Fifa

The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) has unveiled a sweeping reform package as it seeks to clean house following a second Fifa corruption scandal in the space of four years.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has claimed there were “political interventions” from the presidents of France and Germany ahead of the voting for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, stating criticism over the award of the tournaments to Russia and Qatar should not be solely directed at world football’s governing body.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has maintained his conscience is clean and warned anyone who associates him with the ongoing scandal in world football “should go to jail”, as it emerged today (Thursday) that the United States has submitted a formal request for Switzerland to extradite seven Fifa officials arrested as part of a corruption investigation in Zurich in May.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into corruption in football is unprecedented and has presented the sports marketing industry with a number of complicated questions. We canvassed industry insiders to try to answer five of the most pressing questions.

LaLiga, the new brand name for the Spanish Football League, has filed an appeal against the decision by the sport’s global governing body Fifa to switch the 2022 World Cup in Qatar from the summer to the winter.

Sepp Blatter has added a fresh layer of intrigue surrounding his future at Fifa by stating he has not quit as president of world football’s governing body, comments that have furthered speculation that he may still seek to remain at the helm.

FIFA Fan Fests were a natural development of the large-scale public viewings that were staged by some of host cities during the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Korea and Japan. Although FIFA had no official involvement in these events, their high interest and popularity encouraged world football’s governing body to hold the first official Fan Fests at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

With fan festivals attracting huge populations of the host city, the top priority for rights-holders is safety. Helmut Spahn, director general of ICSS (the International Centre for Sport Security), tells Elisha Chauhan how difficult it is for event organisers to address concerns in this area.

Elisha Chauhan asks leading fan zone stakeholders how they organise their fan festivals and what makes them successful, including case studies of best practice, as well as how to manage safety and security at these mass participation events.

Here are two sobering thoughts for football federation officials and sports marketing executives around the world. 

Swiss authorities are looking into development grants made by Fifa in territories around the world as part of their investigation into football’s global governing body and its award of hosting rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, according to Reuters.

Alexey Sorokin, chief executive of the organising committee for the 2018 Fifa World Cup, has maintained the Russian government’s latest substantial cut to the budget for the national team football tournament is not a “sensational” move.

Outgoing Fifa president Sepp Blatter has called for football’s global governing body to introduce the requirement for its key officials to pass integrity tests.

Liberian Football Association (LFA) president Musa Bility has announced his intention to stand for the presidency of Fifa, stating he is confident he will gain the necessary backing to formalise his candidacy.

Cornel Borbely, the chief ethics investigator at football’s world governing body Fifa, has revealed that he is conducting proceedings against unnamed officials based on initial findings from investigations into the bidding processes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.