By Andrew Warshaw
September 16 – Despite the sceptics assuming he will not stay the course, former FIFA deputy general secretary Jerome Champagne insists he will be standing against Sepp Blatter next year at the organisation’s presidential election.
September 15 – Just because he is Sepp Blatter’s number two, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke doesn’t always have to agree with his president, the debate over video replays during matches being the latest case in point.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 15 – As the world awaits the findings of FIFA ethics judge Joachim Eckert into possible corruption surrounding the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, the organisation has become embroiled in an untimely episode – this time concerning gifts offered to senior officials in Brazil.
September 15 -Asian football chief Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa says there will be no rush to agree on an exact date for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
By David Owen
September 12 – In a further positive step for women’s football, FIFA has announced that it is to double its development funding for this fast-growing arm of the sport over its next four-year cycle, culminating with the World Cup in Russia in 2018. The governing body has earmarked $21 million for this purpose in 2015-18, up from just under $10.3 million in 2011-14.
By David Owen
September 11 – FIFA plans to dip into its solidarity fund to help three impoverished West African nations – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – stricken by the deadly Ebola virus. The governing body said that at its next finance committee meeting in two weeks’ time on September 25 it would propose using solidarity fund resources to “support the member associations” of these three countries in the fight against the disease.
September 11 – The head of FIFA’s Task Force for Women is taking a diplomatic approach to the outcry over the use of synthetic pitches at the next year’s women’s World Cup in Canada.
By Andrew Warshaw in Manchester
September 10 – Professional matches in world and European competitions could be held up for up to three minutes if radical plans to treat players suspected of suffering from concussion are passed by FIFA and UEFA.
By Andrew Warshaw in Manchester
September 9 – CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb says the reforms FIFA have put in place do not go far enough and that world football’s governing body has “huge challenges” ahead in terms of building trust and confidence amongst the general public.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 9 – FIFA have revived the possibility of the 2022 Qatar World Cup being staged in January if it is switched to winter, putting it on a direct collision course with the winter Olympics. The first meeting of the multi-stakeholder Task Force set up to decide once and for all when to stage the tournament discussed three possible time frames, including January/February, even though FIFA president Sepp Blatter has previously ruled that out.
By Andrew Warshaw in Manchester
September 8 – FIFA vice president Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan says he in favour of term limits for senior officials even though the idea was firmly rejected by the organisation’s Congress three months ago.
By Andrew Warshaw in Manchester
September 8 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter will tell his executive committee later this month that he will definitely stand for a fifth term of office next year, finally formalising what he had all but confirmed during months of public speeches across the globe.
By Andrew Warshaw in Manchester
September 8 – Twenty-four hours before he was due to address many of the game’s movers and shakers at the Soccerex convention in Manchester, FIFA vice-president Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, one of world football’s most committed reformists, warned that the next four years would be “make or break” for the governing body to get its act together.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 8 – The eagerly anticipated FIFA-commissioned report into possible corruption surrounding the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid process, which took a year to compile, stretches to 350 pages and recommends sanctioning “certain individuals” .
September 5 – A diverse group of stakeholders set up under the auspices of FIFA to get to grips with third-party ownership of players’ economic rights met for the first time this week with a view to coming up with concrete proposals later this month.