By Mark Baber
May 13 – As of Monday morning, Pakistan’s football coach Bahraini Mohammed Shamlan was still waiting for a permit from Israel to allow him to join his team at the Al-Nakba International Football Tournament in Palestine.
By Paul Nicholson
May 13 – CONCACAF has taken another step forward in the battle against match-fixing, signing a memorandum of Understanding with International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL). The co-operation agreement will enable joint efforts in what CONCACAF calls “sports integrity initiatives”, particularly in the sharing of resources and experiences. The aim is to intensify on-going work to combat match-fixing.
May 13 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has rejected Josip’s Simunic’s appeal against a 10-match ban imposed by FIFA for discriminatory behaviour.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 12 – Amidst political tension between its two most influential officials, Asian football attempts to redress the balance this week as figures from across the Continent and beyond converge on the eastern shores of the Dead Sea for two days of discussions aimed at promoting the positive side of developing the game on and off the field.
May 12 – The boss of England’s Premier League has been forced to apologise over alleged sexist comments but has nevertheless been condemned by women’s groups and politicians.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 12 – Despite increasingly tough penalties in their own competitions from both FIFA and UEFA, at domestic level instances of racism in Europe appear to show no sign of decreasing as, for the third week in a row, a major league has been blighted by discrimination.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 12 – African football has been rocked by disaster when at least 15 people were killed and more than 20 injured in a stampede at a match in the Democratic Republic of Congo capital of Kinshasa. The tragedy reportedly occurred after police fired tear gas, provoking a stampede during the playoff match between ASV Club and the Tout Puissant Mazembe on Sunday evening.
By Richard van Poortvliet
May 12 – Zenit St. Petersburg are in yet more trouble with the Russian Football Union after one of their supporters punched Dynamo Moscow defender Vladimir Granat in the head, towards the end of their Russian Premier League tie.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
May 12 – Municipal authorities in Katowice have bought shares worth PLN 1.1 million (€280,000) in their local football club GKS. The deal follows two other acquisitions of shares made earlier this year making a total of PLN 2 million (€510,000) invested to date.
May 9- Europe’s leading professional leagues have come out in opposition to switching the Qatar World Cup in 2022 from summer to winter, seemingly putting themselves on a collision course with Fifa which most observers believe is edging nearer and nearer to formally adopting a change of timing.
By Mark Baber
May 9- Sparked by the recent massacre in Odessa, the Ukrainian Football Federation (FFU) has ruled that the next round of league games, as well as the cup final, will be held behind closed doors, whilst no matches will be held in the troubled Donetsk, Luhansk, Odessa and Kharkiv regions.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 9- Fifa president Sepp Blatter has made up his mind to stand for a fifth term, according to Swiss reports.
Blatter used a meeting of specially invited Swiss business and sports executives in Zurich to finally confirm that he intends to carry on running world football’s governing body at the age of 78.
May 9 –Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund has forged strong links to the ex-patriate Polish community in its local area. So much so that the club has a significant Polish player contingent and even a major Polish sponsor. In an exclusive interview with leading Polish sports businesss website www.temporada.pl, Dortmund’s head of business development Benedikt Scholz (pictured) explains the club’s strategy approach to maximising its Polish connections.
By Mark Baber
May 9 – Spain’s Secretary of State for Sport Miguel Cardenal (pictured) revealed Thursday that professional clubs in the county’s First and Second Division have accumulated debts of €3.573 billion, according to data from the Sports Council.
By Mark Baber
May 9 – Indian sports broadcaster Ten Sports has agreed a 3-season deal with the Football Federation of Australia (FFA) to broadcast Australia’s top tier competition – the Hyundai A-League – across the Indian sub-continent, from this October.