Michel Platini has officially confirmed he will run to replace Sepp Blatter as the FIFA President in next February’s election, as first reported on insidethegames yesterday. 

If you watched Sepp Blatter’s press conference last week in Zurich, and if you’re anything like me, you would have cringed at the state of world football administration. Is this the best they can do? I’m not just talking about Blatter here either. There are 25 other people on the FIFA Executive Committee, including Michel Platini, who announced today he is standing to succeed Blatter.

Michel Platini is set to announce tomorrow he will be a candidate to replace Sepp Blatter as President of FIFA, insidethegames has been told.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter and Russia President Vladimir Putin were on hand to open today’s draw ceremony for the 2018 World Cup in St Petersburg's Constantine Palace as defending champions Germany avoided arguably the strongest second-seeded teams, France and Italy, in the qualifying section for Europe.

FIFA general secretary Jérôme Valcke has acknowledged that he will almost certainly leave world football’s governing body at the same time as Sepp Blatter, the President under whom he has served since 2007.

A British comedian who interrupted the press conference of FIFA President Sepp Blatter and threw fake money at him on Monday (July 20) is to be charged by the Swiss authorities. 

FIFA’s Ad Hoc Electoral Committee met tpdau, just a day after February 26 was fixed as the date of the election that is expected to bring down the curtain on Sepp Blatter’s near 18-year reign as President of world football’s governing body.

Sepp Blatter is to miss next week’s 128th International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Kuala Lumpur.

FIFA has set a date of February 26 for its much-anticipated Extraordinary Elective Congress, while announcing the establishment of a new task force - chaired by “an independent personality” - to help with a new wave of reforms.

Harold Mayne-Nicholls, head of the FIFA Evaluation Commission for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid campaigns, has been suspended from all football-related activity for seven years.

The United States secured their spot in their fourth FIFA Women’s World Cup final as goals from Carli Lloyd and Kelley O’Hara helped them to a dramatic 2-0 win over Germany at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

FIFA’s director of communications and public affairs Walter De Gregorio is quitting his post with immediate effect, ahead of quite possibly the most turbulent nine months in the world football body’s history.

Former Brazilian international Zico has announced his intention to become Sepp Blatter’s replacement as President of FIFA.

The bidding process for the 2026 FIFA World Cup has been postponed due to allegations of corruption surrounding the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 tournaments to Russia and Qatar respectively, under-fire FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke announced today.

In the run-up to the seventh, and biggest, “official” Women’s World Cup, there have been significant achievements by individuals, teams and National Federations that can only make women more widely welcomed within the football world. There has also been a stealthy growth of playing numbers worldwide.

England is one of the success stories, with the professional league having just started its fifth season, and the number of registered players up to a quarter of a million, according to the Football Association (FA).

The sport was given royal approval when Prince William, taking up his official engagements again after the birth of Princess Charlotte, met the World Cup squad at the FA’s headquarters in Burton-upon-Trent.