By Andrew Warshaw
May 21 – Michael van Praag has withdrawn from next week’s FIFA presidential election campaign and has joined forces with Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein in a strategic bid to oust Sepp Blatter.
Andrew Warshaw
May 21 – Sepp Blatter has completed his Middle East “peace mission” and can now only wait nervously to see whether his shuttle diplomacy has had the desired effect of persuading Palestine to drop its formal proposal to have Israel thrown out of FIFA.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 20 – Michael van Praag and Luis Figo are reportedly set to withdraw from the FIFA presidential race, leaving Asia’s outgoing FIFA vice-president Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan to go head-to-head with Sepp Blatter next week.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 20 – FIFA will agree the bidding regulations for the 2026 World Cup next week with Europe and Asia almost certain to be excluded.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 18 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter says he plans to visit the United States in June next year as he dismissed claims that he is avoiding setting foot in the country for fear of being caught up in an FBI probe.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 15 – Despite his indefatigable globetrotting as FIFA president, Sepp Blatter has avoided setting foot in the United States for fear of being caught up in an FBI investigation into the organisation he has run for 17 years.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 14 – Four and half years after the vote to hand the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, one of FIFA’s former vice-presidents has been banned for a second time for his conduct in the build-up to the contest – this time for eight years.
By Alexander Krassimirov
May 14 – When it comes to money Bulgaria can be gloomy place for football with clubs desperate for cash, players often unpaid and sponsors in short supply. But this month the Bulgarians have had some good news with FIFA approving the country’s $1.1 million ‘Goal’ application to build a new training camp for the national team near Sofia.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 12 – World Cup qualifiers with a high risk of racist incidents are to be targeted by FIFA as it steps up the fight against discrimination. A new monitoring system of specialists will be put in place both during the 2018 qualifying competition, which covers some 900 games globally, and the finals themselves in Russia.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 11 – Sepp Blatter will try one last time to forge a compromise to prevent Palestine’s call for Israel to be suspended from FIFA from being put to the vote at the FIFA Congress on May 29.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 8 – Sepp Blatter reckons the upcoming women’s World Cup could be the biggest breakthrough yet for the sport and that more women should occupy positions of administrative power at FIFA.
May 7 – The head of Israeli football has launched a pre-emptive strike, metaphorically speaking, to try and stop a Palestinian proposal to ban his federation from FIFA being supported at the FIFA Congress later this month.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 5 – Palestine’s proposal to suspend Israel from world football has been confirmed by FIFA as being on the agenda of its Congress in Zurich on May 29 despite the efforts of Sepp Blatter to find a solution.
By Andrew Warshaw at the Dead Sea, Jordan
May 4 – FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein has been quick to distance himself from a BBC report that he would personally consider sacrificing himself in order to strategically back one of the other contenders to take on Sepp Blatter.
By Andrew Warshaw in Manama, Bahrain
May 1 – The head of Palestinian football insists his association will not give in to any pressure to withdraw its proposal calling for Israel to be thrown out of the sport at the FIFA Congress later this month. Palestinian Football Association president Jibril Rajoub says nothing has changed for the better in the West Bank and Gaza in terms of the free movement of players and equipment since a year ago when he was persuaded to drop a similar proposal.