By Andrew Warshaw
December 21 – Amos Adamu, one of Africa’s most notorious footballing figures, is facing a second ban from the game after FIFA’s Ethics Committee opened fresh proceedings against the Nigerian.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 19 – The reaction has been understandably incredulous. In a disgraceful move that hardly enhances its attempt to turn over a new leaf and become a respectful, compassionate, modern-thinking organisation, FIFA have once again shown their true colours by predictably fining all four British home nations for their various poppy displays at last month’s World Cup qualifiers on or around Armistice Day.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 20 – Three months after disgraced former CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb – not so long ago touted as a possible successor to Sepp Blatter – was banned for life, two more once all-powerful officials of the same confederation have suffered the same fate with Hondurans Alfredo Hawit (pictured) and Rafael Callejas thrown out of the game by FIFA’s ethics committee for taking bribes as part of the US-led football corruption scandal.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 19 – Former German football supremo Wolfgang Niersbach has conceded defeat by agreeing to step down from his senior posts at FIFA and UEFA after failing to win his appeal against his one-year ban.
December 19 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino still hopes to see video technology used at the 2018 World Cup in Russia if teething problems can be ironed out in time.
December 19 – When FIFA secretary general Fatma Samoura (pictured right) visited Sierra Leone last month on a working trip that was partly to mediate in the ongoing dispute between the national association and the government over the way football there is run, she somewhat surprisingly suggested that the country bid for the under-17 women’s World Cup.
December 19 – Court papers filed by prosecutors in the US allege that an affiliate of a major broadcasting company in Latin America paid millions of dollars in bribes to obtain the rights for the next four World Cup tournaments in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
By Paul Nicholson
December 19 – The hunting down of Jack Warner by the US Department of Justice suffered a second setback in six months when a judgement at the Hall of Justice, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, refused the US access to join the legal team making the case for his extradition from the island.
December 16 – FIFA’s new video review system, championed by those who have long argued goalline technology alone does not go far enough, has not got off to the most auspicious of starts.
December 16 – As widely anticipated, German football supremo Wolfgang Niersbach, not so long ago touted as a possible UEFA president in succession to Michel Platini, has lost his appeal against a one-year ban in relation to Germany’s 2006 World Cup bid.
December 16 – Former Saudi Arabia international Mohammed Noor, one of his country’s most successful players, has been handed a four-year ban for doping by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
By Andrew Warshaw
December 15 – Any suggestion that Gianni Infantino will get an easy ride over his plans to expand the World Cup has been called into question with Europe’s clubs issuing a hard-hitting statement warning of the consequences.
December 15 – Football history was made Wednesday during the Club World Cup semifinal in Japan as the semi-final became the first official fixture to make use of video technology to award a penalty.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 13 – Gianni Infantino’s plan to expand the World Cup to either 40 or, more likely, 48 teams has encountered its first major obstacle from within one of its own confederations.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 12 – Sepp Blatter has confirmed once and for all that he is calling it a day by deciding not to appeal to the Swiss federal courts to clear his name but has launched a major rebuke over the way he perceives he was treated – and the way his successor Gianni Infantino is now running the show at FIFA.