October 29- Gareth Bale, the world’s most expensive footballer, has been named among the candidates for Fifa’s prestigious world player of the year award – along with several regular names.
October 29- Under the chairmanship of Fifa vice-president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, Asian football officials have concluded a high-profile round table in Jordan by recommending a series of proposals to boost the development of grassroots football in the region.
By Jake Gable
October 29 – The European Professional Football Leagues’ (EPFL) Best Practice Awards have recognised The Football League in England as its Golden Award winner at their ceremony in Paris.
By Matt Scott
October 28 – The FIFA World Cup would be expanded to a 40-team tournament under a proposal aired by Michel Platini today. UEFA’s president has responded to a plan discussed by Sepp Blatter, his FIFA counterpart, to cull the number of European teams competing at the tournament finals.
By Paul Nicholson in Zurich
October 28- The 15th International Football Arena conference was opened in Zurich today by FIFA president Sepp Blatter who, in front of an invited audience of 200 football business executives, said it was vital that the spirit of the game was maintained as “the game of the people”.
October 28 – Lionel Messi’s Argentina, the first country from South America to qualify for next year’s World Cup finals, have chosen Belo Horizonte as their training base camp well before the draw on December 6.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 28 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter will make a personal visit to the emir of Qatar on November 9 to discuss the treatment of migrant workers following highly publicised reports of severe labour rights abuses that have caused widespread embarrassment to organisers of the 2022 World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 28 – FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke, who has been acting as the organisation’s main trouble-shooter for next year’s World Cup in Brazil, says fans should not be put off from attending by the latest outbreak of violence in the country.
October 28 – UEFA president Michel Platini has warned that a planned strike by French clubs over the government’s proposed supertax could backfire.
By Alexander Krassimirov
October 28 – Bulgarian football club Lokomotiv Plovdiv has announced it is on the verge of signing a new partnership agreement with the Gazprom petrol station. The news, announced on the club’s website, was denied by the the Executive Director of NIS Petrol Ivan Kostadinov 24 hours later.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 28 – FIFA are to seek assurances from Russia’s 2018 World Cup organisers that they are taking adequate steps to tackle racism but insist there is no chance of the country being stripped of host status.The issue of racism was once again plunged into the spotlight last week when fans of CSKA Moscow verbally abused Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure during a Champions Cup clash, resulting in UEFA opening disciplinary proceedings with a verdict likely on Wednesday.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 26 – Sepp Blatter, in an address to the Oxford Union, has launched a staunch defence of his long and at times controversial FIFA presidency, insisting he was no “ruthless parasite sucking the lifeblood out of football.” On the eve of attending the English Football Association’s gala dinner celebrating its 150th anniversary, Blatter gave an impassioned address to the famed university debating society.
By Tom Parsons
October 25 – The eagerly awaited launch of Sir Alex Ferguson’s autobiography generated the inevitable twitter backlash to accompany some of the more controversial talking points.
By Tom Parsons
October 25 – Many British television viewers will feel short-changed tomorrow on the day of arguably the biggest footballing match in the Spanish calendar. El Clasico (Barcelona v Real Madrid) takes place on Saturday with kick-off at 5:00pm GMT, however due to British broadcasting regulations the first 15 minutes of the game are not allowed to be shown live on British television.
October 25 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter has once again re-opened the prickly debate over World Cup slots by declaring that Africa and Asia deserve more representation and Europe and South America less.