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Kosovo is to be allowed to play friendly matches against FIFA member-states at club and international level with some limitations, world soccer's governing body said on its website (www.fifa.com) on Monday.
FIFA approved major reforms at a congress on Friday, part of world football's effort to end the culture of corruption that has plagued its governing body for years. The measures were adopted by 179 members, while 22 voted against and six abstained at a congress in Zurich that will also elect a replacement to FIFA's disgraced president Sepp Blatter. The reforms were developed since June by a committee led by Francois Carrard, a Swiss lawyer tasked with a similar cleanup effort at the International Olympic Committee more than a decade ago. Among the most crucial measures are changes in the role of FIFA's president and its executive committee. The president's job has been altered to function like a corporate chairman of the board, providing strategic guidance but with less management authority. FIFA's executive committee, which had become an epicenter of graft, has been re-branded as a FIFA council, and will operate similar to a corporate board of directions. FIFA's secretary general, previously number two to the president, will serve as world football's CEO.
Banned UEFA president Michel Platini said he hoped to clear his name in time for the 2016 European Championship soccer tournament in June after attending a hearing on Monday to appeal against his suspension.
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.
New FIFA president Gianni Infantino sent a clear message that his leadership style would be very different from his predecessor Sepp Blatter when he flew to his first official overseas appointment by budget airline on Friday.
Bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups was criticised by its own investigator.
World soccer's governing body, FIFA, is expected to pass wide-ranging reforms at a Congress in Zurich next Friday, when a new president will also be elected.
US prosecutors on Monday made public their 2013 plea agreement with Chuck Blazer, revealing that the former FIFA executive committee member had been secretly providing authorities information for nearly two years before he admitted guilt.
Qatar has been given two weeks to provide a report to FIFA on how it has improved working conditions for labourers in the 2022 World Cup host nation.
The world soccer players' union, FIFPro, will urge its members to boycott the 2022 World Cup if it is played in Qatar's summer, vice-president Philippe Piat said.
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.
FIFA's disciplinary committee has banned Worawi Makudi, former president of the Football Association of Thailand and a former member of the FIFA Executive Committee, for three months for failing to comply with an earlier suspension, FIFA said.
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.
Real Sociedad midfielder Carlos Vela was called up by Mexico for November tour friendlies on Tuesday after turning his back on his country since March 2011.
Gianni Infantino's election as FIFA president should give football's governing body the time it needs to begin tackling the corruption and other problems that have dragged it into the worst crisis in its 112-year history, current and former officials said.
The Iraq Football Association (IFA) pledged their support for Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein in next month's FIFA presidential election.
Six soccer officials were arrested in Zurich on Wednesday and detained pending extradition to the United States over suspected corruption at soccer's governing body FIFA, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice (FCOJ) said in a statement.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Senators call for reforms of US soccer body at FIFA corruption hearing
English FA president Prince William called on FIFA to reform and show that "it can represent the interests of fair play" in a speech at the FA Cup final on Saturday.
"It was clear to me they were picking on me because of the colour of my skin," the victim, identified by Le Parisien as Souleymane, 33, said.
Awarding the 2022 football World Cup to Qatar's desert state was a "blatant mistake" FIFA executive committee member Theo Zwanziger said on Wednesday, adding that staging the tournament in winter would be just as big a problem.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino, whose election promises included expanding the World Cup finals to 40 countries, on Monday proposed an even larger tournament involving 48 teams.
German champions Bayern Munich are close to signing former World and European champion Xabi Alonso from Champions League winners Real Madrid.
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.
Luis Figo was one of the most talented, successful and exciting players of his generation, leading Portugal to a series of impressive performances which put many bigger countries to shame.
FIFA has rejected a demand from a presidential candidate to use transparent voting booths at next week's election to ensure delegates do not photograph their ballot papers when they choose the head of football's world ruling body.
The corruption scandal that has rocked athletics is worse than the one that has plunged soccer body FIFA into crisis because it punished clean athletes, four-times Olympic gold medallist Michael Johnson said on Tuesday. "With athletics, if you think about the victims, it is absolutely worse," the 400 metres world record holder told BBC radio. "The victims here are those (clean) athletes. They never had the opportunity to stand on the podium and they should have," added the American sprinter. An independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has stated in a damning report that "corruption was embedded" at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
FIFA presidential candidate Jerome Champagne has protested to football's world governing body about the number of observers allowed into the hall for Friday's election, saying he believed they were working for his rivals.
A European-led boycott of FIFA or the World Cup is unrealistic.
Diving or "simulation" is becoming a growing problem and everyone involved in football has a responsibility to make it stop, Everton manager Roberto Martinez said on Friday.
Palestinian sports supremo Jibril Rajoub has threatened to call for Israel's expulsion from world soccer's governing body after it denied a number of officials entry to the West Bank for a youth tournament on security grounds
Swiss authorities have opened criminal proceedings against individuals on suspicion of mismanagement and money laundering related to the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA soccer World Cups in Russia and Qatar.
The general secretary of the world players' union FIFPro has blasted FIFA.
FIFA presidential hopeful Luis Figo will travel to the Caribbean this week hoping to tempt voters in the CONCACAF region with a plan to distribute more funds, $2.5 billion (1.7 billion pounds) over four years, to national associations.
Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu believes FIFA regulations concerning under-age player transfers needs to be revised and that current rules would have prevented Lionel Messi from joining the club.
'That's what we're trying to do, by creating a tournament that is much more attractive than the current one, with more quality among participants and more clubs. That will attract more sponsors and television companies from around the world'
The Iranian group OpenStadiums, which is campaigning for the right of women to attend sports fixtures in the Islamic Republic, said that some women were arrested near Azadi stadium on Thursday during the Esteghlal-Persepolis match.
He is certainly not the first to say this but World Cup and Ballon d'Or winner Rivaldo too feels India should follow the 'Japan model' in order to improve the standard of football in the country.
