FIFA extends El Salvador match-fixing bans worldwide

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By Andrew Warshaw
October 15 – In the most damaging case of match-fixing ever to strike at the heart of central American football, FIFA has extended worldwide the lifetime bans imposed last month by the El Salvador federation on 14 of its current and past senior internationals.

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CONCACAF launches first referees symposium in Mexico

Concacaf ref Symposium

October 14 – CONCACAF held its first International Referee Symposium over the weekend in Mexico, aimed at improving the standard of professional football referring across the region. The symposium marks another step forward for the confederation, following on from its first series of coaches courses, in its drive to improve standards through education and support throughout its federations.

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David Owen: A route to a biennial World Cup?

UEFA’s drive to turn Euro 2020 into a multinational event, rather than a tournament put on by one or two host-countries, seems to have ushered in one of those periods when the structure of numerous elite football competitions is up for debate.

In recent weeks suggestions have surfaced for: non-European countries to be invited to the European championships; a super league of elite European clubs; and friendly internationals to be replaced by a European Nations League.

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Exclusive: Prince Ali voices concern over political interference

Prince Ali

By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
October 10 – Asia’s FIFA vice-president Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein has questioned the decision to strip Iraq of host status for the next Gulf Cup, intensifying Asian football’s latest controversy especially over the issue of what does and doesn’t constitute political interference in sport. The competition, due to be held late next year or early in 2015, features the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC),

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Levski chaos continues with row spilling over on to national TV

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By Alexander Krassimirov
October 11 – The day after the battle scenes and chaos at Bulgaria’s Levski Sofia club, emotions are still running hight. The former sports director Nasko Sirakov (pictured) attacked the club’s owner Todor Batkov in an interview on national television in Bulgaria. Just a few hours later, Batkov responded by saying he now accepts Sirakov’s resignation, handed in on Tuesday.

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First Brazil 2014 ticket window closes with 6m applications

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By Mark Baber
October 11 – The first round of World Cup ticket applications closed yesterday with 6,164,682 ticket requests, 70.86% of them from Brazil. As demand is greatly exceeding supply, FIFA has said it will organise a lottery for various matches. Applications from elderly persons, students and members of the “Bolsa Familia” will go into a special lottery for 300,000 tickets.

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FIFA stick with GoalControl for Brazil 2014 GLT

Goal-Control

By Andrew Warshaw
October 11-FIFA has confirmed that German company GoalControl will be the goal-line technology (GLT) provider for next year’s World Cup. The company was selected for this year’s Confederations Cup where there were no incidents of whether the ball had crossed the line and FIFA has decided to stick with them.

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