By Paul Nicholson
June 14 – Neymar’s lawyer Marcos Motta says that if the European push for the banning of third party ownership of players is successful, and applied globally, then it could lead to a collapse of football on the South American continent.
I have been trawling the fine print of the new Deloitte Annual Review of Football Finance (so you don’t have to).
Since football fans like league tables, I have used the data to put together 26 top-threes ranking English Premier League clubs according to different financial parameters.
I wouldn’t read too much into them without scrutinising the big picture.
However, Arsenal supporters, starved of real on-field success, may have mixed feelings about the north London club’s top ranking for most cash,
By Mark Baber
June 13 – The CIES Football Observatory has published the 2013 edition of its Annual Review analysing an eclectic mix of statistics, based on data from OPTAPro on the ‘Big 5’ leagues of Europe – the Premier League, Liga, Ligue 1, Bundesliga and Serie A.
By Gareth Messenger
June 13 – The headquarters of the Association of Spanish Footballers (AFE) yesterday hosted the first visit of D. Miguel Cardenal Carro (pictured) since he became the secretary of state for sport.
By Tom Parsons
June 13 – Manchester United Megastore officials caused a stir when they announced that they would not print some of their ex-players’ names on the back of the club’s newly launched home kit.
June 13 – CVMóvel, a subsidiary of Portugal Telecom in Cape Verde and the Cape Verde Football Federation have renewed their sponsorship partnership for a further three years, whilst launching the CVMóvel Blue Sharks, aimed at training a new generation of Cape Verde players.
By Mark Baber
June 13 – The United States Soccer Federation and Chevrolet announced a three-year sponsorship deal on Monday which makes Chevrolet the Official Partner of U.S. Soccer for the next three years.
What on earth are Tahiti doing in the Confederations Cup?
They will be the biggest Tahitian whipping boys since Captain Bligh sailed the south Pacific in the 18th century and there was a ‘mutiny on the Bounty’.
It underlines the problem FIFA have had since Australia became part of Asia’s football family, and even they would not be an ideal ‘eighth’ team in a major tournament on current form.
Australia’s departure in 2006 has given opportunities to New Zealand in international and club football that may not be entirely fair,
By Gareth Messenger
June 13 – Barcelona forward and World Player of the Year Lionel Messi is under investigation by Spanish tax authorities for allegedly defrauding the state of more than €4m. The Argentina international and his father Jorge have reportedly filed fraudulent tax returns for 2007, 2008 and 2009, according to a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office, for tax crimes in Catalonia.
By Mark Baber
June 11 – The saga over Chelsea’s search for a new stadium has taken a new turn, as Jose Mourinho returns, with the revelation that the club may be invited to bid on a 17-acre plot of land, owned by Transport for London (TfL) near Earls Court and just a mile north of current home Stamford Bridge.
By Mark Baber
June 11 – Iya Mohamed, the president of Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot) and CEO of the Cameroon Cotton Development Corporation (Sodecoton), a state owned company, was arrested by the police on Monday on his return home from Togo where he attended Sunday’s Cameroon’s World Cup qualifier.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 11 – Prince Ali, head of the Jordanian FA, has had an increasingly influential and vocal role as a member of the FIFA executive committee and successfully championed the lifting of the ban on the hijab in women’s football.
June 11 – Russia’s preparations for the 2018 World Cup have taken another step forward after President Vladimir Putin signed off on the so-called ‘World Cup Law’ that has caused so much debate.
By Mark Baber
June 11 – SAP, the leading business software provider, has extended its long-standing partnership with TSG Hoffenheim, becoming the new main and kit sponsor, in an initial three year deal.
Michael Emenalo is, without question, one of European football’s interesting oddities.
As the technical director of English Premiership side Chelsea, where he undoubtedly has the listening ear of billionaire owner Roman Abramovich, the Nigerian belongs to the exclusive club of Africans who’ve transcended their club careers into positions of power in the game’s corridors.
Pape Diouf, the Senegalese who started out as a journalist and player’s agent in France, eventually becoming the president of French club Olympique Marseille and Finidi George,