Global soccer body FIFA's Appeal Committee on Friday rejected an appeal by former German Football Association President Wolfgang Niersbach, maintaining a one-year ban imposed in July.
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the only major scheduled football event left unchanged after this year's calendar was wrecked by the coronavirus, has become the focus of fresh FIFA corruption allegations after the release of a new US Department of Justice indictment. According to the prosecutors, representatives working for Russia and Qatar bribed FIFA executive committee officials to swing votes in the crucial decision of world football's governing body.
FIFA's executive committee has unanimously agreed to publish an 'appropriate' version of a report into the bidding process for the 2018/2022 World Cups but said Russia and Qatar would still stage the tournaments.
Sepp Blatter said he will not support any of the five candidates standing to succeed him as FIFA president, through all but one of them had spoken to him about their bids.
Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter lost his appeal against a six-year ban for ethics violations, imposed amid the biggest corruption scandal to shake the world soccer body, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said.
Two football bosses including a former president of Honduras pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to US charges they took bribes in exchange for media and marketing contracts in a scandal that has rocked the business of global football.
US sports television network ESPN has invited the five candidates in FIFA's presidential election to participate in a debate on the future of the crisis-hit governing body for world football.
The German Football Association (DFB) has found no indication of wrongdoing in the process of winning the right to host 2006 World Cup, it said on Friday after an internal investigation was completed.
A member of the financial watchdog committee at soccer's ruling body FIFA has been charged with fraud, money-laundering and breach of trust by police in the Cayman Islands.
Former French football great Michel Platini, until recently seen as the man to lead soccer's governing body FIFA out of its worst ever graft crisis, could face a life ban from the sport if recommendations from FIFA ethics investigators are followed.
Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter will discover on Monday whether he has won his appeal against a six-year ban from football imposed for ethics violations amid the biggest corruption scandal ever to shake the world soccer body.
Here is a look at how foreign media has reacted to this news.
England was criticised by a FIFA ethics report on Thursday for over-indulging former powerbroker Jack Warner in its attempt to win the right to host the 2018 World Cup.
On Friday, Federation Football Australia FFA chief Frank Lowy rejected criticism of Australia's failed bid for the 2022 World Cup, saying the country ran a "clean campaign".
Switzerland's Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) named the men as Alfredo Hawit of Honduras, acting president of the CONCACAF federation and a FIFA vice-president, and Juan Angel Napout of Paraguay, head of the South American football federation CONMEBOL. CONCACAF administers football in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
Gianni Infantino's bid for the FIFA presidency with the aim of leading the world football body out of the worst graft scandal in its history was boosted on Friday when the Swiss lawyer won "overwhelming" backing from Europe's football associations.
"It is clear that there was a slush fund for the German World Cup bid," Zwanziger told Der Spiegel magazine, which first reported the allegations last week.
FIFA has completed a 22-month internal inquiry into allegations of high-level corruption and criminal misconduct that buffeted world football and handed its report to Swiss authorities, soccer's ruling body said on Friday.
World football body FIFA put Jerome Valcke, its second-ranking official, on leave on Thursday just hours after an ex-footballer raised allegations he was involved in a plan to resell 2014 World Cup tickets for a lucrative profit.
FIFA said on Wednesday it had fired General Secretary Jerome Valcke, once one of the global soccer body's most powerful figures, amid alleged corruption involving World Cup ticket sales.
Ex-South American soccer chief in FIFA scandal under house arrest.
A summary of sports stories from across the globe
'It was not an agreement, this was his proposal and of course it (then) went to the vote at the (FIFA) executive committee'
Slush fund allegedly used to buy votes for the World Cup, claims report
Former UEFA president Lennart Johansson says that the European football body was never told about the payment of 2 million Swiss francs ($2.1 million) from Sepp Blatter to current UEFA boss Michel Platini.
Suspended European football chief Michel Platini will "be suspended for several years", the spokesman of FIFA's ethics committee Andreas Bantel told French sports daily L'Equipe.
"The Asian Football Confederation expresses its disappointment and sadness at Wednesday's events in Zurich whilst opposing any delay in the FIFA Presidential elections to take place on Friday May 29 in Zurich," the AFC said in a statement posted on its website (the-afc.com) on Thursday.
UEFA elects a new president on Wednesday whose main task will be to stop what European officials say is an inexorable slide towards a breakaway football Super League open only to wealthy clubs such as Real Madrid and Manchester City.
Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter acknowledged on Friday that he failed to reform the scandal-ridden world soccer organisation but asserted he was not responsible for corruption in its regional organisations.
Global football body FIFA has been urged by its own human rights advisory panel to give Iran a deadline for allowing women to watch football matches.
The United States Soccer Federation temporarily displayed Iran's national flag on social media without the emblem of the Islamic Republic as a show of solidarity with protesters in Iran ahead of the two teams' World Cup clash on Tuesday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field on Thursday
'The stigma that FIFA is a corrupt body has to be erased once and for all. One fears that will not happen until Sepp Blatter goes'
Lionel Messi reclaimed the FIFA Ballon d'Or award for the world player of the year on Monday from his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo who had walked off with the award for the previous two years.
In a statement, Zurich-based FIFA said the candidates proposed are: Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, Musa Hassan Bility, Jerome Champagne, Gianni Infantino, Michel Platini, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa and Tokyo Sexwale.
Disgraced former UEFA president Michel Platini insisted he had done nothing wrong and said his conscience was clear as he gave a farewell speech to European soccer's governing body at their extraordinary Congress on Wednesday.
Almost exactly four years to the day since former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner stood in the lobby of the Baur au Lac hotel and warned FIFA a "football tsunami" was about to hit it, his words have finally came true.
UEFA president Michel Platini has said he intends to ignore FIFA requests and not return a luxury watch valued at 25,000 Swiss francs ($26,600), given to him by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF).
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
Favourite to win February's FIFA presidential election until the end of last week, Michel Platini is suddenly facing the same doubts and criticism which he has himself cast upon incumbent Sepp Blatter.
