Disgraced former FIFA chief Sepp Blatter will defy a ban to attend two World Cup matches and also meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, his spokesman said on Monday.
The former head of world football Sepp Blatter said Saturday that claims by US women's goalkeeper Hope Solo that he had grabbed her backside were "absurd".
Ex-Fifa president Sepp Blatter was engaged by the Swiss government in a secret mission to try to oust the president of Burundi last year, it has emerged.
Switzerland has opened a criminal investigation targeting Fifa's ex-secretary general Jerome Valcke, who was Sepp Blatter's right-hand man before he was fired from the organization over corruption, Swiss prosecutors said on Thursday.
Fifa on Wednesday demanded tens of millions of dollars in damages from the "sordid" officials now facing charges in the
United States over mass bribery scandals that have rocked world football.
French authorities have searched the Paris offices of the French Football Federation in connection with Switzerland's criminal investigation targeting former Fifa president Sepp Blatter, the Swiss attorney general said on Wednesday.
Ex-Venezuelan football federation president Rafael Esquivel was extradited on Monday from Switzerland to the United States to face corruption charges in the roiling Fifa graft scandal, Swiss justice officials said.
A Fifa appeal committee on Wednesday reduced bans against Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini to six years but maintained they
were still guilty of ethics breaches.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said it will decide by Thursday whether to suspend Fifa's presidential vote after
candidate Prince Ali bin al Hussein filed a case seeking a delay.
An authorized biography of Sepp Blatter written by the shamed Fifa president's former spokesman will be released next month, the publisher said on Tuesday, four days before an election to choose Blatter's successor.
Fifa's disciplinary committee on Monday banned the former head of Thai football Worawi Makudi for three months and fined him 3,000 Swiss francs ($3,000, 2,700 euros) for violating the terms of a previous suspension.
Fifa's disgraced president Sepp Blatter returned to the Zurich headquarters of world football's governing body on Tuesday to face an appeals committee he hopes will overturn his eight-year ban from the sport.
The fallen head of European football, Michel Platini, appeared at Fifa's headquarters in Zurich on Monday to appeal his eight-year ban from the sport over ethics violations.
Switzerland should be "grateful" to Sepp Blatter, the outgoing FIFA president and Swiss national who has been suspended from world football over ethics violations, his ex-wife was quoted as saying on Thursday.
Fifa investigators on Tuesday requested a nine-year ban against the body's suspended secretary general Jérôme Valcke, who was provisionally suspended from football in October for 90 days over corruption allegations.
Switzerland on Wednesday handed over an initial package of bank documents to US prosecutors requested by Washington as evidence in the ongoing criminal cases targeting senior Fifa leadership.
Facing criminal investigation and banned from
VIP tribunes, Sepp Blatter cuts an increasingly lonely figure far from the football president who mixed with political heavyweights and tycoons.
Fifa's suspended president Sepp Blatter says
the world body's ethics watchdog have dropped corruption charges against him over a suspect $2-million payment.
UPDATED: Suspended Fifa president Sepp Blatter appeared before the world body's ethics judges on Thursday to answer corruption allegations as Switzerland announced it had frozen tens of millions of dollars in accounts linked to football bribes.
Suspended Fifa president Sepp Blatter on Tuesday questioned the credibility of the Zurich-based organization's ethics committee, days before he will appear before the panel in a bid to clear his name.
The executive committee of Zurich-based Fifa on Thursday backed reforms that include limiting terms of presidents to a maximum of 12 years and "transparency of compensation" for leading officials of football's world governing body.
UPDATED: The Swiss government announced that two Fifa
officials were detained in Zurich on Thursday, confirming reports of new arrests in the broadening Fifa scandal, and said the pair were suspected of taking millions of dollars in bribes.
Chiefs of Zurich-based Fifa began hammering out how to reform the
scandal-tainted world football body on Wednesday as sponsors who provide hundreds of millions of dollars demanded independent leadership of the changes.
Zurich-based Fifa's much-abused leadership on Wednesday starts a key meeting on reform on the fifth anniversary of one of the most controversial actions ever taken by football's world body.
Swiss citizen Sepp Blatter claims he is the target of "an inquisition" by Fifa's ethics committee, which has suspended him for 90 days and called for further sanctions over corruption charges.
