the worldwide ban on third-party ownership.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 17 – Furious at FIFA’s explosive revelation that bribes were paid to secure the 2010 World Cup, South African authorities hit back today by accusing football’s world governing body of seriously distorting the facts in order to protect its victim status.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 17 – The backlash against FIFA’s restitution request for tens of millions of dollars in order to restore its battered reputation and put it back on a financial even keel has begun with Ricardo Teixeira, the notorious former head of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), threatening to sue for damages in a counter action.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 16 – The full extent of football’s worst ever corruption scandal has been sensationally laid bare by FIFA which is demanding to be paid back “tens of millions of dollars” pocketed illegally by a raft of disgraced powerbrokers who brought the organisation to its knees and have pleaded guilty in the US-led probe into widespread bribery.
By Paul Nicholson
March 16 – ‘Hell hath no fury like a lover scorned’ has a powerful resonance in FIFA’s restitution claim in the governing body’s submission to the US authorities. FIFA’s love affair with former CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb ended abruptly with his arrest last May. But the fury was unleashed with full force in the letter released today to the US Attorney General’s office in the Eastern District of New York.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 16 – FIFA has admitted for the first time that the votes for both the 1998 and 2010 World Cups were manipulated, casting further suspicion over whether the joint ballot for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, to be staged respectively by Russia and Qatar, may also have been undermined despite both countries insisting the process was entirely clean and no firm evidence yet to the contrary.
March 13 – Former CONMEBOL vice-president Rafael Esquivel, who pleaded not guilty last week to receiving bribes worth millions of dollars in connection with the sale of tournament marketing rights, has been placed under house arrest while he awaits trial.
March 11 – FIFA’s suspension of Kuwait, which caused the Gulf state to be banned from voting at the recent presidential election, has again hit the Asian World Cup qualifying campaign with the upcoming fixture against South Korea called off.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 10 – Francois Carrard, the former Olympic supremo who led the team that drafted FIFA’s much-trumpeted governance proposals, has given his backing to Gianni Infantino in ensuring the reform measures are implemented properly and not just left to fester.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 10 – Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini have reacted strongly to the police raid on the headquarters of the French Football Federation as part of the Swiss criminal investigation into the infamous “disloyal payment” that led to both men being banned by FIFA’s ethics committee.
By Paul Nicholson
March 9 – The call from interim FIFA president Issa Hayatou last week following the election of Gianni Infantino as the new president was for the whole of FIFA to unite behind him in impletenting the reforms and a bold and positive new future.