By Paul Nicholson
September 16 – A report by Socialbakers for August shows the Premier League as the world’s fastest growing sports Facebook site over the month, with 1.2 million new fans. Second is the UEFA Champions League with the UEFA Europa League coming in third with just over 500,000 new fans.
By Mark Baber
September 16 – PSG have further strengthened ties with Qatar, signing a sponsorship with the Qatar-based communications company Ooredoo who will sponsor Paris Saint-Germain in a deal focused on football coaching for youth. The deal will run through to 2018.
By Mark Baber
September 16 – Russian state-controlled natural gas company Gazprom has officially became a FIFA partner at a ceremony on Saturday at the Black Sea resort of Sochi attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, FIFA President Sepp Blatter and Gazprom chief executive Aleksei Miller.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 16 – The United States’ most influential football administrator says he will try to block any move by FIFA to switch the Qatar 2022 World Cup to winter. Sunil Gulati, whose country was unexpectedly beaten by the tiny Gulf state to stage the tournament when the vote was taken three years ago, says he will oppose any attempt by FIFA’s executive committee to change the dates of the tournament when it meets on October 3 and 4.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 16 – Football’s most notorious match-fixer is believed to have played a prominent role in Australia’s biggest scandal of its kind where police arrested 10 people at the weekend.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 13 – The new criminal investigation into the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster, in which 96 fans died, could lead to manslaughter charges, according to the head of the inquiry.
By Mark Baber
September 13 – Seattle Sounders, who have reportedly sold 52,000 tickets for today’s MLS game against Real Salt Lake, have signed a new deal with Delta Airlines as well as extending their partnership with Xbox for another year.
By Mark Baber
September 13 – A survey of clubs has found average ticket prices across English football’s top four divisions have fallen by up to 2.4%. There remains a large differential between clubs, with Tottenham fans paying a minimum of £49.26 per match for a season ticket, programme, pie and tea – compared to just £24.34 for a Manchester City fan.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 13 – FIFA’s recently established anti-discrimination Task Force will not get involved in the furore over 2018 World Cup host Russia’s controversial so-called anti-gay legislation. The task force, meeting in Zurich yesterday, has identified a series of key priorities including allocation of resources, a best practice manual and identification of high risk games.
By Alexander Krassimirov
September 13 – Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia has turned down a €40 million investment offer for a new stadium from German company ISF, CSKA rejected the deal after failing to agree to conditions that included handing over the stadium to ISF to maintain and operate, shared use of the stadium with another club and the Bulgarian national team.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 13 – The scourge of match-fixing throughout European football has now hit the Czech Republic and neighbouring Slovakia with 19 current and former players charged, and 20 others summoned for questioning over links to illegal betting dens in Asia.
By Paul Nicholson, Editor-in-chief, Insideworldfootball
Disappointing habits are alive and well – actually thriving across all media. Insideworldfootball’s big scoop on Monday set the agenda for the day and a couple of days after – we’re proud of that and stand by every word of the interview as it was printed.
But let’s get this straight from the start. At no point did FIFA’s president ever say that awarding the World Cup to Qatar was a mistake.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 13 – Cape Verde’s World Cup dream has been turned into the ultimate nightmare after the unheralded African country had its hopes of qualifying for the finals for the first time dashed for fielding an ineligible player.
By Mark Baber
September 12 – Academics at Newcastle University say that the government should consider restricting alcohol marketing during televised football matches, “after studying a selection of games and finding they were ‘bombarded’ by references [sic] to drink.”
By Paul Nicholson
September 12 – Azerbaijan have added their name to the list of European nations bidding to host matches at the Euro 2020 tournament, putting forward Baku and the new Olympic stadium currently under construction as their venue.