By Andrew Warshaw
September 12 – In a staggering ruling that will only serve to undermine its credibility and fuel accusations of double standards, FIFA’s ethics committee today gave Michel Platini permission to make a farewell speech at Wednesday’s election to replace him as UEFA president.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 9 – It will hardly come as a surprise since he was not planning on making a comeback. The question is, why did it take so long? The life ban imposed last week on former FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF boss Jeffrey Webb, the toughest possible FIFA sanction, was the final damaging blow to the Cayman Islands banker who was once held up a bastion of fair play and touted as a possible president of world football’s governing body.
By Paul Nicholson and Andrew Warshaw
August 9 – FIFA’s ethics investigators have opened a formal investigation into the $80 million in pay rises and bonuses that former FIFA top brass Sepp Blatter, Jérôme Valcke and Markus Kattner awarded themselves over a five year period until they were suspended or fired by the governing body.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 7 – FIFA’s ethics watchdog has opened formal proceedings against one of the Qatari FA’s highest ranking officials, vice-president Saoud Al-Mohannadi, but much intrigue surrounds what he has specifically done wrong.
September 6 – El Salvador have been plunged into a match-fixing scandal after revealing they turned down the offer of a bribe to lose to Canada in tonight’s World Cup qualifier in Vancouver.
September 5 – A highly respected former top-flight English referee has caused widespread alarm by suggesting he was told to cover up seeing controversial incidents between players.
September 2 – Argentine football is back: the domestic league has resumed and the national team defeated Uruguay 1-0 in World Cup qualifying; but the state of the Argentine FA, the AFA, remains precarious.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 1 – Despite continually protesting his innocence over any involvement in manipulating the vote that handed Germany the 2006 World Cup, Franz Beckenbauer, his country’s most revered footballing figurehead who led the bid process, is being investigated by Swiss prosecutors as part of a corruption probe.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 1 – He described his original $2 million pay offer as “insulting” yet now he is getting even less. Or is he? After six months in charge, and having failed to sign a contract that had been on the table since March, Gianni Infantino has now apparently agreed an annual salary of 1.5 million Swiss francs.
September 1 – A Russian panel which handles player contract disputes is unfairly weighted in favour of executives from the league and clubs according to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
August 25 – FIFA’s ethics watchdog has opened formal proceedings against ex-South Africa football chief Kirsten Nematandani and two other officials over alleged ethics violations related to the fixing of international friendlies in 2010, just weeks before South Africa hosted the World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 25 – Hope Solo, the world’s best-known and most decorated women’s goalkeeper and a household name across the sport, has been suspended by US Soccer for six months for describing Olympic opponents Sweden as “a bunch of cowards”.
August 24 – With global match-fixing and results manipulation showing little sign of easing, the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) has joined forces with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to release a new resource guide which both organisations hope will help law enforcement and sports organisations better detect cases of wrongdoing.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 19 – Former South African Football Association (SAFA) president Kirsten Nematandani has come out fighting over allegations of ethics violations related to the fixing of international friendlies in 2010 just weeks before South Africa hosted the World Cup.
August 10 – Police have arrested 10 people as part of a probe into alleged match-fixing in the little-known Welsh Premier League.