By Paul Nicholson
September 27 – “This is the first award FIFA has given to India,” said Abhijeet Barse, CEO of Slum Soccer in accepting the inaugural FIFA Diversity Award at the Soccerex Convention in Manchester from FIFA’s general secretary Fatma Samoura.
By Paul Nicholson
September 17 – It was the most extraordinary of extraordinary Congress gatherings. After just 27 minutes the Asian Football Confederation ended their meeting whose main agenda item was to elect the region’s three additional members to the newly established FIFA Council.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 27 – When FIFA announced last week that Marco van Basten had been appointed as chief technical officer to help raise coaching standards, there were understandably few dissenting voices.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 27 – Former FIFA vice president Prince Ali bin al-Hussein has issued a furious attack on the organisation that not so long ago he hoped to lead, describing the decision to disband its anti-racism Task Force as “shameful”.
September 27 – England’s new manager Sam Allardyce has been caught up in a newspaper sting which threatens his position just weeks into the job and which could potentially plunge the reputation of the national team, desperate to get back on an even keel following the debacle Euro 2016, back into crisis.
By Samindra Kunti
September 27 – The International Football Business Institute (IFBI), and the Free University of Brussels, the VUB, have launched the first full-time postgraduate football course with the aim of preparing new future executives for the football industry.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 26 – You had to feel somewhat sorry for FIFA’s new Secretary General Fatma Samoura when the former United Nations administrator made her first official overseas public address in her new role today.
By Paul Nicholson
September 26 – FIFA has stepped into the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) elections for the FIFA Council and banned Qatari FA vice president Saoud Al-Mohannadi (pictured) from standing. The last minute intervention will again raise questions about the FIFA politics in play as FIFA’s new mandarins and president Gianni Infantino surround themselves with people who can be aligned to their interests.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 26 – You couldn’t really make it up. Well maybe you could. After all, this is FIFA. Ever since football’s world governing body launched its much-trumpeted reform programme, one of the key messages it has been so keen to promote is that it will no longer tolerate racism and discrimination. A major priority. Zero tolerance. No more prevarication.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 26 – Russia’s Sport Minister Vitaly Mutko, who became embroiled in the recent Olympic doping scandal, has been re-elected president of the Russian Football Union (RFU), crushing his only rival for the position to remain the country’s most powerful sporting official.
September 26 – One of the world’s leading human rights groups has urged FIFA to put a stop to Israeli league games being played by teams stationed in the occupied West Bank in what is becoming an increasingly thorny dispute.
September 26 – Korea Republic’s Chung Mong Gyu has taken over as the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) East Zone Vice-President following the resignation of China’s Zhang Jilong.
September 26 – Qatar have sacked yet another national team coach as it tries to find a way of building a competitive team ahead of the 2022 World Cup.
September 26 – Premier League Tottenham Hotspur have teamed up with Jaguar Land Rover China to deliver a year-long youth football development training programme in Guangzhou.
By Paul Nicholson and Andrew Warshaw
September 23 – One of Qatar’s highest-ranking officials is persuing his bid to join FIFA’s inner circle, despite having a FIFA ethics investigation recommending a two-year ban imposed on him and a verdict on his proposed sanction still to be handed down.