By Paul Nicholson in New York
November 3 – FIFA presidential candidate Tokyo Sexwale, speaking in New York at the Securing Sport 2015 conference, said that he felt FIFA’s sponsors had gone too far in issuing an ultimatum that either current president Sepp Blatter must go or they will pull their funding.
By Paul Nicholson
November 3 – The chair FIFA’s reform committee Francois Carrard says that he does not believe FIFA is systemically corrupt and that he hopes he will have the opportunity to speak to all the presidential candidates before the elections in February.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 3 – South Africa’s Tokyo Sexwale still has work to do before convincing his own African confederation that he should become their preferred candidate for the FIFA presidential election.
By Mark Baber
November 3 – Talks are continuing Tuesday, amidst high hopes, as a joint FIFA and AFC delegation meets with key stakeholders, including the Indonesian president, to find a solution for Indonesian football and to lift the country’s suspension which is causing increasing damage to the football infrastructure of one of SE Asia’s leading footballing powers.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 3 – The ability and willingness of FIFA to clean itself up following the biggest scandal in sporting history looks to have been undermined after Asia’s most influential sports administrator says a number of reform proposals will be rejected, not least term limits for senior officials.
By Samindra Kunti
November 3 – The Belgian FA KBVB is considering launching a claim for damages at FIFA after Sepp Blatter’s revelations about a possible fixed agreement to award the 2018 FIFA World Cup to Russia.
By Mark Baber
November 2 – A row has erupted in Hong Kong over the upcoming world cup qualifier against China. In the first leg Hong Kong fans booed the national anthem, for the second leg the match has been switched to the Mong Kok Stadium (capacity 6,679) in place of the Hong Kong stadium (capacity 40,000).
By Andrew Warshaw
November 2 – Luis Figo, who bid for the FIFA presidency last time round until withdrawing before the ballot, has given his backing to UEFA stand-in candidate Gianni Infantino for the February 26 vote.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 31 – The much-publicised slush fund allegations surrounding Germany’s hosting of the 2006 World Cup have exploded into fresh controversy amid claims that Franz Beckenbauer, who led the country’s bid, may have personally endorsed a financial inducement to Malta just weeks before its FIFA member was about to vote.
October 30 – In the latest of a series of cherry-picked interviews, Sepp Blatter has lashed out at American-based sponsors for undermining him and his organisation with their adverse comments about FIFA’s corruption scandal.
By Paul Nicholson
October 30 – AFC president and FIFA presidential candidate Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa has issued a stinging rebuke of the reports that he led a task force that identified and prosecuted footballers active in Bahrain’s democracy protests in 2011.
October 30 – The most powerful official in Asian sport says his continent and Europe should strike a deal to carve up support and avoid going head to head for the right to succeed Sepp Blatter as FIFA president.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 30 – FIFA’s reform guru Francois Carrard is being urged to address the question of gender imbalance as an immediate priority as part of the measures to lift football’s world governing body out of the dark ages.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 30 – The US Virgin Islands has been identified as the country that scuppered former Trinidad and Tobago international midfielder David Nakhid’s hopes of standing for FIFA president.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 29 – Four of FIFA’s biggest sponsors have once again denounced the ongoing corruption scandal and say the current reform process being spearheaded by former Olympics guru Francois Carrard is too much of an inside job and needs far more independence.