January 3 – Rio de Janeiro has hired IBM and other major international firms to help bolster its emergency response operations in the build-up to the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 17 – Several of the most powerful officials in world football have now indicated that the 2022 World Cup could be switched to the winter months to avoid the searing summer heat in Qatar.
By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
December 11 – Sergei Fursenko, the President of the Russian Football Union (RFU), has claimed that nationalist organisations were behind violent clashes involving Spartak Moscow fans that today claimed the life of one fan and left another 29 injured.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 10 – UEFA President Michel Platini says there was nothing wrong with last week’s controversial World Cup ballots which, he said, reflected a clear philosophy to take the tournament to new destinations.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 9 – Qatar’s insistence that hosting the 2022 World Cup in the heat of mid-summer would be negated by their revolutionary cooling plans has been questioned by the former head of their own confederation.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 8 – England’s beleaguered 2018 World Cup bid chairman Geoff Thompson (pictured) has broken his silence on his country’s two-vote humiliation by adding his voice to those who believe FIFA should have given clearer guidelines to bidding nations.
December 7 – Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov has claimed that he hopes the Republic’s capital Grozny will be chosen to host a match when Russia stages the World Cup in 2018.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 7 – A member of FIFA’s own Ethics Committee has sensationally questioned Qatar being awarded the 2022 World Cup as suspicions continue to plague the tiny Middle East state’s credentials.
By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
December 7 – Switzerland is concerned about the number of sports federations based there who have been accused of corruption, the country’s Sports Minister Ueli Maurer admitted today.
By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
December 7 – Some FIFA Executive Committee members believed that the accusations of corruption levelled at them by the Sunday Times·were motivated by racism, Japan’s World Cup bid leader·Junji Ogura claimed today.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 6 – Future FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce today denied he had given up the post in protest at England’s 2018 World Cup elimination.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 6 – The man behind Qatar’s successful marketing campaign for the 2022 World Cup says England’s failure to secure the event in 2018 is as much down to their own failings as any perceived broken promises by FIFA voting members.
By Tom Degun in London
December 6 – London Mayor Boris Johnson has admitted that he may not be able to prevent members of FIFA’s Executive Committee from staying at the exclusive Dorchester Hotel during the London 2012 Olympics despite him withdrawing his offer for them to stay there.
By David Owen
December 6 – Russian World Cup bid leader Alexei Sorokin (pictured) was struck by malaria during his country’s successful campaign to win the right to host the 2018 World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 5 – The general secretary of the Football Association believes FIFA should introduce a filtration process to prevent World Cup bidding nations needlessly throwing away an entire budget.