FIFA rethinking eligibility laws to allow players to switch between nations
August 21 – FIFA is planning a change in its rules that will allow players to switch eligibility and represent a second national team.
FIFA
FIFA files appeal on TTFA court ruling but warns of sanctions if it loses
August 21 – FIFA is not stepping back from its own statutes and rules of law and is maintaining that the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) is the correct forum for the ousted former Trinidad and Tobago FA leadership who have complained against their replacement by a Normalisation Committee.
FIFA closes ranks. Ethics boss Rojas dismisses Infantino’s Swiss criminal probe as bogus
By Andrew Warshaw
August 19 – FIFA’s ethics body today stood firm behind Gianni Infantino in the wake of the much-publicised Swiss criminal investigation into his conduct, refusing to suspend him by arguing the allegations did not “ justify the adoption of any kind of measure”, yet seriously calling into question its credibility and so-called independence.
FIFA opens up Jan-Feb 2020 window to ease pressure on 2022 World Cup qualifiers
By Samindra Kunti
August 19 – In the latest modification to the international match calendar, FIFA has replaced the September fixtures window with a new window at the end of January 2022 for all confederations with the exception of UEFA.
Samoura speaks for FIFA’s MAs saying they are ‘heart-warmingly’ behind Infantino
August 17 – Another weekend, another member of FIFA’s staff rolled out to stand fully behind FIFA president Gianni Infantino and his ‘innocense’ campaign, a public relations push that is threatening to become the football PR campaign to end all football PR campaigns by a sitting FIFA president.
Blatter says ‘untouchable’ Infantino should face FIFA Ethics probe
August 14 – Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has launched another attack on his successor Gianni Infantino, claiming the present incumbent “thinks he is untouchable” and should have an ethics inquiry opened against him immediately.
Rehn’s defense of Infantino prompts reopening of FIFA’s governance challenges
August 13 – The defence of FIFA president Gianni Infantino by Olli Rehn (pictured), chairman of FIFA’s Covid-19 steering committee, has prompted a sharp response from a former FIFA staffer and a former candidate to represent CAF at the FIFA council.
All hands to the pump: Now FIFA’s Covid chair Rehn jumps into the ‘Save Gianni’ lifeboat
By Andrew Warshaw
August 12 – At first glance it looks like just another routine FIFA press release, this time about the organisation’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Analysis: Overdrive or overkill? Roadkill looks a certainty on FIFA’s panicked highway
By Andrew Warshaw
August 11 – A strongly worded press release in Q and A format; a hastily arranged virtual press conference denouncing the Swiss judicial authorities; an attack on the reform process under the previous regime; letters fired off to every national association and every member of the all-powerful FIFA Council; and, if rumours are to be believed, the hiring of at least three (no doubt expensive) external specialist lawyers to help fight the case.
Infantino and FIFA executive scramble to build a wall of Member Association support
By Paul Nicholson
August 10 – It has been a busy few days of letter sending by FIFA and its president Gianni Infantino who have scrambled to inform FA presidents their version of the circumstances surrounding the criminal investigation into Infantino’s meetings with the Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber.
Bell hits wrong notes as Pieth turns focus back on ‘bizarre’ claims and a ‘panicked’ FIFA
By Paul Nicholson
August 10 – FIFA’s newly hired external PR teams went into overdrive at the weekend with a stunning assault, led by FIFA’s new-found media luvvie Alasdair Bell, the organisation’s deputy general secretary, on the FIFA reform process led Basel criminal law professor Mark Pieth (pictured) as being a useless waste of money.
Bell tolls for FIFA and Infantino questioners as he argues the case that there is no case
By Andrew Warshaw
August 3 – FIFA came out with all guns blazing today as it savaged the decision by the Swiss authorities to launch a criminal investigation into the conduct of Gianni Infantino, insisting there was no case to answer and hinting it might be based on a deliberate attempt to bring Infantino down.
FIFA Council should be ‘terrified’, says Bility, as Infantino calls on his African support
By Paul Nicholson
August 3 – Musa Bility has made it a hat-trick of hard-hitting letters in the past week with his latest being to the FIFA Council demanding they force the standing down of FIFA president Gianni Infantino following the opening of a criminal investigation by the Swiss judiciary.
Blatter says it is ‘clear’ FIFA Ethics need to open a case and suspend Infantino
August 3 – Sepp Blatter has been quick to call for his successor, Gianni Infantino, to be suspended by FIFA after criminal proceedings were opened against the latter in Switzerland last week.
Swiss special prosecutor greenlights criminal investigation into FIFA boss Infantino
By Andrew Warshaw
July 30 – Despite persistently brushing aside any semblance of wrongdoing for weeks on end, criminal proceedings were dramatically launched against FIFA president Gianni Infantino today by a Swiss special prosecutor over undocumented dealings with the country’s former attorney general Michael Lauber who resigned last week.