World soccer's leaders meet this week on an island notorious for its once brutal prison but where the game offered relief and hope for hundreds of anti-apartheid activists.
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.
A member of FIFA's executive committee criticised talk of moving the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to winter and said he believes the idea was floated informally even before votes on the host nation for the tournament.
Franz Beckenbauer said on Sunday he is ready to answer questions from FIFA about an investigation into World Cup bidding by June 27 and believes that should remove any justification for its 90-day ban on him.
FIFA's Ethics Committee has banned Wolfgang Niersbach, the former president of the German Football Association, for one year for failing to report potential misconduct surrounding the award of the 2006 soccer World Cup in Germany.
UEFA head Michel Platini announced on Wednesday his intention to stand for presidency of FIFA in place of Sepp Blatter.
The All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Friday got a former player as its first president in its 85-year history with Kalyan Chaubey beating the legendary Bhaichung Bhutia in the election for the top post.
Unless the world of soccer shifts on its axis at the end of this month, Sepp Blatter will be re-elected as FIFA president.
Asia's top soccer officials delivered a major snub to FIFA on Tuesday, forcing the postponement of an election for three spots on the world body's new governing Council in a row over the disqualification of a Qatari candidate.
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.
Besides vice president N A Harris, treasurer Ajay Kipa, all other newly elected executive committee members, and the six eminent footballers co-opted in the committee, except Bhutia, were present in the meeting.
In 2015, FIFA recommended that Qatar host a shorter World Cup over the cooler months of November and December in a move that was sure to put soccer's world governing body on a collision course with the major European leagues.
FIFA has approved five candidates for its February presidential election amid the worst crisis in its history, after barring Liberia's Musa Bility on integrity grounds and leaving out UEFA chief Michel Platini while he remains under suspension.
"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.
- 'FIFA should have a leader with a lot of experience' -'Prince Ali is a good man, I work with him, I was a main supporter in the past, he is like my brother. He has a good future but I think he was in a little bit of a hurry. I think he needed to take the trust of Asia first before he earned the trust of the international community'
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.
UEFA president Michel Platini ruled himself out of the running for the most powerful job in football on Thursday, saying he "could not convince himself" that opposing incumbent Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency was the right thing to do.
The FIFA task force looking into dates for the Qatar World Cup has recommended a shorter tournament to be staged in November and December 2022, the head of the Asian Football Confederation told reporters on Tuesday.
England and Scotland are planning to defy a FIFA ban on players wearing poppies during their World Cup qualifier on November 11, their Football Associations said on Wednesday.
Swiss authorities have again searched the Zurich headquarters of FIFA and seized documents and electronic data in its corruption probe surrounding the global soccer body, the Swiss attorney general's office said on Friday.
Sepp Blatter comes across as an amiable character with eccentric ideas about football but he has shown in the past that he possesses a ruthless instinct for survival and extraordinary political nous.
As well as UEFA, the continental confederations representing South America (Conmebol), North and Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF), and Asia (AFC) have all reportedly told Platini they would back his candidacy for FIFA president. The other two confederations are Africa's CAF and Oceania's OFC.
Prospective FIFA presidential candidate Harold Mayne-Nicholls will decide whether to run against embattled incumbent Sepp Blatter in the New Year, the Chilean said on Thursday.
Leading sponsors of football's world governing body have demanded independent oversight of FIFA's reform process in an open letter published on Tuesday ahead of a key meeting to finalise proposed reforms at the scandal-plagued organisation.
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.
Several defendants charged in a wide-ranging corruption case involving soccer's global governing body FIFA are in talks with US officials about possibly pleading guilty, a US prosecutor said on Monday.
Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein said on Monday he would consider withdrawing from the FIFA presidential election race to allow a single candidate to challenge Sepp Blatter when the votes are cast at the FIFA Congress on May 29.
Cameroon's Issa Hayatou will take over as interim FIFA president following the provisional suspension of Sepp Blatter in a corruption scandal.
Campaigners call for Kofi Annan to take charge of FIFA reform.
Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan, who failed in an attempt to replace Sepp Blatter as FIFA president in May, says Blatter should not be handling the reform process.
According to reports across media, then president Thabo Mbeki and foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma approved the payment which the authorities again insisted on Friday was for a legitimate development project in the Caribbean.
Former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner, a central figure in world soccer's deepening scandal, has vowed to tell investigators all he knows about corruption within the sport's governing body.
The 2022 soccer World Cup will be held in Qatar despite doubts raised by a German FIFA executive committee member because of extreme heat in the desert state, local organisers said on Monday.
Russia was banned from the world's top sporting events for four years on Monday, a period that includes the next summer and winter Olympics and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, for tampering with doping-related laboratory data. The World Anti-Doping Agency concluded that Moscow had tampered with laboratory data by planting fake evidence and deleting files linked to positive doping tests that could have helped identify drug cheats.
All India Football Federation (AIFF) chief Praful Patel is hopeful of establishing fruitful relations with new FIFA president Gianni Infantino and work towards the development of the game in the country.
'It was not an agreement, this was his proposal and of course it (then) went to the vote at the (FIFA) executive committee'
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.
The victory celebration over, new FIFA president Gianni Infantino's first major decision in charge of the troubled world football organisation will be to appoint a secretary general, effectively a chief executive, to run day-to-day operations.
New FIFA president Gianni Infantino said on his first full working day he still did not know what he would be paid as head of soccer's global governing body. The Swiss said he expected the bidding process for the 2026 World Cup, delayed last year by a scandal which has engulfed FIFA, should begin in the next couple of months. The 2018 and 2022 tournaments, to be staged in Russia and Qatar, had to be the "best in history", he added. Speaking after an informal match with FIFA employees and guests, Infantino said he had still not discussed his salary following his election on Friday.
"Does anyone think it's normal that one of the candidates doesn't even bother to present an election manifesto that can be voted on May 29."
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