By Paul Nicholson
October 5 – US Ambassador to Switzerland Suzan LeVine (pictured) has emphasised that all those arrested in the corruption scandals engulfing FIFA had US links or US citizenship, seemingly offering an explanation to the Swiss public as to why the US justice authorities have acted so invasively in Swiss territory.
October 5 – Under-fire UEFA president Michel Platini has taken his innocence stance over a 2 million franc payment he received from president Sepp Blatter all the way to government level in his home country France.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 5 – South Korea’s heavyweight candidate Chung Mong-joon has staged a late u-turn and has decided to attend this week’s Leaders in Sport Business Summit in London despite rumours circulating about his FIFA presidential prospects.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 5 – Sepp Blatter’s daughter has expressed her inner fears about her father’s recent interrogation at the hands of Swiss authorities, saying she was worried they would “take him away in handcuffs.”
By Andrew Warshaw
October 4 – Sepp Blatter has rejected the demands of a string of FIFA’s front-line US sponsors to step down immediately in the wake of the deepening corruption crisis, saying to do so would not help the beleagured organisation.
By Paul Nicholson
October 2 – Speculation that Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa could become a candidate in the race for FIFA’s presidency has been met with a statement from his office saying that his priority is to represent the AFC, and his “obligations are primarily to Asia”.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 2 – South Korea’s heavyweight candidate Chung Mong-joon faces the prospect of being forced to drop out of next February’s FIFA presidential election.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 2 – While the English FA are standing by their man for the time being, the Germans are not so sure whether Michel Platini is still the right man for the job of taking over from Sepp Blatter.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 1 – Michel Platini may have his mind very much on the FIFA presidential election and whether he will actually still eligible as a result of the already notorious and still not fully explained SFr2 million payment he received whilst working for Sepp Blatter several years ago.
October 1 – If ever proof were needed that all is not quite right at the top of FIFA and UEFA, tomorrow’s annual friendly game between the staff of both organisations has suddenly been postponed – relieving respective presidents Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini of coming face to face.
September 30 – Sepp Blatter is remaining calm and relaxed and has not been fazed by the furore over criminal proceedings being opened against him, according to his former public relations adviser Klaus Stoehlker.
September 30 – FIFA’s Russian powerbroker Vitaly Mutko has been forced to backtrack after an apparent gaffe about being afraid of becoming the latest high-profile football figure to be arrested.
By Paul Nicholson
September 30 – Michel Platini has reacted swiftly to heightened speculation over the SFr2 million payment he received from FIFA in 2011, saying that it was settlement for work that he had completed in 2002, and that he still intends to stand for the FIFA presidency.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 29 – Four years after he resigned all his FIFA roles rather than face being thrown out, the past came back to haunt Jack Warner today when the notorious former FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF chief was banned for life from all football-related activity, at national and international level, by FIFA’s independent ethics committee.
By Paul Nicholson
September 29 – The bomb that dropped on FIFA president Sepp Blatter and UEFA president Michel Platini on Friday following the Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s investigation of a suspicious payment to Platini of SFr2 million, may have just exploded.