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.
September 5 – CONCACAF president and chairman of the FIFA Anti-Racism and Discrimination Task Force, Jeffrey Webb, has moved swiftly to praise the Brazilian expulsion of Gremio from the Brazilian Cup following a section of the club’s fans racially abusing a Santos player.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 4 – Lawyers representing many of the world’s leading female footballers protesting against playing next year’s Women’s World Cup in Canada on artificial turf have written to FIFA president Sepp Blatter as well as all six Confederation heads as the campaign for natural grass intensifies.
September 3 – Sepp Blatter has pulled out of opening next week’s annual Soccerex football business conference in Manchester, a huge blow to organisers who have lined up a heavyweight programme of speakers for the three-day event.
By Mark Baber
August 28 – Players who cancel their contracts and move to a new club are frequently being caught up paperwork that prevents them actually playing for their new club while they wait for an International Transfer Certificate (ITC) to be issued. Delays can be long as national association refuse to deliver the ITC on the instructions of the former club, creating difficulties in registering the player with his new club and thus impeding his right to play.
August 29 – An unusual lawsuit has been filed against FIFA from a group of parents and players in the United States concerned about how football’s world governing body handles concussion treatment.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 27 – FIFA appears to have cleared the head of the Ghanaian Football Association of match-fixing allegations following reports in the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph and the Channel Four television station. The ruling is a huge boost for GFA president Kwesi Nyantakyi (pictured) who is reported to be considering legal action as a result of the claims that emerged during the World Cup and sparked an inquiry by the investigatory chamber of FIFA’s Ethics Committee.