The Arab region squandered the chance to help elect their first FIFA president because their two candidates failed to cooperate, leaving the door open for Swiss Gianni Infantino to triumph on Friday, Arab soccer chiefs and pundits said.
World soccer's governing body FIFA will proceed with an election to pick a new president on Friday to replace the disgraced Sepp Blatter and vote on a set of reforms aimed at restoring its credibility after the worst graft scandal in its history.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Less than a week after FIFA set up a task force to look into when the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar can be held, English FA chairman Greg Dyke said it will never take place in the searing heat of the Middle East summer.
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.
Esther Staubli is set to become the first female referee to officiate a match at the ongoing FIFA Under-17 World Cup 2017.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Russia could be banned from international athletics, including the 2016 Olympic Games, after an anti-doping commission report on Monday alleged widespread corruption and collusion that added up to a state-sponsored drugs culture in a sporting superpower.
European football's governing body UEFA called for a quick decision in the case of its suspended president Michel Platini on Thursday and said the FIFA presidential election, which he is contesting, should go ahead in February as planned.
India's new soccer league with its cast of celebrity owners, experienced foreign managers and a sprinkling of high-profile players will kick off on Sunday, igniting hopes of waking the country from its football slumber.
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.
Former Newcastle United striker Michael Chopra is ready to surrender his British passport to represent the country of his origin, India, and realise his dream of playing senior-level international soccer.
German champions Bayern Munich are close to signing former World and European champion Xabi Alonso from Champions League winners Real Madrid.
India has been termed the sleeping giant of world football by FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) president Sepp Blatter, and to awaken the dormant potential of the region, the international football association has launched a new program in partnership with the football associations of seven Indian states.
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.
Footballers who take part in match-manipulation risk losing their careers if caught but those who induce the players and set up the fix do so at almost no risk to themselves, according to FIFA's head of security Ralf Mutschke.
Sebastian Coe has long been one of the most outspoken critics of doping in athletics yet the newly-elected president of the sport's governing body has remained silent this week in the face of potentially its most damning drugs scandal yet.
FIFA vice president Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein has criticised soccer's world governing body FIFA for banning Iraq from hosting home internationals and called upon the organisation to do more for supporters in the Middle East.
Highlighting the divisions, the former French diplomat pointed out that the top European clubs spend millions on players while Papua New Guinea's football federation struggles to pay air fares for its team.
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.
Scandal-plagued FIFA postponed the bidding for the right to host the 2026 World Cup.
Crisis-hit world football governing body FIFA faces one of the most important days in its 112-year history when it elects a new leader on Friday hoping to usher in a fresh era after decades of tawdry controversy.
Sepp Blatter was re-elected president of FIFA for a fifth term on Friday after the only other candidate conceded defeat after a first round of voting in an election overshadowed by allegations of corruption in world soccer.Sepp Blatter was re-elected president of FIFA for a fifth term on Friday after the only other candidate conceded defeat after a first round of voting in an election overshadowed by allegations of corruption in world soccer. Blatter's victory came despite demands that he quit in the face of a major bribery scandal being investigated by U.S., Swiss and other law enforcement agencies that plunged the world soccer body into the worst crisis in its 111-year history. Neither Blatter nor Jordanian challenger Prince Ali bin Al Hussein got the necessary two thirds of the vote in the first round, with Blatter on 133 and Prince Ali on 73. Prince Ali later conceded. In a victory speech, Blatter declared: "Let's go FIFA, let's go FIFA," to a standing ovation. Speaking just before the vote, Blatter, who joined FIFA in 1975, said he felt that he had only been with the organisation for a short time and wanted to stay longer. "What is time anyway. I find that the time I have spent at FIFA is very short," he said. "The more one ages the more time flies by quickly. I am with you, and I would like to stay with you," he said to applause.
Football legend Pele described the FIFA corruption scandal as a "shame", but made it clear that the reputation of the game was not tarnished.
The spotlight at next week's FIFA Congress will fall on the presidential election - but the real key to the future of football's beleaguered governing body is embedded in a document with the unglamorous title 'Draft statutes - Congress 2016'.
Qatar said on Wednesday there was no way it would be stripped of the right to host the World Cup despite the corruption scandal surrounding FIFA, dismissing a 'bashing campaign' of criticism of its 2022 bid as anti-Arab prejudice.
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.
Here is the full text of the statement issued by FIFA on Monday detailing the suspension of FIFA President Sepp Blatter and European soccer boss Michel Platini for eight years.
An ambitious project to awaken a sleeping giant of Asian soccer looks like confirming Nobel laureate Amartya Sen's famous remark that India pricks up its ears only when comparisons with China are made. With China embarked on a multi-billion dollar mission to become a soccer superpower by 2050, India looks set to follow suit with its own plan to raise its status in the game to match its burgeoning economic power. Come October, India, most famously described as soccer's sleeping giant by former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, will launch a programme to engage more than 11 million children in soccer-related activities.
- 'No independent governance committee, investigator or arbitration panel can change the culture of an organization' - 'FIFA's ethics committee was created to increase the transparency of the organisation, that's what we wanted, but in the end it has just caused more confusion for FIFA'
Some of the big moments of the sporting world from 2010-2019!
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Copa America kicks off in Chile on Thursday as a widening US-led investigation lifts the lid on rampant corruption among the sport's top officials.
The United States Soccer Federation said in a statement on the new charges that its hosting of the 2016 Copa America Centenario tournament would go ahead as planned.
The scandal revolves around accusations that money was demanded from top athletes to 'bury' medical tests showing drug use
From the FIFA World Cup finals to the spot-fixing scandals that rocked Indian cricket, we pick the key sporting events on the 2014 calendar.
As results prove every week, nothing can be taken for granted in soccer and despite long odds, FIFA could next year have its first French president since Jules Rimet with Jerome Champagne planning to succeed Sepp Blatter.
The Serbian FA (FSS) blamed their Albanian rivals for incidents which forced Tuesday's Euro 2016 qualifier to be abandoned but will press for several dozen home fans who invaded the pitch to be charged, the governing body said.
Rafael Nadal is recovering satisfactorily from appendicitis and will continue a course of antibiotics in a bid to be fit for the remainder of the 2014 season, the World No 2's spokesman said on Thursday.
Buoyed after the country was awarded the 2017 Under-17 FIFA World Cup'S hosting rights, the All India Football Federation is set to bid for the 2015 and 2016 editions of the Club World Championships.
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