MUST READ: FIFA corruption scandal timeline { from 2010 - 2015 }

A look back at the corruption allegations and investigations involving football's world governing body -- FIFA -- since 2010.




May 14, 2010 – A turbulent period for FIFA began in May 2010 when the world's governing body for soccer  was presented with official bid documents byAustralia, England, Netherlands/Belgium, Japan, South Korea, Qatar, Russia, Spain/Portugal and the United States for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. During the ceremony at its Swiss headquarters, FIFA announced dates for inspections of the bidding nations from July - September.









May 16, 2010 – British newspaper Mail On Sunday reveals that English bid leader David Triesman (pictured here with soccer star David Beckham) was secretly recorded making comments about alleged attempts by Spain and Russia to bribe referees at the imminent 2010 FIFA World Cup.

November 18, 2010 – FIFA's Ethics Committee confirms the suspension of six FIFA officials including executive committee members Amos Adamu (pictured) and Reynald Temarii, after claims by Britain's Sunday Times newspaper that they offered to sell their World Cup votes. Adamu receives a three-year ban and $11,947 fine and Temarii a 12-month ban and a $5,973 fine. The committee also rules that there is no evidence to support allegations of collusion between rival bid teams. Both Adamu and Temarii appeal unsuccessfully to FIFA's Appeal Committee and Adamu later also files an unsuccessful appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). In May 2015, FIFA bans Temarii for another eight years for allegedly accepting money from former Asian Football Confederation president Mohamed Bin Hammam to cover legal costs of his appeal of FIFA's 2010 ban.

November 29, 2010 – Issa Hayatou from Cameroon (pictured) is one of three FIFA officials -- the others Nicolas Leoz from Paraguay and Ricardo Teixeira from Brazil -- who are named in a BBC program which alleges they took bribes from the International Sports and Leisure (ISL) marketing company who secured World Cup rights in the 1990s. A day later, Hayatou says he is considering legal action against the BBC. All three would have voted on the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. The International Olympic Committee's Ethics Commission later looks into the claims against Hayatou -- as he was an IOC member. It finds he had personally received a sum of money from ISL as a donation to finance the African Football Confederation (CAF)'s 40th anniversary and recommends he be reprimanded. In 2013, an internal investigation finds Leoz and Teixeira accepted illegal payments from ISL but says the acceptance of bribe money was not punishable under Swiss law at the time. Its report says that as both have resigned their positions with FIFA further steps over "the morally and ethically reproachable conduct of both persons" are superfluous.

December 2, 2010 – The winning bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals are announced. Russia wins the bid to host the 2018 tournament. But the big shock came when Blatter announced that Qatar would host the 2022 finals, despite FIFA's bid inspection report stating that hosting the World Cup in June and July would be "considered as a potential health risk for players, officials, the FIFA family and spectators, and requires precautions to be taken."

May 10, 2011 – Just a few weeks before FIFA's presidential vote, former English Football Association chairman David Triesman testifies at a UK parliamentary enquiry into England's failed 2018 bid. Under the cover of parliamentary privilege, Triesman accuses FIFA Executive Committee members Jack Warner, Nicolas Leoz, Ricardo Teixeira and Worawi Makudi of trying to secure cash and privileges in return for their vote. In other evidence submitted to the committee from the Sunday Times, it was alleged that FIFA vice-president Issa Hayatou along with fellow Executive Committee member Jacques Anouma has been paid $1.5 million to vote for Qatar as the 2022 World Cup host. All those accused, and the Qatar Football Association, strenuously deny the allegations.

May 26, 2011 – FIFA announces it will investigate Jack Warner (pictured), who ran the CONCACAF federation covering Central and North America, and Mohamed Bin Hammam, head of the Asian Football Confederation, over bribery allegations. It follows a report by fellow Executive Committee member Chuck Blazer alleging that they paid $40,000 worth of bribes to secure the support of members of the Caribbean Football Union. They deny the claims, with Warner promising a "tsunami" of revelations to clear his name. Bin Hammam claims the accusations are part of a plan to force him to withdraw as a candidate for FIFA's presidency. He is incumbent Sepp Blatter's only opponent in FIFA's presidential election due to be held June 1.

May 27, 2011 – FIFA says it will expand its corruption probe to include Sepp Blatter, after Mohamed Bin Hammam claimed Blatter knew about cash payments he was accused of giving to national football association in exchange for pro-Hammam votes during Qatar's 2022 World Cup bid. Blatter maintains that the allegations are "without substance," and two days later is exonerated by FIFA's Ethics Committee.

May 29, 2011 – But FIFA's Ethics Committee upholds the complaints against Mohamed Bin Hammam (pictured) and Jack Warner. Bin Hammam is effectively barred from standing in the FIFA leadership election. Warner's tsunami turns out to be an email, where secretary general Jerome Valcke seems to suggest that Qatar "bought" the right to host the 2022 World Cup. After initially threatening legal action, Qatar withdraws its complaint when Valcke explains he was referring to Qatar's large, and legal, campaign budget, rather than bribes. Warner faces no further action following his resignation and the presumption of innocence remains.

June 1, 2011 – Despite a last minute attempt by the English FA to postpone the vote -- a proposal which garnered just 17 out of the available 208 votes -- Sepp Blatter is re-elected for a fourth term as president of FIFA at the 61st FIFA Congress at Hallenstadion in Zurich. He vows to learn from past mistakes and undertake a reform agenda.

July 23, 2011 – Mohamed Bin Hammam is banned for life by FIFA after a two-day hearing into bribery allegations. The ban is annulled a year later due to lack of evidence.

October 21, 2011 – Sepp Blatter announces the introduction of four new task forces and a "Committee of Good Governance" aimed at reforming the organization and repairing its reputation.

March 30, 2012 – FIFA announces its executive committee has approved proposed changes to its Ethics Committee, splitting it into two entities -- one to investigate allegations and another to rule on them. It follows a report by the Independent Governance Committee (IGC) commissioned after Mohamed Bin Hammam's ban, that found FIFA's past handling of corruption scandals had been "unsatisfactory."

April 24, 2012 – The Council of Europe, a watchdog that oversees the European Court of Human Rights, criticizes Sepp Blatter in a damning report into FIFA's handling of bribery allegations. The report says it would be "difficult to imagine" that the FIFA president would have been unaware of "significant sums" paid to unnamed FIFA officials by sports marketing company International Sports and Leisure (ISL) in connection with lucrative contracts for World Cup television rights. However it makes no allegations that he had any involvement in corruption.

July 17, 2012 – Sepp Blatter announces that former U.S. attorney Michael J Garcia and German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert (pictured) have joined FIFA to probe allegations of wrongdoing. Their first task will be to investigate a Swiss court document after an investigation into alleged illegal payments made by FIFA marketing partner ISL to former FIFA president Joao Havelange and former executive committee member Ricardo Teixeira. However, they will also investigate old cases -- including the process surrounding the decision to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar. Meantime, Mohamed Bin Hamman is again suspended over new corruption allegations by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), which he used to lead. Bin Hammam says he is innocent but in December 2012 he resigns all his football positions after a FIFA report finds him guilty of violating the conflict of interest clauses in its Code of Ethics and bans him from all football-related activity for life.

December 17, 2012 – President of the South African Football Association (SAFA) Kirsten Nematandani (pictured) and four other SAFA officials are suspended as an act of "good governance" following a report by FIFA, which adjudged four friendly matches ahead of Africa's first World Cup in 2010 had been fixed. SAFA later decides FIFA went beyond its mandate in suspending them before its investigation had concluded and reinstates the officials to their posts. In May 2015, Nematandani tells South African broadcaster ANN7 he has yet to hear from FIFA in relation to the investigation. "This is about my reputation," he says. "My name has to be cleared."

January 9, 2013 – FIFA imposes a worldwide lifetime ban from football on 41 players from Korea who became embroiled in match-fixing activities in their domestic league, extending a ban handed down by the Korea Football Association (KFA) in 2011. The charges relate to alleged match-fixing in Korea's domestic K-League competition. All but one case were centered on offering or accepting bribes to throw matches.

February 4, 2014 – A report by police agency Europol reveals that 380 matches across Europe have been fixed by an Asia-based crime syndicate, including World Cup and European Championship qualifiers as well as the continent's top club competitions. Scores of people have been arrested across 15 countries, it says. FIFA vows to act on the revelations, but says it will need help from outside agencies to eradicate match-fixing.

March 11, 2013 – FIFA says executive committee member Vernon Manilal Fernando of Sri Lanka has been suspended at the request of Michael Garcia and Hans-Joachim Eckert, co-chairs of the investigatory and adjudicatory bodies of the Ethics Committee respectively. No details of his alleged transgression were released, but FIFA said the decision was based on alleged violations of its Code of Ethics, including conflicts of interest, offering and accepting bribes, bribery and corruption, "in order to prevent the interference with the establishment of the truth with respect to proceedings now in the adjudicatory chamber." He is later given a lifetime ban, which he unsuccessfully appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

April 30, 2013 – An internal investigation by FIFA's Ethics Committee clears Sepp Blatter of misconduct in the bribery scandal, but his predecessor, Brazilian Joao Havelange, resigns as honorary president for his part in the scandal. Havelange and former executive committee members Ricardo Teixeira and Nicolas Leoz were all found to have accepted illegal payments from former marketing partner International Sports and Leisure (ISL) between 1992 and 2000.

May 6, 2013 – FIFA's Ethics Committee suspends outgoing executive committee member Chuck Blazer (pictured back right) for 90 days "based on the fact that various breaches of the Code of Ethics appear to have been committed" by the American. Blazer is former general secretary of CONCACAF, the body which governs football in North and Central America and the Caribbean, and his suspension follows a report by its integrity committee. Blazer denies any wrongdoing.

June 13, 2014 – German footballer Franz Beckenbauer, the only man to win the World Cup as captain and coach, is provisionally suspended from any football-related activity for 90 days for failing to cooperate with a FIFA corruption investigation. FIFA says Beckenbauer had been asked to help with its Ethics Committee's probe into allegations against Qatar 2022 and the World Cup bidding process. Beckenbauer tells German media that he did not respond to questions by the chairman of the Ethics Committee's investigatory body because they were in English and he did not understand them.

Hans-Joachim Eckert (pictured), chairman of the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA's Ethics Committee, releases the committe's investigation into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup. The summary, by Eckert, says Qatar and Russia were not guilty of any alleged corruption, clearing them of wrongdoing. Michael Garcia, the author of the full report, and chairman of the Ethics Committee's investigatory body, wanted the report to be published in full. Garcia says the summary contains incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions detailed in the investigatory chamber's report.

November 18, 2014 – FIFA lodges a criminal complaint with the Swiss judiciary relating to the "international transfers of assets with connections to Switzerland, which merit examination by the criminal prosecution authorities."

December 17, 2014 – Michael Garcia resigns as chairman of the investigatory body of the Ethics Committee, following FIFA's decision to throw out his appeal after he complained about the way his report into the World Cup bidding process had been summarized by Hans-Joachim Eckert.

December 19, 2014 – FIFA decides to publish a redacted version of Michael Garcia's investigative report into alleged corruption surrounding the bidding process for the tournaments. The decision was unanimously endorsed by FIFA's 25-person executive committee.

May 27, 2015 – At the request of U.S. officials, Swiss authorities raid FIFA's headquarters in Zurich and arrest seven people. Meantime, the U.S. Department of Justice announces the unsealing of a 47-count indictment detailing charges against 14 people for racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. They include FIFA officials accused of taking bribes totaling more than $150 million and in return provided "lucrative media and marketing rights" to soccer tournaments as kickbacks over the past 24 years. Separately Switzerland announces its own investigation into the awarding of the World Cup bids to Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.