By Andrew Warshaw
May 19 – Qatari authorities, under fresh pressure to improve their human rights record ahead of the 2022 World Cup, have hit back at BBC claims that a reporting team was arrested and detained for trying to film conditions at migrant workers’ housing despite being on an officially sanctioned visit to the country.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 18 – Amid reports that a BBC correspondent has become the latest western journalist to be detained in Qatar despite being invited as part of an official tour, fresh calls were made in London today for FIFA’s World Cup sponsors to use their commercial clout to radically improve conditions for thousands of migrant workers employed on construction sites.
May 18 – Russian stadium construction for 2018 is ahead of schedule and the stadia will be delivered in advance of deadlines, according to officials in Nizhniy Novgorod and Kaliningrad. The two cities are both building new stadiums for the World Cup.
May 8 – The Russian investment in building infrastructure and facilities for the 2018 World Cup appears to be having a positive knock-on effect for sports facilities generally in the country with 12 new sports centres expected to be opened in Moscow in 2015.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 6 – Qatar’s labour minister has pledged to abolish the country’s controversial ‘kafala’ employment system, which has become a major focus of criticism since the Gulf state was awarded the 2022 World Cup, before the end of this year.
May 6 – Having missed out painfully on the 2022 World Cup, Australia are to bid for the women’s version the following year as part of a 20-year vision to boost the sport in a country dominated by rival football codes.
May 6 – The political and financial chaos within the Russian Football Union (RFU) has triggered a no-confidence in current president Nikolay Tolstykh at a meeting of the RFU’s executive committee. Already there are calls for Russia’s sports minister Vitaly Mutko, to take over the reins.
May 4 – The Uralmash stadium in Yekaterinberg, scheduled to be a training base for the 2018 World Cup is, according to local reports, 80% complete and once landscaping is complete will open this summer.
May 1 – Speaking in Qatar, Danny Jordaan, CEO of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and now president of the South African Football Association, drew parallels with Qatar’s plans for 2022 and the first edition of the finals tournament on the African continent in 2010.
By Paul Nicholson
May 1 – The soft face of news from Russia on World Cup 2018 preparations, met the harder of face football’s geo-politics this week. As the 2018 organisers launched a competition to create the mascot for the 2018 World Cup, the organisers were pushed into defending the possibility of housing teams in 2018 in the volatile North Caucasus regions, including Chechnya.
April 28 – Saransk, in the Mordovia region of Russia, has announced details of its post-World Cup 2018 legacy programme saying that the 792-room ‘Tavia’ hotel complex will be converted to affordable family apartments after the tournament.
By Paul Nicholson
April 24 – Russia’s stadium preparations for the 2018 World Cup are on schedule in terms of delivery dates, but off-schedule in terms of cost. An issue that is forcing the organisers to continually re-evaluate, but which they have repeatedly said will not derail the overall plan.
April 23 – Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organisers have unveiled plans for a fifth stadium as they attempt to focus on infrastructure despite the continuing scrutiny about workers rights and the fact the tournament will be staged in winter.
By David Owen at the SportAccord Convention World Sport & Business Summit in Sochi
April 21 – Vitaly Mutko, Russia’s Sports Minister, has hinted at an impending clampdown on the number of foreign players permitted to be fielded by Russian clubs, while indicating that the country’s President harbours doubts over how the national team will perform at the 2018 World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 21 – Sepp Blatter has a habit of deliberately saying the appropriate thing depending on his hosts at the time. So it was no surprise that the FIFA president sweet-talked Russian president Vladimir Putin when he visited Sochi for SportAccord.