By Andrew Warshaw
May 23 – In a major development apparently linked to the ongoing United States probe into football-related corruption, former Barcelona president Sandro Rosell has been arrested, along with his wife, as part of a money laundering investigation.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 21 – Germany’s FIFA Council member Reinhard Grindel has re-iterated his opposition to the removal of FIFA ethics chiefs Cornel Borbely and Hans-Joachim Eckert saying the surprise move should have been handled more transparently.
May 19 – Players who dive or feign injury could face two-match suspensions from the start of next season under a new English Football Association crackdown.
May 19 – One of the biggest fixtures in the Swedish football calendar has been postponed due to match-fixing fears.
May 18 – The International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) has set up a special investigations unit that can be hired to look into sports corruption.
May 17 – In the latest tax evasion case to hit Spanish football, the prosecutor in Madrid says it has filed a lawsuit against Radamel Falcao (pictured) and Fabio Coentrao, accusing them of hiding almost €7 million from the tax office between 2012 and 2014.
May 16 – Argentine star Ezequiel Lavezzi, one of the most highly paid players in world football, has been forced to apologise after he made a slant-eyed pose in promotional pictures for his Chinese Super League club.
May 16 – Britain’s biggest selling daily newspaper the Sun has dropped its former editor Kelvin MacKenzie, now an outspoken columnist, over an article he wrote likening Everton midfielder Ross Barkley, an England international, to a gorilla.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 15 – Germany’s jettisoned FIFA ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert has spoken of his personal hurt at being targeted in Gianni Infantino’s purge of senior judicial personnel.
By Paul Nicholson
May 15 – Timing is everything in football and there would have been a few ironic smiles at the weekend when it was announced in the US that Judge Michael J. Garcia of the New York Court of Appeals was one of four candidates being interviewed for the role of FBI Director to replace the ousted James Comey.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 13 – The former Portuguese government minister removed from his role at FIFA in its clearout of senior governance experts says he would have to turn down any counter-offer by UEFA to take up a similar role because of how it would be perceived.
By Andrew Warshaw in Manama, Bahrain
May 11 – The Greek official controversially selected by FIFA to become the new lead judge of its ethics committee was nominated by UEFA in the latest twist to the biggest story to emerge in the build-up to Thursday’s 211-member Congress.
By Andrew Warshaw in Manama, Bahrain
May 10 – Whatever spin Gianni Infantino puts on it – and he has promised to give his side of the story at the end of tomorrow’s full Congress – FIFA’s ousted ethics chiefs insist they were given no notice whatsoever of the decision to remove them from office and that the lack of a transition period will set FIFA’s much-touted reform process back several years.
By Andrew Warshaw in Manama, Bahrain
May 10 – FIFA’s entire governance apparatus – or lack of it – has come crashing down after the two men mainly responsible for cleaning up the organisation were ousted from their positions today in what will be regarded by many as the ultimate purge orchestrated by Fifa president Gianni Infantino.
May 7 – Sulley Muntari has had his controversial one-match ban for protesting against racist abuse overturned by Italy’s football authorities but says he was “treated like a criminal” for complaining.