By Andrew Warshaw at Soccerex in Manchester
September 8 – Prince Ali bin al-Hussein is poised to announce tomorrow that he is standing for FIFA president for the second time in a matter of months. Sucker for punishment? He clearly doesn’t think so.
September 8 – Football relations between north and south Korea are to be revived when South Korean FA boss Chung Mong-gyu visits Pyongyang later this month with the possibility of friendly fixtures taking a step closer.
By Samindra Kunti
September 9 – Indian football is a parallel world of a struggling national team and a vibrant Indian Super League, but the All Indian Football Federation considers the 2017 U17 World Cup as a stepping stone for the development of the domestic game.
By Mark Baber
September 7 – Headlines around the world have been incorrectly proclaiming ‘Palestinians ready to host 1st ever World Cup qualifier’, ahead of Tuesday’s 2018 qualifier against UAE which will be held at the Faysal Al-Husseini Stadium in Al Ram.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 4 – The Asian Football Confederation has been quick to respond to accusations by FIFA presidential candidate Chung Mong-joon that it is guilty of “electoral fraud” in the race to succeed Sepp Blatter.
By Mark Baber
September 2 – With the Football Federation Australia (FFA) and Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) having failed to come to a new Collective Bargaining Arrangement (CBA) after the expiry of the previous agreement on June 30 and the FFA’s decision to terminate the Memorandum of Understanding between the FFA and PFA on August 14, 2015, the Socceroos have decided to show solidarity with their comrades by declining all commercial appearances on behalf of the FFA.
September 1 – Organisers of Vietnam’s V-League have pledged to step up their crackdown on match-fixing after several games ended with questionable results.
By Samindra Kunti
September 1 – Goa’s Dempo Sports Club are set to be the third Indian club to drop out of the 2016 I-League. The All India Football Federation AIFF wants a roadmap to have a single national Indian league in the future and it looks like the Indian Super League (ISL) is winning the race.
By Mark Baber
August 31 – The tenuous rapprochement between the two Koreas may see North and South Korea competing in a friendly for the first time in 10 years, according to an article in the English language Korea Joongang Daily, part of one of South Korea’s biggest newspaper groups.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 28 – With little fanfare and hardly any publicity, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) recently proudly announced the makeup of its new standing committees for the next four years. One of those re-elected as chairman of its legal committee – was Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, the controversial Pakistani who has been at the centre of a bitter domestic dispute.
August 26 – Almost two years after releasing Zahir Belounis, the French footballer who was trapped in the country for 19 months because of its antiquated kafala employment system, Qatar is stepping up is its efforts to set up a judicial body to resolve legal disputes.
August 25 – The Asean Football Federation (AFF) are taking the threat of match-fixers seriously and have brought Sportradar in to monitor their U19 championships in Laos that kicked off August 22 and runs through to September 4.
By Mark Baber
August 24 – Iranian football fans will have a once in a lifetime opportunity to see some of the greats of world football playing this Friday, August 28 as a team of World Stars take on a team of Iranian Stars in a charity match.
August 24 – Former FIFA executive committee Worawi Makudi’s last-ditch attempt to regain some kind of foothold within global or Asian football has failed after he withdrew from the election for the presidency of the 12-member Asean Football Federation (AFF) on the eve of the vote.
By Mark Baber
August 18 – One of the great anomalies in world football – FIFA’s tolerance of state control of football in China – looks to be coming to an end as the Chinese state publicly loosens its grip on the sport in a new reform drive announced on Monday.