FIFA president Sepp Blatter ruled out a January World Cup in Qatar in 2022 and said on Friday November/December was the only alternative to a summer tournament.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
They were two small Argentina players with the same enormous challenge -- to meet the expectations of a soccer-mad country. Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi have both proved themselves to be skilful giants on the world soccer stage despite their diminutive frames of 1.65 and 1.70 metres respectively.
FIFA paid Ireland's FA (FAI) 5 million euros to avoid a legal case over a controversial World Cup playoff defeat, 50 percent more than the $5 million it reported on Thursday at 2009 exchange rates, world soccer's governing body said.
Brazilian police began investigating allegations of corruption in its soccer industry on Thursday, prompted by the arrests of top officials at world soccer body FIFA in a US bribery probe.
An independent inspector will look into possible structural damage caused by an October fire at a World Cup stadium in western Brazil, following a Reuters report that the blaze was far worse than government officials have previously said.
Police raided the Frankfurt headquarters of Germany's football association (DFB) on Tuesday and searched the homes of officials to investigate suspected tax evasion linked to the awarding of the 2006 World Cup, prosecutors said.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
FIFA presidential candidate Zico believes that the rules for electing the head of soccer's governing body are unfair, outdated and subject voting federations to outside pressure.
Soccer is a force for good around the world, according to FA president Prince William who will lead the organisation's 150th birthday celebrations on Saturday.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Friday
Jerome Valcke, FIFA's often-outspoken secretary general, all but confirmed on Friday that he will be leaving his job when Sepp Blatter is replaced as president of world soccer's governing body next February.
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
The Brazilian town of Chapeco, its streets wet with drizzle and buildings draped in the green of its devastated soccer club, prepared Saturday to receive the bodies of victims of an air crash in Colombia that killed 71 people and wiped out the team.
Opponents of FIFA President Sepp Blatter should run against him instead of merely criticising his decision to go for another term at the helm of world soccer's governing body, Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke said on Friday.
The Swiss lawyer heading up a committee charged with reforming the structure and management of world soccer body FIFA says major changes to the organization's voting structure and imposing term limits on executive committee members will be difficult to achieve in the short term.
Triple World Cup soccer winner Pele is putting some 2,000 items up for auction, including his three World Cup medals and a one of a kind Jules Rimet trophy that could fetch up to one million dollars, auctioneers said on Thursday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
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
The venue that will stage the opening World Cup game in Brazil in June is almost complete, officials said on Monday, even though work has not restarted on the collapsed roof that killed two workers in November.
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Barcelona's preparations for next season were thrown off course on Friday when the Spanish champions unexpectedly announced coach Tito Vilanova was stepping down due to ill health.
Women's World Cup officials and sponsors expressed concern over the corruption scandal swirling around world soccer's governing body.
Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has said the abuse he suffered on social media is 'a disgrace' and called for world soccer's governing body FIFA to reassess the way they deal with racism.
Luis Suarez is likely to play his first competitive game for Barcelona in La Liga's "Clasico" against Real Madrid later this month and he says it is no coincidence his four-month biting ban expires the day before one of biggest fixtures in world soccer.
England's Football Association, which has supported Platini's candidature, said on Friday it was among a number of other groups who had called for a FIFA crisis meeting where the election would be discussed.
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.
Qatar's construction industry is rife with abuse of migrant workers who are "treated like cattle" and live in squalid accommodation exposed to overflowing sewage, Amnesty International said in a report on Sunday.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has hit back at his critics, saying he was no "ruthless parasite sucking the lifeblood out of football" and arguing the profits his organisation earn are ploughed back into the global game.
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.
Formula One teams say they will race in Russia, despite the crisis in Ukraine and downing of a Malaysian airliner, unless the country's debut Grand Prix in October is called off or they are ordered not to go.
FIFA faces potentially the greatest challenge to its authority since it was formed 111 years ago following the launch on Wednesday of the 'New FIFA Now' coalition of reformists calling for change.
Franz Beckenbauer, who headed Germany's 2006 World Cup organising committee, said on Monday a transfer of 6.7 million euros to world football's governing body FIFA in 2005 was a mistake but rejected claims it was a return of a loan to buy votes in favour of the country's World Cup bid.
America's chances of hosting the 2026 World Cup are not likely to be hurt by a US led corruption investigation that has ensnared key figures in FIFA, world soccer's governing body, analysts said on Thursday.
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.
The general secretary of the world players' union FIFPro has blasted FIFA.
- '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'
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.
The reason: Vitaly Mutko has delivered victories on the sports field for the past decade and a half to match Putin's ambition of restoring national pride, and the Russian leader stands by the people who give him loyal service.
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