FIFA's new fiasco spares Gianni Infantino after Sepp Blatter and his aides claim £55m

FIFA's latest financial scandal betrays a shameless attempt to shift attention away from the beleaguered new president, Gianni Infantino, by revealing the near £55million worth of bonuses shared between disgraced predecessor Sepp Blatter and his closest aides.

Infantino, who is already proving as poor a leader of world football as Blatter was, is under the spotlight for allegedly ordering the deletion of a copy of the audio tape from the FIFA Council meeting in Mexico City, where he was awarded unprecedented powers.

Yet FIFA — in a blatantly obvious tactic to save Infantino at all costs by moving on the corruption narrative — threw three already-discredited FIFA officials further under the bus.

Gianni Infantino is under the spotlight after allegedly ordering the deletion of a copy of an audio tape of a FIFA meeting

Sepp Blatter, left, Jerome Valcke, right, and Markus Kattner have been thrown under the bus by lawyers

American lawyers Quinn Emanuel, conducting their own year-long investigation into rotten-to-the-core FIFA, chose yesterday to reveal that the suspended Blatter and the sacked pair Jerome Valcke (secretary general) and Markus Kattner (finance director) had benefited to the tune of nearly £55m between them in bonuses and pay rises over a five-year period from 2011.

It’s unclear whether Infantino is himself under investigation by the FIFA ethics committee after reported complaints about his conduct.

England Under 21 manager Gareth Southgate was a surprise pundit on ITV’s coverage of England v Portugal, considering he stood down as the station’s regular analyst when he took the junior national team job in 2013 to show he was fully committed. 

ITV say it was only a one-off appearance by Southgate who could hardly give an independent view on England’s dismal showing.

Gareth Southgate was a surprise pundit on ITV's coverage on Thursday but the TV channel say it was a one-off

Ladbrokes have agreed a four-year deal to replace William Hill as the FA’s official betting partners, paying £3.5m annually.

That is well over double the price being paid by William Hill, who didn’t want to dig that deep to extend their contract. Coincidentally, both agreements were negotiated by Kristof Fahy, who was marketing director of William Hill before joining Ladbrokes.

Ladbrokes have replaced William Hill as the FA's betting partners after Kristof Fahy, right, negotiated the deal

GB's Olympic rugby sevens team had only their first training session last Monday, such is the wholly dysfunctional attitude towards sevens among the home nations. 

The only hope for head coach Simon Amor is building on the fresh excitement of players getting together for the first time — albeit far too late.

Simon Amor only had his first training session with Great Britain's Olympic rugby sevens team on Monday

FA chairman Greg Dyke made his last official speech in the Wembley suite before the Portugal game, again without criticising the blazers who have kicked out his reform agenda.

But Dyke hopes his controversial three-year reign will end on a high with England doing well at Euro 2016. ‘In the end, the public judge the FA on how well the senior England teams do in major tournaments,’ he said.

Dyke said his best — mainly FIFA-related — memories were: ‘The eventual departure of that little Swiss man . . . the watch from Brazil . . . Blatter’s North Korean-style Congresses . . . my cut-throat gesture at the Group of Death in Brazil (well at least I got that right) and playing a part in reforming FIFA, we hope.’

Greg Dyke had his final speech in the Wembley suite as FA Chairman but did not criticise the body's blazers

The FA of Wales, whose coaching badge courses have been made more transparent following Sportsmail revelations of star footballers being fast-tracked to qualifications, will have more questions to answer with their latest intake of professional players on their UEFA B license residential course this week. 

They include Stoke’s Ryan Shawcross, who not only turned down the chance to play for Wales but was involved in the challenge that left Arsenal and Wales international talisman Aaron Ramsey with a horrendous broken leg injury in February 2010. 

There is still considerable tension over the incident between the clubs.

Ryan Shawcross has joined Wales's UEFA B license residential course despite turning down the country

West Brom administrator Richard Garlick paid the price for missing the Premier League summit this week for a family holiday. He was voted off the seven-strong PL representation on the FA Council. The new names include Tottenham’s head of football operations, Rebecca Caplehorn.