Suspended FIFA President Sepp Blatter has been admitted to hospital in his native Switzerland after suffering what has been described as a "small breakdown".

UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino has said he will withdraw from the FIFA Presidential race if Michel Platini, the suspended head of European football's governing body, is allowed to stand.

First, we were shocked by the conflict between SportAccord and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in April. 

That was followed by a summer of scandal involving world football's governing body, FIFA, which flickered and intensified into an autumn of anguish.

In our world, most on-the-record interviews are notably restrained affairs. Respondents are invariably fearful of deviating from the script and offending others, and have PR assistants lurking ominously close-by to ensure the “key message” comes across.

FIFA has revealed the list of 10 nominations for its annual Puskás Award for the best goal scored over the past season.

Like fetid fumes, bad news continues to emanate from the citadels of power in world sport - with the seemingly endless fug of the FIFA investigation now casting itself over the shoulders of the great Franz Beckenbauer, and the International Association of Athletics Federations’ ex-President Lamine Diack newly announced as being under investigation by French police and the International Olympic Committee’s Ethics Commission following allegations of corruption.

Michael Hershman, founder of Transparency International and a former FIFA Independent Governance Committee (IGC) member, has heavily criticised the work of football's world governing body's Reform Commission, which he believes is a "waste of time and money".

Women being banned from watching volleyball matches in Iran is "ridiculous", according to former United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who believes sport can be a major platform to drive forward gender equality.

José Maria Marin, former President of the Brazilian Football Confederation, has been extradited to the United States to face corruption charges.

FIFA Reform Committee chair François Carrard has claimed solving problems within football's world governing body will be harder than addressing similar issues within the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in the late 1990s due to the need to pacify 209 contrasting National Associations.

Expanding football in China, Russia and India will be among the goals of FIFA Presidential candidate Tokyo Sexwale as he warned against sponsors dictating the future path of the organisation here at the Securing Sport summit.

Will it be a Sheikh or another suit who wins the dubious right to try and drag FIFA out of the quagmire of corruption after almost half a century when the presidential election to replace Sepp Blatter takes place in February?

Indonesia's President Joko Widodo has met with senior FIFA officials in an attempt to have the suspension inflicted upon the Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) by world football’s governing body in May overturned.

It is worth all the trouble. Time is valuable.  We have to spend it wisely and focus on the things that really matter.

Former FIFA Presidential candidate Luis Figo has today backed UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino in the race for the top job at world football’s governing body.