FIFA has been no stranger to controversy in recent years, here are some of the significant events that have led to the most recent scandal.
December 2010
Russia is awarded the 2018 World Cup and Qatar gets the 2022 hosting rights.
It comes days after the BBC broadcast a Panorama expose of FIFA, claiming senior Fifa officials Nicolas Leoz, Issa Hayatou and Ricardo Teixeira, who went on to vote on the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids, took bribes in the 1990s.
February 2011
FIFA's ethics committee upheld three-year and one-year bans imposed respectively upon executive committee members Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii for breaches of FIFA's code of ethics following a Sunday Times investigation into wrongdoing during the World Cup 2018 and 2022 bidding campaigns.
May 2011
FIFA suspends presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam and vice-president Jack Warner pending an investigation into claims they had offered financial incentives to members of the Caribbean Football Union.
It drops a complaint against president Sepp Blatter.
The successful Qatar 2022 team denied any wrongdoing with their winning bid, saying their name had been "dragged through the mud for no reason".
Sponsors Coca-Cola, adidas, Emirates and Visa raise concerns about the ongoing corruption claims surrounding officials.
June 2011
Mr Bin Hammam is found guilty of bribery and banned from all international and national football activity for life.
Mr Warner escapes investigation after resigning from his position.
July 2012
Unable to ignore growing criticism any longer, FIFA commissions a report in to allegations of corruption in world football which is led by former US attorney and newly appointed head of Fifa's ethics committee Michael Garcia.
June 2014
The Sunday Times reports it has received "hundreds of millions" of documents which it claims reveal that Mr Hammam had made payments to football officials in return for votes for Qatar.
September 2014
Michael Garcia completes his 430-page report in to corruption allegations and sends it to FIFA.
November 2014
Hans-Joachim Eckert, chairman of the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA's independent ethics committee, publishes a 42-page summary of Mr Garcia's investigation, effectively confirming Russia and Qatar as World Cup hosts after finding breaches by them were "of very limited scope".
November 2014
FIFA lodges a criminal complaint with the Swiss attorney general over "possible misconduct" by individuals in connection with the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups but insists the investigation into the bidding process for the two World Cups is concluded.
Mr Garcia calls the summary "incomplete and erroneous" and launches an appeal against it.
December 2014
Mr Garcia loses his appeal against Mr Eckert's review of his report and resigns as FIFA's independent ethics investigator.
The US lawyer issues a statement criticising FIFA's "lack of leadership", saying he cannot change the culture of the world governing body.
December 2014
FIFA executives agree to publish a "legally appropriate version" of the report, but this has yet to happen.
May 2015
Six FIFA officials are arrested in dawn raids at a hotel in Zurich.
They are later charged by US authorities along with three other FIFA officials and five others over allegations of racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies spanning 24 years.
They are accused of breeding decades of "rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted" corruption within FIFA by the US justice department said.
FIFA say the upcoming presidential elections will go ahead in two days.
Meanwhile, the Swiss authorities raid FIFA headquarters, gathering data and documents for their separate investigation in to allegations of criminal mismanagement and money laundering in connection with the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids.
FIFA says there will be no redraw of the World Cup bids.
UEFA subsequently calls for the forthcoming FIFA presidential election to be postponed, while FA chairman Greg Dyke says Sepp Blatter has to go as FIFA president to help rebuild trust in the body.
