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.
October 25 – Football’s lawmakers have sought to tighten up the accuracy of goalline technology, coincidentally following the latest controversy when Bayer Leverkusen’s Stefen Kiessling was awarded a goal even though his effort had entered through the side netting.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 10 – The head of the US Soccer Federation believes player eligibility rules need to be tightened up to stop promising young internationals having carte blanche to turn out for two different countries.
By Mark Baber
October 10 – Transfer Matching System GmbH (FIFA TMS) announced on Wednesday the launch of a new Premium Service – the first Domestic Transfer Matching System (DTMS), designed to facilitate domestic transfers for member associations and clubs acting in the same jurisdiction.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 10 – Ghana is demanding a neutral venue for next month’s all-important World Cup play-off against Egypt, saying it is too dangerous to play in Cairo.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 10 – Sri Lanka’s former FIFA executive committee member Vernon Manilal Fernando, regarded in some quarters as the Godfather of the region, has been banned for life by the governing body.
By Andrew Warshaw
Ocotber 9 – The United States will only seriously consider going for the 2026 World Cup if the bidding process is changed and FIFA’s rules are tightened up, US Soccer federation president Sunil Gulati declared today. Gulati, one of the newest members of FIFA’s executive committee, said his country was still bruised over their crushing 14-8 defeat by Qatar for the 2022 tournament and would not be prepared to go through the expense and stress of bidding again unless there was more clarity.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 8 – FIFA’s leading corruption buster Michael Garcia has broken his silence over his much-publicised upcoming tour of 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding countries by warning that anyone who breaks an obligation to co-operate with the investigation could face sanctions.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 7 – With all the focus on the Qatar 2022 World Cup, a number of other ongoing issues went relatively unreported following FIFA’s executive committee in Zurich last week, not least the announcement that Mark Pieth (pictured), the Swiss governance expert appointed two years ago to make recommendations for change, would be terminating his association with FIFA at the end of this year, by mutual agreement.
By David Owen
October 7 – High-profile matches at next year’s World Cup tournament in Brazil may effectively be played over four periods rather than two, following FIFA’s endorsement of additional “cooling” breaks to protect the health of players.
By David Owen
October 7 – Clubs which supply squad members for teams qualifying for the 2014 World Cup can look forward to receiving about $2,800 a day for each player selected. The figure represents a substantial increase from the $1,600 per player per day paid by FIFA after the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
By David Owen
October 7 – FIFA President Joseph Blatter is aiming to join forces with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to urge the Brazilian Government to do its utmost to ensure the country’s new doping control facility is operational, and duly accredited, before next year’s World Cup, insideworldfootball has learnt.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent, in Zurich
October 4 – Sepp Blatter admitted today he “took responsibility” for the Qatar 2022 World Cup winter-summer debacle – but left open a key number of questions, not least the eventual rescheduling of the tournament. Announcing, as expected, that a commission involving all the game’s stakeholders would be set up to try and find a way through a myriad of complexities, the FIFA president was in typically canny mood.
By Mark Baber
October 4 – The Russian Foreign Ministry commented on Thursday evening on the possible entry into Russia of Michael Garcia, confirming that the head of the FIFA ethics committee was not welcome.
October 4 – With a week to go before the end of the first phase of ticket sales for the 2014 World Cup, over 4.5 million tickets have been requested for the 64 matches.