Argentina's Lionel Messi collected the FIFA Ballon d'Or, his third consecutive title while Japan's Homare Sawa claimed her first FIFA Women's World Player of the Year award at the FIFA Ballon d'Or Gala held at the Zurich Kongresshaus this evening. Pep Guardiola, the Spanish coach of FC Barcelona, and Japan's women's national team coach Norio Sasaki were the respective winners of the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men's Football and FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women's Football.

Messi's and Guardiola's FC Barcelona side concluded 2011 with victory in the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan, sealing another fine year which also included the UEFA Champions League, La Liga, Spanish Super Cup and UEFA Super Cup titles.

World and European champions Spain remain unchallenged at the top of the table, followed by the Netherlands, Germany and Uruguay, who are all still competing in an exciting head-to-head battle for second place. As the top team at year-end, Spain are the Team of the Year for the fourth year in a row.

The title of Best Mover of the Year is claimed by Wales (48th, up 2) who, with 330 points, won the most points in 2011. The Welshmen find themselves back in the top 50 thanks to their outstanding performances in the second half of the year, with wins over Montenegro, Switzerland and Bulgaria in the EURO 2012 qualifiers. December saw the following teams achieve their highest position ever since the introduction of the world ranking: Bosnia-Herzegovina (20th, up 3), Panama (49th, up 2), Estonia (57th, up 1) and American Samoa (186th, up 18), who claimed their first-ever win in a World Cup qualifying match.

FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter announced his commitment to publish the ISL-ISMM file after receiving the full backing to do so from the members of the FIFA Executive Committee. Today, the FIFA President confirms his determination to publish the file on the ISL-ISMM case despite the fact that legal measures have been taken by one of the parties involved.

These measures request another thorough legal analysis which will postpone the envisaged publication of the ISL file.

The contenders for this year's FIFA Ballon d'Or award for the best player of 2011 and for the FIFA Women's World Player of the Year 2011 award were announced today at a press conference held at the headquarters of France Football magazine in Paris in which FIFA Secretary General Jérôme Valcke, France Football CEO François Morinière, former French player Emmanuel Petit and Gaëtane Thiney, French international football player, took part.

In alphabetical order, the male nominees are: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Lionel Messi (Argentina) and Xavi (Spain), while Marta (Brazil), Homare Sawa (Japan) and Abby Wambach (USA) will contest the women's award.

The worldwide players' union FIFPro and FIFA today announced the 55 players shortlisted for the FIFA FIFPro World XI 2011 (see full list below), which is to be revealed at the FIFA Ballon d'Or in Zurich on 9 January 2012. The 50,000 professional footballers belonging to the players' unions across the world that form FIFPro took part in a secret ballot to nominate their peers for inclusion in their World XI – choosing the best four defenders, three midfielders, three forwards and goalkeeper of 2011.

World champions Spain have the most players in the shortlist with twelve, followed by eight from Brazil, five each from Germany and England, four from Portugal, three each from France, the Netherlands and Italy, two each from Côte d'Ivoire, Argentina and Uruguay and one each from Serbia, Wales, Belgium, Colombia, Sweden, and Cameroon.

The renowned governance expert Prof. Mark Pieth was today (30 November 2011) presented as the chairman of the Independent Governance Committee during a press conference held at the Home of FIFA in Zurich that was opened by FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter. Prof. Pieth introduced his "Governing FIFA" report, in which he analyses FIFA's organisational structures and procedures and their abilities to deal with existing risks and challenges.

Prof. Pieth will chair a multi-stakeholder group of experts with backgrounds in law, sports, marketing and governance. The committee will be in charge of working on concrete proposals to improve FIFA's governance and transparency, and will receive reports from four existing FIFA task forces (Task Force Revision of Statutes, Task Force FIFA Ethics Committee, Task Force Transparency and Compliance, Task Force Football 2014).

World and European champions Spain remain unchallenged in first place in this month's FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. Although La Roja's defeat to England and draw with Costa Rica lost them points, their place in the ranking remains unchanged. Just behind them, a thrilling three-way tussle is under way for second place, with Germany edging dangerously close to second-placed the Netherlands following their 3-0 victory in the match between the two sides. Hot on their heels are Uruguay, who are continuing to make progress following their convincing 4-0 win over Chile in the South American qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazilâ„¢ and a victory in a friendly against Italy, bringing the 2010 World Cup semi-finalists' run of unbeaten matches to 13. Within the top ten, England (5th, up 2) have climbed up the ranking, as have Portugal (7th, up 1) and Croatia (8th, up 4) thanks to recent successes in EURO qualifying.

The FIFA/CAF Conference on the FIFA Women's World Cup Germany 2011 kicked off in Johannesburg on Friday, 18 November 2011. The three day event is being held at the Sandton Convention Centre and will conclude on Sunday, 20 November 2011. The aim of the gathering is to analyse FIFA Women's World Cup Germany 2011 from a technical and tactical point of view, and also to discuss the development of women's football in Africa.

The conference started with the opening ceremony presided by Kirsten Nematandani, President of the South African Football Association (SAFA); Dr Molefi Oliphant, chairman of CAF's Women's Football Committee, and also the official representative of CAF; as well as Lydia Nsekera, the official representative of the FIFA President, President of the Burundi Football Federation, Member of the International Olympic Commitee and also Member of FIFA's Women's Football Committee. Nsekera is the only female President of a Member Association affiliated to FIFA.

The FIFA Appeal Committee on 4 November 2011, under the Chairmanship of Mr Francisco Acosta (Ecuador) met at the Home of FIFA to discuss, among others, the case of the Myanmar Football Federation. The FIFA Appeal Committee decided that the appeal lodged by the Myanmar Football Federation be partially upheld.

The exclusion of the Myanmar Football Federation from taking part in the matches of the preliminary competition for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russiaâ„¢ was annulled, and the Myanmar Football Federation will therefore be reintegrated into the preliminary competition.

Today, one week after FIFA and France Football announced the names of the candidates for the FIFA Women's World Player of the Year and the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women's Football awards for 2011, they have also revealed the names for the men's awards. The candidates for the FIFA Ballon d'Or award and for the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men's Football award have been unveiled (see below), and the final decisions will be made by the captains and head coaches of the men's national teams as well as by international media representatives selected by France Football.

The winners of all of the awards will be revealed at the second FIFA Ballon d'Or gala as part of a televised ceremony at the Zurich Kongresshaus on 9 January 2012. The FIFA/FIFPro World XI and the FIFA Puskás Award for the most beautiful goal of the year, the FIFA Presidential Award and the FIFA Fair Play Award will also be presented during the gala.