October 2010:
- Britain's Sunday Times newspaper claims two members of Fifa's executive committee, Reynald Temarii of Tahiti and Amos Adamu of Nigeria, offered to sell their votes in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting contest to undercover newspaper reporters.
- Temarii and Adamu provisionally suspended by Fifa's ethics committee, pending further investigations. Four other officials, all former executive committee members, are also provisionally suspended.
November 2010:
- Temarii is banned for one year and fined 5,000 Swiss francs (€4,100) for breaches of the ethics code. Adamu banned for three years and fined €8,200 for breaching five articles of the ethics code, including one on bribery. The four others all banned and fined.
- The ethics committee decides allegations of vote-trading between Spain/Portugal, who are bidding for 2018, and Qatar, who are bidding for 2022, are unfounded.
- Fifa dismisses allegations made by a BBC programme against three more executive committee members, saying the matters had already been investigated by Swiss authorities and the case was closed.
December 2010:
- Russia is awarded the 2018 World Cup while the 2022 tournament is controversially awarded to Qatar despite Fifa's own technical report saying that high temperatures could pose a health risk to players, officials and spectators. Temarii and Adamu are not replaced and the decision was made by only 22 members of the executive committee.
May 2011:
- A British parliamentary inquiry into why England failed to secure the 2018 finals told by member of parliament Damian Collins there was evidence from the Sunday Times newspaper that Issa Hayatou of Cameroon and Jacques Anouma of the Ivory Coast were paid by Qatar.
- At the same hearing, former English Football Association chairman David Triesman accuses FIFA executive committee members Jack Warner, Ricardo Teixeira, Nicolas Leoz and Worawi Makudi of asking for favours in return for their votes. Fifa later says all four men have been cleared of the allegations in an independent report commissioned by the FA.
- An ethics investigation is opened into Mohamed bin Hammam, Blatter's only challenger in the Fifa presidential election on June 1st, and Jack Warner. The investigation concerns a meeting of the Caribbean Football Union earlier in the month.
- Blatter is also summoned to appear before the ethics committee hearing following a request from Bin Hammam because he may have been aware of the cash payments.
- Bin Hammam withdraws his candidacy hours before the ethics committee hearing.
- An ethics committee hearing clears Blatter but provisionally suspends Bin Hammam and Warner pending a further inquiry into allegations they paid Caribbean delegates €28,000 each to vote for Bin Hammam in the election.
- Fifa confirms that the June 1st election will go ahead with Blatter as the only candidate.
- A leaked email from Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke claims Qatar had "bought" hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup. Qatar categorically denies any wrongdoing and Valcke says his comments were misconstrued.
- Blatter denies Fifa is in crisis and tells a news conference there was no case to answer against four Fifa executive committee members accused of corruption during a British parliamentary hearing.
- He also says there had been no evidence from the Sunday Times newspaper over allegations that Issa Hayatou and Jacques Anouma had been paid to vote for Qatar's 2022 World Cup bid.
- The English Football Association and anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International urge Fifa to postpone the presidential election because of a deepening corruption scandal.
June 2011:
- Fifa delegates overwhelmingly defeat England's proposal to delay the election by 172 votes to 17 on June 1st, allowing Blatter to be re-elected for a fourth term, unopposed, later in the day.
- There are fresh calls for a probe into Qatar being awarded the 2022 World Cup and Theo Zwanziger, head of Germany's influential soccer federation, says Fifa can ill afford to ignore suspicions about the vote.
