By Samindra Kunti
January 29 – FIFA and the Brazilian Football Association (CBF) have confirmed the release of the money for $100 million 2014 World Cup legacy fund. The world governing body had up to now repeatedly refused to release the money over compliance concerns.
By Paul Nicholson
January 28 – A European rival to Gianni Infantino is preparing an election campaign to topple the FIFA president at the next congress this June in Paris.
January 25 – FIFA has handed a lifetime ban to Niger referee Ibrahim Chaibou for taking bribes in the latest sanction meted out to an African official.
January 15 – Banned Afghan football boss Keramuddin Karim has lost the first crucial stage in his effort to clear his name over allegations of sexual abuse.
January 14 – Gianni Infantino is set to arrive in Marrakesh on Tuesday for the latest of FIFA’s so-called executive summits for regional federations and while there is expected to receive an update on Morocco’s plan to organise the 2030 World Cup with Spain and Portugal.
January 13 – Danny Jordan (pictured), the public face of the 2010 World Cup, is once again embroiled in controversy following allegations by one of his former rivals within South African football that he helped facilitate a $10 million payment to Concacaf to land the tournament.
January 8 – With his re-election campaign surely very much in mind, Gianni Infantino has embarked on a seven-nation tour of West Africa that started in Guinea last weekend.
By Paul Nicholson
January 2 – Saudi Arabia’s controversial Turki Al-Sheikh who as president of the General Sports Authority has involved himself in the international football market and its politics, has had his ministerial position re-organised with a move to chairman of the Entertainment Authority.
January 2 – FIFA has been hit with a Swiss Supreme Court ruling ordering it to pay $16.8 million plus interest in compensation to US-based ticket broker JB Sports Marketing (JBSM), for World Cup tickets it never received.
December 27 – With Real Madrid having claimed a third successive Club World Cup title – and a fourth in the past five years – one Los Blancos star also made history.
December 21 – Former FIFA General Secretary Urs Linsi is back in the spotlight after a Swiss Federal Court ruled against his complaint that a house search by police investigators was conducted illegally and that documents taken should be returned.
December 21 – A record audience of more than 3.5 billion people watched this year’s World Cup in Russia, with the final between France and Croatia attracting 1.12 billion viewers, according to FIFA.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 20 – German football boss and FIFA Council member Reinhard Grindel has renewed his attack on the FIFA leadership and Gianni Infantino in person saying Infantino is fuelling international prejudice against his own organisation over his controversial plans to reshape the landscape of world football,
December 19 – Within days of euphorically picking up the Copa Libertadores title against arch-rivals Boca Juniors, Argentinian giants River Plate were brought embarrassing down to earth on Tuesday when they suffered a shock defeat to hosts Al Ain in the semi-finals of the FIFA Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.
December 18 – Seedy by name, seedy by nature? FIFA ethics judges have banned former Gambia Football Federation chief Seedy Kinteh for four years for taking cash gifts from one-time FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed bin Hammam.
FIFA says its ethics committee found Kinteh guilty on charges of bribery and corruption, and accepting gifts. He was also fined CHF200,000 ($202,000).
Kinteh was named in a 2014 investigation report by FIFA’s then-ethics prosecutor Michael Garcia for taking payments totalling $69,396 from Bin Hammam from February 2010 to April 2011 when Qatar’s former Asian football confederation boss was bidding to unseat Sepp Blatter.