By Paul Nicholson
November 26 – The UK broadcast market continues to be fertile TV sales ground for the UEFA with TEAM marketing having concluded the final parts of licensing broadcast rights for the Champions League and Europa League in the UK for the 2016-18 cycle.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 25 – Zahir Belounis, the journeyman footballer trapped in Qatar claiming 18 months of unpaid wages, may be on the verge of winning his battle to get out of the country. The plight of the French-Algerian, who says he is a ‘destroyed’ man after being forced to sell all his possessions, has caused outrage among human rights organisations and has added to global concern over Qatar’s notorious kafala employment system that ties migrant workers to so-called ‘sponsors’.
By Paul Nicholson
November 25 – A new insurance product launched today is providing Europe’s top clubs with the opportunity to insure their players against illness or injury that could affect the club’s performance on the field and hence its financial performance off it. A club could protect up to £100 million of revenue with the cover.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 25 – Football re-unification between Greek and Turkish Cypriots has moved a further step closer with the official Cyprus Football Association (CFA) approving the historic arrangement signed by the two sides at FIFA headquarters earlier this month.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
November 25 – The city of Wroclaw has acquired full control over local football club Slask Wroclaw. Slask currently plays in the Ekstraklasa, the top tier of Poland’s professional football league and are currently the league champions.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 25 – One of Russian football’s leading officials has opposed the re-establishment of an old-style Soviet league featuring teams from Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet states. The idea of a breakaway plan for a multi-national league of up to 16 teams was first floated a year ago but Nikolai Tolstykh (pictured), head of the Russian Football Union, says the money would be better spent domestically, not least on youth football instead.
By Alexander Krassimirov
November 25 – A 25 -year-old Bulgarian millionaire, Daniel Dimov, is in talks to buy third division French club FC Rouen. Dimov would take ownership of a club that has twice been champion of France – in 1940 and 1945.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 25 – Burkina Faso, whose dream of a first ever appearance in the World Cup finals was dashed by an away goals playoff defeat by Algeria, say their opponents fielded an ineligible player in last week’s decisive second leg and have taken their complaint to FIFA.
Taken at face value, it was just a harmless – and rather imaginative – public relations stunt. But I wonder whether FIFA President Joseph Blatter’s present on Friday to the head of the Roman Catholic church of a Latin edition of the FIFA Weekly, the governing body’s new publishing venture, doesn’t offer us a deeper glimpse into the mind of the man who has run world football these last 15 years, even though it was an idea of the FIFA communications division.
If one looks at Europe, or the so-called Western world for that matter as a whole, the headlines scream economic and financial mayhem, massive youth unemployment, rigged Libor rates, faked growth figures, dishonesty everywhere, bankster madness and a complete disorientation if not alienation of large parts of society, literally everywhere.
Nothing seems to be working the way it used to. There seems to be a disease engulfing all parts of society that threatens to destroy core values and every aspect of modern life.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 22 – Croatia, who this week qualified for the World Cup finals at the expense of Iceland, face a possible backlash over defender Josip Simunic’s controversial celebrations. FIFA have begun disciplinary proceedings into events that followed the playoff second leg after Simunic was fined 25,000 kuna ($4,400) by Croatian public prosecutors for apparent pro-Nazi chants.
November 22 – “So far the course has been running smoothly despite the bombing that occurred last Tuesday,” said FIFA Development Officer Majed Abweh. He is overseeing a FIFA development course in Lebanon that is training grassroots instructors from around the AFC region.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 22 – The European Parliament is the latest body to denounce Qatar’s treatment of migrant workers with a powerful demand to the authorities to radically improve human rights and put an to end to “forced and slave labour”.
November 22 – Six clubs are to be investigated for possible breaches of UEFA’s financial fair play regulations as European football’s governing body implements its drive to clamp down on over-spending and loss-making clubs.
By Paul Nicholson
November 22 – Adidas has extended its partnership and sponsorship with FIFA through to 2030 in a massive 16-year extension of a deal that first saw them come together for the World Cup in Mexico in 1970.