By David Owen
April 5 – UEFA, the European football body, generated revenue of €1.73 billion in its latest financial year to the end of June. The figure was marginally up on the prior year’s total of €1.7 billion.
It was interesting to read the recent report to the effect that European Club Association (ECA) head Karl-Heinz Rummenigge believes that football’s perennial club-versus-country tug of war is now receding.
“Sin el futbol, mi vida no vale nada (Without football, my life is worthless).” Cristiano Ronaldo
It turns out that you do not have to be a two-time FIFA Ballon D’Or winner to take the view that football is the be-all and end-all of life. There are millions upon millions of people with a fanatical devotion to football and/or its clubs and billions more who take at least a passing interest in the game we love.
By David Owen
April 3 – Up and coming South London club Crystal Palace have become the latest Premier League outfit to report exceptionally strong earnings for 2013-14, the side’s first season back in England’s top-flight.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 4 – In a stunning victory for a national association over its confederation, Morocco has won its appeal against being thrown out of the next two African Nations Cup tournaments. The sanction was imposed by the Confederation of African Football after Morocco refused to host this year’s event in January because of fears over the spread of the Ebola virus.
By Alexander Krassimirov
April 2 – Bulgaria’s Levski Sofia has thanked fans for their donations which helped the club clear its debts and cover the requirements for a European license. The club have urged fans to continue with their financial help.
By Mark Baber
April 2 – An apology from the Tunisia Football Federation for accusing the Confederation of African Football (CAF) of bias has prevented the nation from being banned from the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations. The apology follows the disgraceful scenes which met the team’s elimination in the quarter-final of the African Cup of Nations by Equatorial Guinea.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 2 – FIFA’s radical reform of the status of agents, brought into effect on April 1, has caused an immediate backlash. The deregulation move whereby agents are now the responsibility of national associations rather than world football’s governing body is designed to weed out rogue parties and make for a more transparent process.
April 2 – The word legacy seems to accompany every World Cup but post-tournament the evidence is frequently conspicuous by its absence. Reports in Brazil have revealed that the World Cup stadium in Natal is up for sale since the company that owns it is suffering from cash flow problems following a corruption scandal.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 2 – A group of US senators is back on the attack over Russia’s staging of the 2018 World Cup and have written to FIFA urging it to consider stripping the country as hosts because of the occupation of Crimea.
April 2 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has been softening his stance over criticising European clubs for having too much power and is “ready to change” as he approaches the presidential election in May, according to the head of the European Club Association.
By Paul Nicholson
April 2 – In the week to March 27, Manchester United more than doubled their average weekly gain in Twitter followers over closest rivals Arsenal and Chelsea.
By Mark Baber
April 1 – PUMA and the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) have renewed their partnership, whilst FIGC President Carlo Tavecchio, central to the racism scandals plaguing Italian football, focuses on the need for Juventus to drop their €443 million civil suit.
On Monday Insideworldfootball ran a story titled ‘Whistle blown on FIFA whistleblower fraudster Mersiades’. The story was a pick-up from German public broadcaster ZDF’s interview with discredited Australian whistleblower Bonita Mersiades.
To re-cap the important part of the story: Mersiades, one of the FIFA whistleblowers in the FIFA World Cup bid investigation, has Australian court convictions for defrauding an Australian government department that employed her.
By Alexander Krassimirov
April 1 – Bulgaria’s two most successful clubs, CSKA Sofia and Levski Sofia, just managed to beat the deadline to file their paperwork to obtain a license for European club tournaments. CSKA and Levski are plagued by deep financial problems which have threatened their eligibility for a license.