July 9 – Another interview by Sepp Blatter. Another passionate defence of his record and that of FIFA. This time, the embattled Swiss has blamed FIFA’s individual confederations for the corruption scandal that has rocked his organisation and led to him deciding to step down.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 9 – The reputation of former FIFA and CONCACAF powerbroker Chuck Blazer reached an all-time low today when he was banned for life by FIFA for widespread corruption, bringing to end the career of one of the most colourful and controversial figures in football politics.
By Paul Nicholson
July 9 – Sonia Bien-Amie has broken new ground for women’s representation at FIFA becoming the first woman to hold a non-female designated post on the governing body’s executive committee, the top table of world football.
July 7 – FIFA has ordered Yemen to default a World Cup qualifying match against North Korea for fielding a player who was technically banned. Yemen, officially the home side for the match that was played in Qatar, lost 1-0 on June 11.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 6 – Harold Mayne-Nicholls, who led the FIFA technical inspection team that evaluated the credentials of all nine candidates for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, has been banned from all football activities for seven years in what many will construe as the start of a new crackdown by world football’s governing body in the light of the corruption scandal that has rocked the organisation and led to Sepp Blatter’s decision to stand down as president.
July 6 – As the United States celebrated their first women’s World Cup triumph since 1999 amid euphoric scenes in Vancouver following their 5-2 thrashing of Japan, attention immediately turned to the 2026 men’s version which is due to be CONCACAF’s turn.
By Paul Nicholson
July 6 – FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb (pictured), currently being held in a Zurich jail awaiting an extradition hearing to the US on charges of corruption, has been hit by another arrest warrant, this time issued by the Cayman Island authorities relating to a healthcare fraud case on his home island.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 6 – Sepp Blatter has long maintained that politics played a part in the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. But now he has named names in terms of the supposed guilty governments: France and Germany.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 2 – The United States has formally asked Switzerland to extradite the seven senior FIFA officials arrested in Zurich in May on charges of alleged bribery and corruption – but it could take several months, possibly up to a year, for the request to be processed.
July 2 – In his most hard-hitting interview since announcing he is quitting as FIFA president, Sepp Blatter has dismissed any suggestion that he is corrupt, insists he is clean and says his detractors “should go to jail.”
June 30 – FIFA’s main crime-buster has expressed his regret at Interpol’s decision to end the two organisations’ “unique collaboration” because of the corruption scandal that has rocked world football’s governing body.
By Paul Nicholson
June 30 – News that Trinidad & Tobago had received extradition papers from the US seeking former FIFA vice president Jack Warner, who was indicted in the FIFA investigation, have been quickly denied by the US Department of Justice which said it has not sent “any final requests” regarding the extradition.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 29 – Dominico Scala, independent chairman of FIFA’s audit and compliance committee, has said that the time for playing the politics of the media is over, as FIFA prioritises its reform agenda and prepares for a change of leadership.
June 29 – News of the FIFA seven arrested in dawn raids at their Zurich hotels on May 28 has been sparse. But last Friday a Swiss court reported that it had turned down an application for bail from one of the arrested, believed to be Uruguayan Eugenio Figueredo, as it said he posed a “risk of flight”.
By Mark Baber
June 26 – The lawyer for Eduardo Li, president of Costa Rica’s Football Federation and a CONCACAF and FIFA executive committee member, has described the case against his client as a “legal absurdity” saying there is no evidence his client took bribes or participated in a criminal enterprise. Li was picked up in the Swiss police swoop on FIFA executives prior to the congress in Zurich last month.