July 1 – Olympiakos are for the moment retaining their spot in the Champions League despite the Greek club’s owner Evangelos ‘Vangelis’ Marinakis being accused of running a racketeering and match-fixing ring.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 1 – Following increasing speculation, Sepp Blatter has decided not to attend this weekend’s Women’s World Cup Final in Canada citing “personal reasons”, a significant break with tradition that has immediately been linked to the FBI criminal investigation into football’s world governing body.
By Paul Nicholson
July 1 – CONCACAF has called in management consultancy Alvarez & Marsal to review its finances and operations. The confederation that was rocked by the arrest of its president Jeffrey Webb and vice president Eduardo Li, has moved swiftly to establish a review of its procedures already having installed a ‘Special Committee’ of its three senior north American federation presidents to stabilise the organisation.
One year ago they suffered the most painful, humiliating defeat in the history of football. Somehow things have got worse. To the extent that remarkably we have to ask ourselves: is there a way back for Brazil? Can the nation synonymous with football ever regain its special status?
It is interesting that, despite all that has been written about FIFA, one issue has not been much discussed. This is how will politicians treat any future FIFA that emerges from its bribery crisis? We know how western politicians now regard FIFA. They have nothing but contempt. David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, has made this abundantly clear in the House of Commons.
By Mark Baber
June 30 – The Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on Friday was aborted by controversial FKF President Sam Nyamweya (pictured), allegedly on the grounds of insecurity and too many people turning up to the venue.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 30 – UEFA’s tweaked financial fair play rules come into effect tomorrow with the organisation re-iterating the system has been a success despite the highly-publicised legal challenge from Belgium which threatens to undermine years’ of painstaking work to ensure clubs balance their books.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 30 – With the women’s World Cup reaching the semi-final stage today and tomorrow, questions are being asked about why the top two countries in the world ended up being in the same half of the draw.
By Mark Baber
June 30 – As the centre of gravity of the world’s economy shifts toward the Asia-Pacific region, the signing of Tottenham midfielder Paulinho for £9.8 million, in the wake of the country’s leadership putting its weight behind the development of football, looks like a statement of intent from the Chinese club football.
“No man can judge what is good evidence on any particular subject, unless he knows that subject well. A lawyer is no better than an old woman at a post-mortem examination.” George Eliot, Middlemarch
For hundreds of years the legal profession has been among society’s least popular functions. It’s pretty clear that not everyone likes the way lawyers practise their business but the fact is the modern world could not carry on without them.
June 30 – Italian Serie B club Catania faces relegation after its president admitted fixing five games last season to avoid dropping out of the division.
June 30 – FIFA’s main crime-buster has expressed his regret at Interpol’s decision to end the two organisations’ “unique collaboration” because of the corruption scandal that has rocked world football’s governing body.
By Paul Nicholson
June 30 – With build projects for the final two stadia in Yekaterinburg and Kaliningrad being approved by Russian central government, the 30 day countdown to the first official event of the 2018 World Cup has begun. The Preliminary Draw will be held in St Petersburg on July 25 with 141 teams in the pots that will be drawn by FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke.
While FIFA continue to battle with snitches that cut deals to save their own backsides (literally yet metastatically, one hears), and after the movie-style orchestrated group-arrests have slowly lost their Zurich lustre, a New FIFA future is nowhere to be detected – as yet.
By Paul Nicholson
June 30 – News that Trinidad & Tobago had received extradition papers from the US seeking former FIFA vice president Jack Warner, who was indicted in the FIFA investigation, have been quickly denied by the US Department of Justice which said it has not sent “any final requests” regarding the extradition.