By Paul Nicholson in Manama, Bahrain
May 8 – The heat on the Palestine-Israel dispute was turned up a notch today prior to FIFA’s Congress on Thursday with Asian Football Confederation president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa telling the AFC Congress in his opening remarks that the AFC stood united with Palestine and urged “FIFA to come up with the best solution as soon as possible”.
May 9 – Arsenal surged closer to matching Manchester United’s weekly Twitter growth this week with 52,000 new followers compared to Manchester United’s 59,500 – a timely gain matched with a rare win against them in the league. Just as Man Utd’s players are fatiguing after a long season, is the phenomenal growth rate on Twitter doing the same?
By Samindra Kunti
May 9 – Canada’s Soccer Association has sanctioned the establishment of a Canadian Premier League, allowing the country to operate its own professional league. At the top of the Canadian football administration pyramid Steve Reed will succeed CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani as the Canadian president.
May 8 – The success of their newly opened Main Stand that pushed Liverpool’s Anfield stadium capacity to 54,074 has prompted the club to accelerate a feasibility study of extending the ground further to more than 60,000.
By Paul Nicholson in Manama, Bahrain
May 8 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) finally completed their election of members to the FIFA Council with Bangladesh’s Mahfuza Akhter Kiron overcoming Australia’s Moya Dodd 27-17 after the withdrawal of Palestinian and North Korean candidates turned the vote into a straight run-off. For the three other AFC positions on the FIFA Council there were only three candidates – China’s Zhang Jian Chung, South Korea’s Mong Gyu and Mariano V.
By Paul Nicholson in Manama, Bahrain
May 7 – Hany Abu Rida, the Egyptian FA president who is standing for election to the FIFA Council, arrived in Manama, Bahrain, for the FIFA Congress from Cairo this afternoon (Sunday May 7) on a private jet accompanied by more than 30 of his African federation colleagues.
By Paul Nicholson in Manama, Bahrain
May 7 – The odds – as well as CAF and FIFA – were stacked against him, with few even expecting him to make it to the start line for the African election of its last FIFA Council member. It has been a political process that makes the not-so-long-ago days of Issa Hayatou’s reign as president of the confederation start to look like a model for transparency and equality.
By Samindra Kunti
May 8 – Brazil were crowned Beach Soccer World Cup champions for a record fifth time after a 6-0 victory over Tahiti in the final in Nassau, Bahamas. Tahiti finish runners-up for second consecutive time.
May 7 – On the eve of the week of their Congress in Bahrain FIFA have signed a new airline sponsor. Qatar Airways becomes Official Partner and the Official Airline of FIFA in a sponsorship deal that will take through to 2022 when their home country hosts the World Cup.
May 8 – Lionel Messi is free to represent Argentina in their World Cup qualifiers after his four-match international ban was controversially overturned following an appeal by his federation.
By Paul Nicholson in Manama, Bahrain
May 7 – Following a meeting of its executive committee The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has agreed a broadcast and commercial rights strategy for its new rights cycle that would begin in 2020 at the end of its current deal with Lagardere Sports.
May 7- Manchester City, one of the richest clubs in world football courtesy of Middle East funding, have been banned from signing academy players for an initial 12 months and fined £300,000 for breaching rules governing youth transfers – colloquially known as “tapping up.”
By Samindra Kunti
May 8 – Argentina legend Diego Maradona has signed a one-year contract at UAE second tier club Fujairah in a surprise return to coaching.
May 7 – Sulley Muntari has had his controversial one-match ban for protesting against racist abuse overturned by Italy’s football authorities but says he was “treated like a criminal” for complaining.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 5 – The pressure on FIFA to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian impasse at next week’s Congress is being racked up – with factions supporting both sides calling for an end to the festering dispute.