By Mark Baber
November 18 – The Kenya Football Federation (FKF) is considering increasing the number of clubs in the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) from 16 to 18 and whether or not to move from the current February to November format to an August to May season.
By Paul Nicholson
November 18 – Russia’s first deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov has said that the construction spend on stadia for the 2018 World Cup will remain fixed at 300 billion roubles ($6.4 billion) – the same figure that was set in 2010. Shuvalov made his remarks on a visit to Moscow’s recently complete Okritie-Arena, one of two venues in the capital that will host matches in 2018.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 18 – The two FIFA ethics chiefs at the centre of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding investigation have agreed to meet face-to-face on Thursday to try and agree over what should and shouldn’t be published and resolve their untimely dispute that has heaped embarrassment on world football’s governing body.
“The negative tenor of the public debate around FIFA at the moment is neither good for football nor for FIFA and its partners.” Adidas statement, June 2014
Adidas has claimed that football is “the DNA of our company”. So when FIFA’s longest-serving commercial partner remarked publicly about the threat to football’s image presented by the many corruption allegations swirling around its governing body, Adidas revealed fears that its own reflection might become haggard.
November 18 – Countries don’t normally sack coaches in the middle of competitions but such is the element of pride in Asia that Bahrain are looking for a new coach for the second time in just over four months after Iraqi Adnan Hamad (pictured) was dismissed in the wake of the country’s poor start to the Gulf Cup.
November 18 – Croatian football authorities, seemingly at the end of their patience over the hooligan reputation of their fans, have called on the country’s entire society to help eradicate the problem following last weekend’s flare-throwing incident that caused a Euro 2016 qualifier in Italy to be briefly suspended.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 17 – As the fallout from the much-criticised summary of Michael Garcia’s 2018 and 2022 World Cup investigation report shows no sign of abating, the president of the German Football League (DFL) has entered the debate by suggesting UEFA could leave FIFA unless Garcia’s entire file is published in full.
By Mark Baber
November 17 – A number of foreign footballers signing up to play for Somali sides before the start of the new championship which kicks off on December 19 is being hailed as a significant indicator of the game’s progress in the war-torn country.
November 17 – New MLS franchise New York City FC, which joins the league in 2015, has announced Etihad Airways as its shirt sponsor. The club has also announced a kit deal with Adidas and will play in the same light blue colour – with the same sponsor – as sister club Manchester City.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 17 – Already thrown out of the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations for refusing to host the event because of fears over the threat of the Ebola virus, Morocco face an even heavier punishment by being expelled from the subsequent tournament as well.
November 17 – UEFA seem certain to take action after the latest incident of crowd trouble to mar a major game on the European stage. Riot police fought with fans at the high-profile Euro 2016 qualifier between Italy and Croatia that ended 1-1 as a flood of flares were hurled down the from stands, enveloping the pitch at the San Siro in thick smoke.
Enough, as disco queen and noted football authority Donna Summer observed sagely in the 1970s, is enough.
With the Garcia report fiasco now piled on top of the 2022 World Cup timing fiasco, right-thinking football leaders have a responsibility to come together and get behind a challenger strong enough to unseat long-term incumbent Joseph “Sepp” Blatter in next year’s FIFA Presidential election.
FIFA’s mono-dimensional World Cup-based economy has been going gangbusters enough in recent times for the seemingly endless stream of corruption allegations against football officials to be no more than a superficial irritant,
By David Owen
November 16 – The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is to receive a much-needed 3% budget increase in 2015. The Montreal-based organisation, which is funded broadly 50% by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and 50% by Governments, has had to make do with little extra money in recent times while public authorities in much of the industrialised world have been struggling to cope with the consequences of high debt and sluggish economic growth.
By Mark Baber
November 14 – Equatorial Guinea has stepped in to save the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, following a meeting between Issa Hayatou, President of the African Football Confederation (CAF) and Equatorial Guinea’s President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
On the eve of November 11, the so called ‘Singles Day’ in Chinese internet language, two tired French gentlemen, dragging their luggage, took the shuttle bus from terminal 2 to terminal 3 in Beijing International Airport. Some passengers recognised that one of them was Michel Platini, and were astonished, others retorted that “How could the President of UEFA be getting on a shuttle bus in Beijing?”