By Andrew Warshaw
August 3 – Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, chairman of the 2018 World Cup Organising Committee and a FIFA executive committee member, looks set to cement his power base even further by becoming head of his country’s football federation after his only rival for the position, Igor Lebedev, withdrew from next month’s election.
August 3 – A domestic English spat that has gained widespread publicity continues to rumble on. Attempts to change the name of Hull City to Hull Tigers appeared to have been buried for good last month when the English Football Association’s council rejected the name change application for a second time.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 3 – Paraguay has offered to be one of the five official nominees for UEFA boss Michel Platini’s bid for the FIFA presidency, the country’s federation said in a letter sent to FIFA.
By David Owen in Kuala Lumpur
August 3 – Sepp Blatter, FIFA President at least for another six months, has ceased to be a member of world sport’s most powerful club.
By Paul Nicholson
August 1 – The name of Tokyo Sexwale is being whispered as a potential candidate for the FIFA presidency with business leaders and politicians apparently encouraging the South African businessman to consider running for football’s top job and bring about the global change the organisation needs.
July 31 – A Europa league qualifier between FK Kukesi of Albania and Legia Warsaw was abandoned Thursday when a Legia player was struck by a stone thrown from the crowd.
The Insideworldfootball LIVE MATCH CHANNEL continues this weekend with the start of the EAFF East Asian Cup tournament from Wuhan, China. We have every match from both men’s and women’s competitions live. Japan, South Korea, China and North Korea are the qualified teams in both finals competitions. The women kick off Saturday August 1 with North Korea against World Cup finalists Japan, followed by China vs South Korea (http://www.insideworldfootball.com/watch-live-football/eaff-womens). The men kick off the following day with North Korea vs Japan and China vs South Korea (http://www.insideworldfootball.com/watch-live-football).
You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. But if things don’t work out, I’ll willingly scratch someone else’s. Welcome to the world of shifting allegiances and alliances that have become the hallmark of footballing presidential elections.
By Mark Baber
July 31 – A Council of Appeals ruled Thursday that 85 out of a possible 158 original defendants should go on trial for a variety of offences related to the match-fixing scandal of 2010-11, including membership of a criminal organisation, bribery, manipulation of results and illegal betting.
By Alexander Krassimirov
July 31 – Russian champion Zenit St. Petersburg has recorded colossal losses for the season ending 2014 according to the annual report of SPARK – Interfax. Despite winning the title in Russia, Zenit’s loss amounted to 5.2 billion rubles ($86 million). In 2013 Zenit’s losses were only 320 million rubles ($5.3 million).
July 31 – An 18-year-old asylum seeker from Gambia is the talk of German football after scoring four times in his first match as a second-half substitute for Werder Bremen.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 31 – Claims that Michel Platini is already odds-on favourite to win the FIFA presidency on February 26 is being tested by some choice remarks from CONCACAF, purportedly one of four confederations behind him, and by Africa.
By Paul Nicholson
July 31 – CONCACAF has moved swiftly to set up a review of its refereeing department following the bitter and very public complaints of Panama and Costa Rica about the standard of officiating at the just completed Gold Cup.