In two weeks time, Sepp Blatter will almost certainly win a fifth term as president of FIFA and we can expect another round of the ritual despairing comment from the British press and the other pockets of resistance to the way the global game is run. But nothing will change. The three candidates who have […]

US lawyer Michael Garcia has resigned from his position with FIFA, 24 hours after the governing body dismissed his complaint regarding the handling of his investigation into World Cup corruption. Garcia's findings – which he detailed in a 430-page investigation – were released as a 42-page summary by FIFA-appointed independent judge Hans-Joachim Eckert in mid-November. Immediately following the […]

Former French diplomat Jerome Champagne has announced his intention of challenging Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency at next year’s elections. Last week, Blatter announced that he would seek a fifth term in office as the head of world football’s governing body, citing ‘unfinished business’ as the main reason to run for re-election. “You see […]

Since Friday, when it became apparent that former French diplomat and FIFA insider Jerome Champagne was running for FIFA President, I have heard various theories about his candidacy from well-connected sources in the game. Champagne is a world soccer insider whose relationships with current FIFA President Sepp Blatter and UEFA President Michel Platini were thought […]

British website MCV published a fascinating article this week about how the FIFA video game franchise went from an afterthought to a global phenomenon. The story began in 1993 when EA's European office pushed the North American company to give them permission to create a soccer game. According to the assistant producer who worked on […]

If you haven't seen the BBC Panorama episode about FIFA corruption or you want to see it again, here it is. I had a conversation with a friend yesterday and he hadn't seen it. And I then realized that many of the readers of EPL Talk may not have seen it either, so I decided […]

I'll be the first to admit that FIFA international dates are something that I don't get excited about. It means either meaningless friendlies or semi-interesting football matches. These games fail to have the fever pitch excitement and build-up to games that we're accustomed to experiencing each week in the Premier League. FIFA International Dates almost […]