December 29 – Global popularity can be a fickle friend when it comes to press coverage – just ask FIFA president Sepp Blatter. But it seems that Twitter popularity doesn’t discriminate in quite the same way when it comes to building a global following.
By David Owen
December 23 – FIFA has moved quickly to spell out how much in one-off financial contributions each if its 209 member associations will next year be entitled to, and the answer is $1.05 million. Adding in a first $250,000 bonus already made available, it means that each association will be eligible for $1.3 million of one-off payments over the 18 months from June this year. The overall bill for this comes to $271.7 million.
December 29 – CONCACAF has announced its 2014 annual awards winners with inspirational Costa Rican goalkeeper Keylor Navas and US goalscorer Abby Wambach winning the vote for the Male and Female Players of the Year.
A newly promoted club to the Chinese Super League has suddenly became the club most likely to be bought out. The story surrounding Chongqing Lifan FC, has become the latest major headline in Chinese football.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 29 – The deadline for rival candidates may have passed with little fanfare because of the Christmas holiday period but it is now clear that UEFA president Michel Platini, as expected, will run unopposed for re-election when his term expires at the UEFA Congress in Vienna at the end of March.
December 29 – Japan’s national team coach Javier Aguirre has broken his silence over allegations of match-fixing when he worked in Spain with a passionate defence of his conduct and reputation.
December 29 – Vietnamese football authorities have imposed their latest crackdown on match-fixing, banning nine players for life for rigging an Asian club game.
December 29 – Houston Dynamo, of the MLS, has changed its game face with two big announcements in the run in to Christmas. Firstly, they secured Owen Coyle’s services as Head Coach. Secondly, they have switched USL affiliates.
By Samindra Kunti
December 29 – The Sultanate of Oman is set to become a majority shareholder in Belgian Jupiler Pro League club Mouscron-Peruwelz. As a result, French club Lille OSC will end its partnership with the Belgian club.
In the first of a regular series of columns on sports law and sports integrity, Dr Laila Mintas, CONCACAF Director of Integrity, examines the scale and threat of match manipulation to football globally, the difficulties encountered in effectively fighting it, and the urgent need for countries to bring in national legislation to battle the organised crime syndicates.
“There’s not any other profession in the world where investors can buy stakes in a human being.” Theo van Seggelen, FIFPro
Football, said the former England striker Jimmy Greaves, is a funny old game. But so too is the business of it. In no other sector than the sports industry do men willingly agree to become the tradable chattels of others. It is true that the football transfer market has come a long way from the time decades ago when players were instructed to move to a specific club with no input at all into the trade.
By Mark Baber
December 23 – Nothing succeeds like success and German Football Association (DFB) president, Wolfgang Niersbach has channeled the sense of triumph following his countries World Cup triumph, laying out an “ambitious” 10-year plan to keep Germany at the centre of world football.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
December 23 – FC Hradec Kralove has unveiled plans to spend CZK 246 million (€9m) on modernising its stadium. The Czech club aims to launch the upgrade of the sports facility in 2016.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 23 – Morocco’s refusal to stage next month’s Africa Cup of Nations is understood to have been behind Africa’s most prominent FIFA officials embarrassingly snubbing last Saturday’s Club World Cup final in Marrakesh. Several African members of FIFA’s executive committee were conspicuous by their absence at FIFA’s showpiece climax between Real Madrid and San Lorenzo.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 23 – The president of Sierra Leone’s football association has come out fighting against those she says are unlawfully plotting to force her out of office with an attempted coup.