June 27 – New Zealand is the latest country to pull out of the running to host the 2019 Women’s World Cup, a blow to the Oceania region, the smallest of FIFA’s six confederations.
June 24 – Die Unken haben gerufen, und was ist geschehen? “The best world cup ever”, meinte ein ITV Sportskommentator. “Die besten Fussballspiele seit Jahrzehnten”, meinte ein anderer Kollege aus deutschen Landen. “Korruption aller Orten”, heisst es allerdings in einschlägigen Kreisen.
By David Owen
June 21 – FIFA has set out detailed arrangements for payment of the $750,000 bonus promised earlier this month by its President Joseph Blatter to all 209 member associations.
By Andrew Warshaw in Belo Horizonte
June 19 – After promising that the World Cup would be the most culturally inclusive to date and send a positive message around the world, FIFA have been hit with a number of racism reports involving fans from up to four of the finalists.
By Andrew Warshaw in Belo Horizonte
June 19 – The head of Brazilian football has refused to criticise his disgraced predecessor whose tarnished reputation was once again highlighted at a media briefing today. Jose Maria Marin (pictured) told reporters he could not answer for the conduct of the man he replaced, Ricardo Teixeira.
By Andrew Warshaw in Brazil
June 14 – While world champions Spain suffered one of their worst ever humiliations on the pitch in recent memory after being thrashed 5-1 by Holland today, off the pitch embarrassment of a different kind was heaped on Franz Beckenbauer, the best-known figure in the history of German football, when he was banned for 90 days for breaking FIFA’s Code of Ethics.
By Andrew Warshaw in St Paulo
June 12 – Michael Garcia, the American lawyer who has become the central figure in the entire debate into corruption allegations swirling around FIFA, says he has left no stone unturned in his two-year probe to weed out any wrongdoing in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid process.
By Andrew Warshaw in Sao Paulo
June 12 – Twenty-four hours after being bluntly taken to task by UEFA for changing his mind over staying on as FIFA president and told he was largely responsible for the organisation’s tarnished image, Sepp Blatter, not for the first time, was the one to show his teeth.
By Andrew Warshaw in Sao Paulo
June 12 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s attempts to forge a lasting agreement between Palestine and Israel, one of his most pressing priorities, had to be put on the backburner today when there was insufficient goodwill to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that would have sent out a strong message that progress had been made.
By Andrew Warshaw in Sao Paulo
June 11 – Sepp Blatter opened the formal part of the FIFA Congress today by tellingly pledging the organisation would continue to “lead by example” despite persistent allegations of corruption that came to head 24 hours earlier when he was asked to step down by European members.
By Andrew Warshaw in Sao Paulo
June 11 – Sepp Blatter’s declared intention to run for FIFA president for the fifth time crashed against a rock of European hostility and indignation today as UEFA took a united stand by telling the 78-year-old Swiss to his face it was time to step down as a result of the organisation’s tarnished image.
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’.