September 11 – The head of FIFA’s Task Force for Women is taking a diplomatic approach to the outcry over the use of synthetic pitches at the next year’s women’s World Cup in Canada.
September 11 – UEFA president Michel Platini has taken a veiled swipe at FIFA’s zero tolerance approach towards racism at the World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 11 – Countries hoping to stage the pan-European Championship finals in 2020 have received mixed news from UEFA’s evaluation panel with the vote just a week away.
September 11 – The race is hotting up in the Caribbean for qualifying places at the CFU Caribbean Cup finals in Jamaica this November. The finals will not only crown the Caribbean champions but will also provide the region’s qualifiers for the CONCACAF 2015 Gold Cup and the 2016 Copa America Centennario, both to be played in the US.
September 11 – St Petersburg city officials have launched a tender for the completion of the Zenit Arena, which is currently being built on Krestovskiy island for the 2018 World Cup. The 61,251-capacity stadium will cost about €934 million. The total value of the contracts that will complete the project is RUB 9.14 billion (€190 million).
By Paul Nicholson
September 11 – Betting industry integrity body ESSA has signed an information sharing agreement with CONCACAF, the only hook-up for the online sportsbook organisation with a football confederation. ESSA already has agreements with FIFA and a number of national federations including the English FA and Germany’s DFB.
By David Owen
September 10 – A substantial reduction in finance costs has enabled Manchester United, in danger of becoming the fallen giants of English football, to bounce back into profit in its latest financial year, in spite of a profoundly disappointing season on the field of play.
By Mark Baber
September 10 – The men’s and women’s Indian national teams for the Asian Games have finally been given the go-ahead to participate in the tournament, bringing to an end a nail-biting few days as Indian officials decided which sports would be cut from India’s contingent.
By Andrew Warshaw in Manchester
September 10 – Between 60 and 80 countries have reported cases of football match-fixing per year over the last three years. That was one of many stark revelations at a hard-hitting session on the subject at the Soccerex Convention in Manchester today.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
September 10 – Czech football side FK Usti nad Labem has reopened its revampled stadium which was modernised at a cost of CZK 168 million (€6 million). As part of the redevelopment, a new stand was added with a seating capacity of 4,000.
By Mark Baber
September 10 – With Chris Giwa, who firmly believed he was the legitimate President of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), having seemingly disappeared from the scene, the governance crisis at the top of Nigerian football may be entering a period of calm, prior to new elections, as FIFA has confirmed the NFF is not suspended from international football.
September 10 – The CIES Football Observatory has released its 2014/2015 season standings predictions for the big-5 European leagues. The data driven predictions have Bayern Munich and Paris St Germain retaining their league titles. But predicts new champions in England, Spain and Italy.
By Andrew Warshaw in Manchester
September 10 – Professional matches in world and European competitions could be held up for up to three minutes if radical plans to treat players suspected of suffering from concussion are passed by FIFA and UEFA.
By Andrew Warshaw in Manchester
September 10 – Organisers of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar believe they will be exonerated in the 350-page report into possible corruption surrounding the ballot for the tournament which also covered the 2018 event in Russia.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 10 – Europe’s clubs are still to be convinced that a switch to a winter World Cup in 2022 is a fait accompli. The clubs say they want “strong, decisive” reasons before accepting a decision to move the Qatar tournament from its usual summer slot.