By Andrew Warshaw in Brussels
January 22 – Prospective FIFA presidential nominee Jerome Champagne has sought to play down suggestions that he is getting desperate in his bid to meet next week’s deadline for officially presenting his candidacy.
By Mark Baber
January 22 – The dispute between the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) and Football Kenya Federation (FKL) over the number of teams in Kenya’s top division and the relationship between the two bodies looks close to resolution with reports of a task force set up to take matters forward.
January 22 – Already buffeted by allegations by some participants of poor organisation, stand-in Africa Cup of Nations hosts Equatorial Guinea have now been rocked by clashes between fans and police.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 22 – After months of fractious and sometimes ferocious protest, the turf war is over with a group of elite players dropping their bid to sue FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association over the use of artificial pitches at the Women’s World Cup which kicks off on June 6.
January 22 – North Korea have withdrawn from a friendly tournament in Thailand next month following the humiliation of their early Asian Cup exit in Australia, according to Thai authorities.
By Paul Nicholson
January 22 – A comparison of stadium build costs for five of the Russian stadia for 2018, against the cost of football stadiums across Europe, has found that the Russian stadia are coming in at a comparatively equal cost and half the price of London’s Wembley Stadium on a cost per seat basis.
By Andrew Warshaw in Brussels
January 21 – Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the Chilean who ran FIFA’s technical inspection team that examined the credentials of all 2018 and 2022 World Cup candidates, says he will press for the finals to be increased from 32 to 36 teams as part of his presidential election manifesto – if he decides to run.
By Mark Baber
January 21 – Claims that members of the ISIS/ISIL group in Iraq have executed 13 teenagers in Mosul for watching the Iraq v Jordan football match have spread via internet publications, the newspapers and social media.
It’s a bit like “The weakest link”. An arrogant presenter and a few clueless candidates (in this case five or so rather ‘ugly’ people; after all, politics are Hollywood for Ugly People, aren’t they?). The camera is rolling on a new presidential election, and the most likely outcome looks likely to be: “I told you so”.
January 21 – Beach Soccer fever is building across the CONCACAF region. With a record number of 16 nations heading to El Salvador for the regional championship in March and a Beach Soccer World Cup qualification place at stake, the confederation has unveiled its tournament logo and announced January 27 as the date for the draw.
January 21 – The Dutch football association (KNVB) is opening an investigation and calling for a criminal probe into detailed allegations published of alleged fixing of two matches in the top-tier Eredivisie.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 21 – In the first of his ideas for developing football, unlikely FIFA presidential hopeful David Ginola says he would stage the men’s and women’s World Cup at the same time, Olympic-style, if he gets elected on May 29. The women would play after the men’s competition is completed.
January 21 – Bayern Munich have returned from a training camp in the Middle East to face a barrage of criticism over a friendly played in Saudi Arabia, with politicians and fans claiming the club had ignored the issue of human rights in the country.
January 21 – Manchester United has announced Irish casino game maker KamaGames as the club’s first official Social Casino Games partner. KamaGames is a specialist in developing games for mobile and is targeting United’s global fan based, claimed by the club to number 659 million followers.
By Paul Nicholson
January 21 – The pressure on the Russian Football Union (RFU) to pay its Italian head coach and team manager, Fabio Capello and Oreste Cinquini, has been mounting with criticism of the RFU coming from inside Russia from sports minister Vitaly Mutko and outside from UEFA president Michel Platini.