May 9- Europe’s leading professional leagues have come out in opposition to switching the Qatar World Cup in 2022 from summer to winter, seemingly putting themselves on a collision course with Fifa which most observers believe is edging nearer and nearer to formally adopting a change of timing.
By Mark Baber
May 9- Sparked by the recent massacre in Odessa, the Ukrainian Football Federation (FFU) has ruled that the next round of league games, as well as the cup final, will be held behind closed doors, whilst no matches will be held in the troubled Donetsk, Luhansk, Odessa and Kharkiv regions.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 9- Radical proposals to halt the decline of English football at national level have been met with a mixed reaction but must be implemented to prevent a bleak future, according to English FA chairman Greg Dyke.
On Thursday proposals were unveiled to change the lower-division structure to enhance opportunities for England-registered players, reduce the number of foreign imports and boost the chances of national team success.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 9- Yet another World Cup construction worker has lost his life – just over a month before the start of the finals. This time, the tragedy took place in Cuiaba, one of the most delayed venues, when an electrical accident temporarily halted work on the stadium.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 9- Fifa president Sepp Blatter has made up his mind to stand for a fifth term, according to Swiss reports.
Blatter used a meeting of specially invited Swiss business and sports executives in Zurich to finally confirm that he intends to carry on running world football’s governing body at the age of 78.
May 9 –Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund has forged strong links to the ex-patriate Polish community in its local area. So much so that the club has a significant Polish player contingent and even a major Polish sponsor. In an exclusive interview with leading Polish sports businesss website www.temporada.pl, Dortmund’s head of business development Benedikt Scholz (pictured) explains the club’s strategy approach to maximising its Polish connections.
By Mark Baber
May 9 – Spain’s Secretary of State for Sport Miguel Cardenal (pictured) revealed Thursday that professional clubs in the county’s First and Second Division have accumulated debts of €3.573 billion, according to data from the Sports Council.
By Mark Baber
May 9 – Indian sports broadcaster Ten Sports has agreed a 3-season deal with the Football Federation of Australia (FFA) to broadcast Australia’s top tier competition – the Hyundai A-League – across the Indian sub-continent, from this October.
May 8 – Louis van Gaal, Holland’s coach at the World Cup, has given the broadest hint yet that he will succeed David Moyes as the next full-time boss of Manchester United.
May 8 – Brazil’s attempt to win the World Cup on home soil will be handed to those who have given the country back its pride under coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. In other words, no big surprises.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 8 – Villarreal have been fined just €12,000 by the Spanish Football Federation for the already infamous racism incident when a fan threw a banana at Barcelona defender Dani Alves.
May 8 – The FIFA/CIES sports management programme has expanded its footprint into the Middle East with the announcement of an official partnership with the Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi (PSUAD). The university will be the academic partner of the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES).
May 8 – Bloomberg Sports is rolling out its advanced match analytics products for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. The stats-based service for fans has been operating across Europe’s major leagues this season, primarily as a betting service allied with its match predictor tools.
By David Owen
May 7 – A French second division team has named a female manager in a milestone for gender equality in the sport. Helena Costa, 36, from Portugal will take over at Clermont Foot 63, currently 14th in Ligue 2, for next season.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 7 – The dangerous political tensions in Ukraine have forced a number of league fixtures as well as the domestic cup final to be relocated from the country’s pro-Russian eastern cities as well as the Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula for security reasons.