May 12 – The rapidly growing strength of women’s football has been underlined with FIFA’s announcement that five countries have put forward bids to stage the 2019 World Cup. France and England from Europe, South Korea from Asia, New Zealand and South Africa have all declared an interest in hosting the tournament.
By David Owen
May 12 – FIFA appears to have opted for a tentative approach in its long-running efforts to reform the agent system. An official circular recently sent to FIFA members preparing for next month’s Congress in Sao Paulo seems to indicate that a possible 3% cap on remuneration payable to “intermediaries” would be by recommendation only.
May 8 – The FIFA/CIES sports management programme has expanded its footprint into the Middle East with the announcement of an official partnership with the Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi (PSUAD). The university will be the academic partner of the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES).
By Paul Nicholson
May 5 – FIFA’s revamp of its development programmes in 2013 and the changes in the regulations have made the year a big one for FIFA’s a team that has been responsible for spending $500,000 a day on development activity and corporate social responsibility projects.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 30 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has revisited the home-grown player debate by arguing that too few are given a chance to prove themselves because of the foreign invasion.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 28 – FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke has endorsed the ongoing probe being conducted by the organisation’s ethics investigator Michael Garcia into the voting process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
By Paul Nicholson
April 28 – Speaking in Toluca, Mexico, CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb said that he would support the re-election of current FIFA president Sepp Blatter for a fifth term if he decided to stand.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 24 – Mark Pieth, the Swiss governance expert appointed by FIFA to propose recommendations for change following the worst corruption-tainted period in its history, says the organisation must allow an ongoing investigation into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup ballots to take its course if it wants to retain any sense of credibility.
By Mark Baber
April 17 – This week has seen the launch of the Panini Online Sticker Album for the 2014 FIFA World Cup hosted on FIFA.com in association with presenting partner Coca-Cola, and the roll-out of the official video game for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, published by EA Sports for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
By Richard van Poortvliet
April 3 – FIFA has refused to kick Russia out of this year’s World Cup in Brazil, after two American senators asked for the country to be banned due to their role in the unrest in Ukraine.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 1 – In an unexpected twist to the debate over the 2022 World Cup, Japan has declared it would be ready to stage the tournament if FIFA strips Qatar of hosting rights – even though there is no indication that is likely to happen.
By David Owen
March 27 – FIFA, world football’s governing body, has paved the way for a big increase in prize money at the 2018 World Cup, to be staged in Russia.
By David Owen
March 26 – European clubs have hoovered up nearly all the €27 million in compensation money paid out over the first 18 months of FIFA’s Club Protection Programme (CPP).
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
March 25 – FIFA has side-stepped a potential new storm after it emerged that tentative moves were taken last week by senior figures to try and shut down the probe into the voting procedure for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups and remove chief prosecutor Michael Garcia from the process.
March 25 – FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke is back in Brazil for another series of trouble-shooting World Cup meetings, this time focussing on Sao Paulo, which stages the opening game.