By Andrew Warshaw
October 31 – The climax to the African World Cup playoffs have been thrown into confusion after Cape Verde appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over a FIFA ruling which resulted in them being kicked out of the qualifying competition.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 31 – Qatar’s relentless bid to secure a major profile in Europe has been significantly enhanced by a deal between Qatar Tourism Authority and Paris Saint Germain worth a reported €150-€200m a season. Widely rumoured last season, the partnership is designed to promote Qatar as a tourist destination to European audiences.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 31 – FIFA has imposed global bans on four players and a coach from Australia’s Southern Stars Victorian Premier League side in an escalation of the most serious match-fixing scandal to hit the country.
By Paul Nicholson
October 30 – Amid the figures presented by Martin Wagner, delegate to the Board of TEAM Marketing, at the International Football Arena (IFA) conference earlier this week, was an explanation from the coal face of sports marketing of why, if football rights are handled correctly, their value will continue to increase.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 31 – UEFA has ordered the partial closure of CSKA Moscow’s stadium for their next home Champions League tie as a result of the highly published racist chanting towards Manchester City’s Yaya Toure. The Russian club, which strongly denied the claims, were charged after Toure complained about being verbally abused by a section of the crowd during City’s 2-1 win on 23 October.
By Gareth Messenger
October 30 – The main supporters group of Spanish La Liga club, Elche, have publicly admitted they were responsible for racist abuse directed at Granada defender Allan-Romeo Nyom (pictured) at the Estadio Martinez Valero on Saturday.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 30 – Seemingly light-hearted remarks made by Sepp Blatter during his much publicised appearance at the famed Oxford Union debating society last week have landed the FIFA president in hot water.
By Paul Nicholson
October 30 – The final session of the International Football Arena (IFA) event in Zurich lived up to expectations, producing a passionate debate across a wide range of issues surrounding the hosting of big events. If the final verdict was that there is still a place for mega events, the conclusion was clearly that more needs to be done in communicating what hosting of the events will entail.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 30 – As widely anticipated having ended his illustrious playing career, David Beckham has decided his next move: starting a Major League Soccer team.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 30 – For the first time ever, FIFA plans to offer companies the opportunity to purchase regional sponsorship packages for the World Cup, starting with Russia in 2018 and Qatar four years later. Speaking at a post-LOC 2018 board meeting in Kazan, FIFA’s Marketing Director Thierry Weil confirmed the new commercial structure, highlighting the opportunities and value on offer.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 30 – FIFA and Russia’s 2018 World Cup organisers have joined forces to play down Michel Platini’s idea of expanding the World Cup to 40 teams. The UEFA president made the proposal in a newspaper in which he suggested that all but one of the extra teams be drawn from continents other than Europe in an attempt to find a compromise to pacify Continents seeking greater representation.
It is 29 July 2012. I am on a bus with other journalists being whisked through south-east London on a lane reserved for Olympic vehicles. Beside us, I am uncomfortably aware, snakes a long queue of non-Olympic traffic. It is at this point that I spot a road sign that makes me do a double-take. It says: “Ha Ha Road Closed”.
I later checked on a city map and there is, bizarrely, a Ha Ha Road in that area of the UK capital.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
October 29- The head of European football’s leading anti-racism watchdog says kicking Russia out of club and national competitions could prove counter-productive in terms of teaching the country how to eradicate the abuse of black players.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 29- Fifa vice-president Jeffrey Webb, who heads the organisation’s anti-discrimination task force, says English football needs to seriously address the issue of coaching and management opportunities for retired black players and other ethnic minorities.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 29- Bayer Leverkusen’s controversial Bundesliga win over Hoffenheim will be allowed to stand despite Stefan Kiessling’s “phantom” goal that raised fresh debate over the need for goal-line technology.