FIFA corruption scandal timeline

Key dates in the world football corruption scandal after FIFA suspended its president Sepp Blatter and UEFA leader Michel Platini for 90 days:

2010

+ December 2: FIFA awards 2018 World Cup to Russia and 2022 tournament to Qatar. Six FIFA executive committee members were suspended before the ballot after Britain’s Sunday Times reported they offered to sell their votes for cash.

2011

+ June 1: Blatter returns for fourth term as FIFA president and vows a reform agenda. FIFA had launched an inquiry into alleged illegal payments a month before his election.

+ June 23: FIFA bans Mohamed bin Hammam, a former FIFA president from Qatar, for life for misconduct.

2013

+ April 30: FIFA’s ethics committee says former president Joao Havelange and former executive committee members Ricardo Teixeira and Nicolas Leoz accepted illegal payments from collapsed sports marketing company ISL.

+ May 6: FIFA’s ethics committee suspends Chuck Blazer, former general secretary of CONCACAF, representing north and central America and the Caribbean. Blazer had by then been working undercover for US anti-corruption investigators for two years.

2014

+ December 17: Former US attorney Michael Garcia resigns as head of FIFA’s investigatory body after the release of what he called an “incomplete and erroneous” summary of his report into corruption.

2015

+ May 27: Police raid a Zurich hotel on eve of FIFA congress and arrest seven officials, including two FIFA vice presidents. They are among 14 wanted by US prosecutors over $150 million bribery allegations, including claims of buying and selling votes for South Africa to get the 2010 World Cup.

+ May 29: The 79-year-old Blatter is re-elected for a fifth term as FIFA president, beating Prince Ali bin Al Hussein by 133 votes to 77 in the second round of voting.

+ June 2: With the corruption storm still raging, Blatter says he will organise a new election to choose a new president. “I don’t feel I have a mandate from the entire world of football,” he says.

+ Sept 17: FIFA suspends secretary general Jerome Valcke, Blatter’s right-hand man, over claims about selling World Cup tickets at inflated prices.

+ Sept 25: Switzerland opens criminal proceedings against Blatter on suspicion he misappropriated funds and violated his duties to FIFA by making a “disloyal payment” to UEFA head Michel Platini. Platini, who wants to succeed Blatter at FIFA, says the money was legitimate payment and he has done nothing wrong.

+ Oct 2: Major FIFA sponsors Coca-Cola, Visa and McDonald’s call for Blatter to step down immediately. He vows to stay on until the election to choose his successor in February 2016.

+ Oct 8: FIFA’s ethics watchdog suspends Blatter and Platini for 90 days over the Swiss case and bans South Korean tycoon Chung Mong-Joon, another FIFA presidency candidate, for six years. Valcke is hit with a 90-day ban.