By Paul Nicholson
June 10 – Former FIFA general secretary Michel Zen Ruffinen (right) who was caught in a newspaper sting in 2010 talking about rumours of vote collusion between the Spain/Portugal, Russia and Qatar world cup bids, now believes that the rumours circulating were fabricated, most probably by a rival bidding committee.
By Andrew Warshaw in Sao Paulo
June 10 – The thorny issue of age limits and term mandates, the one FIFA reform measure that shows little sign of being resolved, is back on the agenda at world body’s annual congress starting Tuesday – but it won’t affect Sepp Blatter’s likely bid to go for a fifth term of office.
By Andrew Warshaw in Sao Paulo
June 10 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter, riled by repeated criticism of his organisation from elements of the British media, today fired back one of his most vociferous salvos to date as what he dubbed ‘Qatargate’ threatened to overshadow the build-up to FIFA’s congress here.
By David Owen
June 10 – FIFA has urged member associations to designate one individual to be responsible for all matters related to manipulation, as world football’s governing body looks to step up the battle against match-fixing. In the run-up to this week’s Congress, FIFA has distributed a 23-page booklet of guidelines to member associations entitled, ‘Specific Recommendations to Combat Match Manipulation’.
By Markus Hausmann
June 7 – The usually suave and always immaculately behaved German football legend, Franz Beckenbauer, had a few choice words on offer when asked about the present craze about Qatar’s alleged World Cup Bid irregularities this week in Munich.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 6 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has sidestepped calls for a revote on the 2022 World Cup, insisting that no decision should be taken until FIFA’s ethics committee investigator, Michel Garcia, completes his probe of Qatar’s winning bid and the entire 2018 and 2022 process.
By Mark Baber
June 5 – FIFA on Wednesday confirmed the extension to have worldwide effect of the domestic sanctions imposed by the Austrian Football Association (OFB) and the Iran Football Federation (IRIFF) in relation to match manipulation.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 4 – While considerable focus is on the FIFA Congress in Sao Paulo next week, the executive committee agenda which precedes it this coming weekend could be just as appetising, containing a number of highly significant items that have dominated the political landscape in recent months.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
June 3 – UEFA chief Michel Platini rejected a request by Mohamed bin Hammam to take on Sepp Blatter in 2011 for the presidency of FIFA, INSIDEworldfootball has learned. High-ranking UEFA sources have confirmed that Platini held “a number of informal discussions” with bin Hammam shortly before the December 2010, vote for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups but that these were solely about the presidency and nothing to do,
By Andrew Warshaw
June 2 – The anti-corruption investigation into the entire bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will be completed three days before the start of the World Cup – but it will take “approximately” another six weeks before the findings are submitted and probably even longer for any sanctions to be announced.
June 2 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has re-iterated that he will only stand for re-election if he gets a strong enough feeling that this is the wish of the majority of the 209-strong membership at the organisation’s forthcoming congress.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 30 – FIFA’s Congress in Sao Paolo next month will include some of the most pressing issues facing the game including match-fixing, third party ownership, the Israel-Palestine impasse and an update by Dominic Scala, chairman of the organisation’s Audit and Compliance committee.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 30 – The growing military crisis in Ukraine has led to further attempts to politicise the 2018 World Cup in Russia with Ukrainian political figures and a Canada-based pressure group calling on FIFA to strip the country of hosting rights. The demands will fall on deaf ears at FIFA as the governing body has repeatedly held the line that politics and football must remain separate.
By Tom Parsons
May 29 – FIFA has today revealed details of the launch of its Global Stadium – an “online and mobile hub for the FIFA World Cup, which will help billions of football fans share their excitement and stay in touch with all the action”.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 28 – Twenty-four hours after UEFA and Europol signed a key agreement to tackle match-fixing head-on, the spotlight has immediately fallen on tonight’s friendly between Scotland and Nigeria, one of a string of World Cup warm-up games.