The World Cups in Russia and Qatar will take place as was decided in 2010. This is the conclusion that Hans-Joachim Eckert, head of the adjudicatory arm of FIFA’s ethics committee, draws from the Garcia report.

FIFA should publish findings of the investigation into the alleged corruption in relation to the awarding of the World Cups to Russia and Qatar, says Transparency International.

Head investigator and author of the independent report on the probe into alleged corruption in the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, Michael Garcia, has issued a statement calling for his report to be made public. He is supported by a number of high-ranking football officials.

Awarding the rights to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals at the same time was a mistake: that is likely to be one of the key conclusions in the independent report into the process.

Three football clubs from the Crimea region in Ukraine are about to join the Russian football league in spite of Ukrainian protests. Both FIFA and UEFA say they are hoping for a compromise and neither have taken action so far.

Four years before the opening match, the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia has already produced significant cost overruns and construction work is falling behind deadlines. Overall, it looks set to become the most expensive World Cup ever, says Martin Müller from the University of Zürich in this comment piece.

Australia’s bid for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups did not fail due to a lack of suitability or a lack of infrastructure, the former head of Corporate and Strategic Affairs at the Australian Football Association (FFA) Bonita Mersiades told delegates at Play the Game 2013.

In this speech prepared for the EASM conference in Aalborg earlier this year, Bonita Mersiades guides us through the development of football in Australia.