By Mark Baber
June 28 – China’s Huawei, a global provider of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), has signed with the Spanish Football League (LFP) as its exclusive Technology Partner for Smartphones.
By Mark Baber
June 25 – The Iranian Football Federation (IFF) has made an official complaint to FIFA against the South Korean football association following the aftermath of last Wednesday’s world cup qualifier in South Korea, which saw the Iranian players being pelted with bottles by Korean fans, following their 1-0 victory.
By Mark Baber
June 21 – Adidas expects to hit record sales of €2 billion from its football product in 2014 as it benefits from it position as official sponsor, supplier and licensee of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The forecast was made at a football media day in Herzogenaurach, Germany, by Herbert Hainer (pictured), CEO of the adidas Group.
By Paul Nicholson in Rio de Janeiro
June 20 – Look around Rio de Janeiro you could be forgiven for wondering where the Confederations Cup party is taking place unless you were outside the Maracana or an official ticket collection point.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 19 – Days after announcing that that its 2018 World Cup budget was likely to double to over $20bn, Russia has provided more details of how the money will actually be spent.
By Mark Baber
June 18 – The latest draft of the so-called Fans Bill, making its way through Russia’s State Duma, sees sanctions for violators of the rules of conduct, covering spectators and organisers and owners of sports facilities, significantly increased in an attempt by the 2018 World Cup hosts to ensure the tournament is hooligan-free even though it is still five years away.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 17 – Five years before staging the 2018 World Cup, Russia is already coming to terms with the fact that the tournament is likely to cost a lot more than originally outlined.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 17 – Three African countries — Ethiopia, Togo and Equatorial Guinea — are facing disciplinary proceedings for allegedly fielding ineligible players in recent World Cup qualifiers.
By Paul Nicholson
June 12 – BT will kick off its live football coverage on its new sports channel, BT Sport, with excusive Liverpool and England captain Steven Gerrard’s testimonial game, Liverpool vs Olympiacos, August 3.
By Andrew Warshaw in Mauritius
May 31 – FIFA’s top corruption buster has hinted for the first time that 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar have no corruption case to answer and says a statement of intent of some kind should be made by his department by September or October. Ever since Qatar were awarded the tournament with a landslide victory despite FIFA’s official inspection team flagging up several negative aspects of their bid,
By Mark Baber
May 31 – Mallorca finally admitted defeat in their battle to keep hold of Giovani Dos Santos for their crucial final game of the season, after Mexico had written to FIFA demanding his release in advance of their World Cup qualifier this coming Tuesday.
By Paul Nicholson
May 30 – Following hard on the heels of the appointment of Stadium Operations Consultants for the infrastructure build towards the 2022 World Cup, the Qataris have now appointed KEO as project managers and AECOM as the design consultant for the ambitious Al Wakrah Stadium.
May 29 – The roof failure during heavy rain on Monday at the Fonte Nova Arena was down to “human error” according to a statement by engineering director José Luis Goes, of the Fonte Nova Participacoes (FNP) group, which manages the stadium.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
May 22 – German football supremo Christian Seifert today added his voice to the clamour against the 2022 World Cup taking place in Qatar’s scorching summer heat – but warned that switching it to winter could end up in the courts.
By Mark Baber
May 14 – A Rio court has stayed the execution of an injunction preventing the controversial handover of the Maracana stadium to a private consortium.