By Mark Baber
June 2 – Having narrowly avoided relegation from the Premier League, Sunderland AFC have announced that AsianBGE’s Cagayan Economic Zone, Philippines-based Dafabet, is the club’s new principal partner and shirt sponsor for the 2015-16 season in a three year deal.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 2 – The corruption scandal that enveloped last week’s FIFA presidential election and has plunged world football’s governing body into its worst ever crisis deepened overnight with reported allegations in the United States that FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke (pictured) was the man behind a $10 million bank transfer that is central to the investigation being carried out by US authorities.
By Paul Nicholson
June 2 – Back stage the confederation was in turmoil with employees only just having been allowed back into their Miami offices, news of bans of their top officials, and rumours that in the Cayman Islands employees had been relieved of their phones and laptops; front stage CONCACAF conducted the draw for the group stages of the 2015/16 Champions League. If it wasn’t quite business as usual, it was a welcome relief from the dark politics of corruption that have returned to consume the regional body.
Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
By Mark Baber
June 1 – Just hours before the 2015 FA Cup Final was won by Emirates sponsored Arsenal, the FA announced the Dubai-based airline as the new sponsor of the FA Cup in a deal which will see the competition named ‘The Emirates FA Cup’ from next season up until 2018.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
June 1 – Romania’s football federation FRF has signed a kit deal worth up to €5.4 million with Spanish sports apparel producer Joma. The company will replace Adidas which started supplying kits to the Romanian federation in 1970.
June 1 – The Indonesian government has reacted disdainfully to FIFA’s decision to throw the country out of world football saying the move should not be “mourned excessively”.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 1 – Swiss officials have not ruled out questioning FIFA president Sepp Blatter as part of their inquiry into possible breaking of Swiss laws leading up to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup ballot five years ago.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 1 – Up to one third of Europe may have defied UEFA president Michel Platini’s request and voted for Sepp Blatter in last Friday’s FIFA presidential election.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
June 1 – Austria Wien has unveiled the design of its new stadium which is to be developed under a project worth €48 million. Under the plan, the Vienna-based side will launch the build in May 2016.
By David Owen in Zurich
June 1 – Danny Jordaan, the President of the South African Football Association (SAFA) and former chief executive of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, has confirmed that a $10 million payment referred to in this week’s United States Department of Justice (DoJ) indictment was indeed made, according to a South African media report.
By Samindra Kunti
June 1 – FIFA executive committee member Michel D’Hooghe from Belgium has added his voice to continued European criticism of Sepp Blatter following his re-election last week. Speaking on Belgian television D’Hooghe said “it’s high time for change” in FIFA and questioned his own future within the organisation.
By Paul Nicholson
June 1 – “If you are elected and don’t come to the first meeting that’s not taking responsibility.” And with these words Sepp Blatter abruptly ended the press conference following FIFA’s first executive committee after his dramatic election to a fifth term as FIFA president. Blatter exited the auditorium chased Keystone Kops-style by the media with the English press and their cameramen in the vanguard.
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
May 30 – A new twist emerged today over Sepp Blatter’s FIFA presidential victory when Michel Platini’s native France admitted it went against his wish for Europe to get behind vanquished challenger Prince Ali bin al-Hussein.
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
May 29 – Sepp Blatter clinched victory over Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan today, moving into a fifth four-year term of office at the age of 79 but not quite with the two-thirds majority many had predicted. In dramatic scenes Prince Ali announced his withdrawal from the contest. He received a standing ovation as he left the platform while Blatter was cheered as he once again took centre stage