By Andrew Warshaw in Astana
March 26 – A handful of countries who initially expressed interest in staging matches at the pan-European 2020 finals have pulled out of the running, UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino (pictured) revealed today.
By Mark Baber
March 26 – Chairman of the Czech Football Association, Miroslav Pelta has responded to violence at Saturday’s match between Baník Ostrava and league leaders Sparta Prague by calling for anti-hooligan measures to be adopted with the return of police to stadiums and fan registration cards mooted.
By Mark Baber
March 26 – Major League Soccer (MLS) has announced a multi-year partnership deal with Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, with Etihad becoming the official airline partner of MLS in the United States.
By David Owen
March 26 – European clubs have hoovered up nearly all the €27 million in compensation money paid out over the first 18 months of FIFA’s Club Protection Programme (CPP).
By Andrew Warshaw
March 25 – European Parliament officials believe Qatar is already making up ground to get to grips to with the workers’ rights issue that has plagued 2022 World Cup organisers.
March 25 – Not a fan of Qatar and aware of numerous potential and obvious downsides (debilitating summer heat above all), we have always kept an open mind about a World Cup in the Middle East, once the hosting rights were allotted.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
March 25 – Following a March 2 match which was abandoned halfway after opposition fans starting fighting in the stadium, Legia Warsaw is reviewing its safety measures and has hired a UK-based security company to perform an audit at the Pepsi Arena.
March 25 – The mayor of Porto Alegre has warned the city may be forced to drop out of the World Cup if key legislation is not approved this week.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
March 25 – FIFA has side-stepped a potential new storm after it emerged that tentative moves were taken last week by senior figures to try and shut down the probe into the voting procedure for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups and remove chief prosecutor Michael Garcia from the process.
March 25 – FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke is back in Brazil for another series of trouble-shooting World Cup meetings, this time focussing on Sao Paulo, which stages the opening game.
By David Owen
March 25 – Unexpected costs last year forced FIFA to earmark an extra $70 million for the problem-plagued 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
March 24 – The future of Leeds United, once the envy of English football but who have hit hard times in recent years, has been plunged into uncertainty after authorities disqualified Italian businessman Massimo Cellino from buying a majority stake in the iconic club.
March 24 – FIFA’s 2013 annual financial report has been released showing the governing body managed a surplus of $72 million on revenue of $1.386 million. 2013 was a record year for FIFA with income of $1.386 billion in the third year of a four-year commercial cycle linked to the 2014 World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 24 – The head of Asian football has been rebuffed in his attempts within FIFA to gain additional powers of office against the wishes of his members.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 24 – Russia’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko is reportedly planning for Crimea’s two top-flight clubs to quit the Ukrainian league and switch to Russia as the crisis in the region impacts on football.