By Andrew Warshaw
May 8 – Ray Whelan, the British director who was arrested and detained in Brazil after being wrongly accused of selling VIP World Cup tickets at inflated prices, is back working as a consultant for Match Services, FIFA’s official marketing partner, and is planning to write a book about the entire experience.
May 8 – The Russian investment in building infrastructure and facilities for the 2018 World Cup appears to be having a positive knock-on effect for sports facilities generally in the country with 12 new sports centres expected to be opened in Moscow in 2015.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 8 – Sepp Blatter reckons the upcoming women’s World Cup could be the biggest breakthrough yet for the sport and that more women should occupy positions of administrative power at FIFA.
May 8 – Honduras have stepped up to host the second regional championship in the country in a year, with the CONCACAF Under-20 Women’s Championship 2015 this December. The championship will decide the three teams to qualify for the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Papua New Guinea 2016.
May 8 – Zenit St Petersburg has signed a three-year deal with Japanese carmaker Nissan who becomes an official partner of the club. No value was announced for the agreement.
May 7 – Enfield Town, the tiny part-time club in the eighth tier of English football whose case against being docked three points for no other reason than being honest has made national headlines, will discover tomorrow whether they will be let off the sanction.
May 7 – The head of Israeli football has launched a pre-emptive strike, metaphorically speaking, to try and stop a Palestinian proposal to ban his federation from FIFA being supported at the FIFA Congress later this month.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
May 7 – MFK Kosice have unveiled its plans to move to a new stadium under a project estimated to be worth €15 million. The Slovak side’s new stadium is expected to be completed in 2017.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 7 – FIFA have given Indonesia a final ultimatum to resolve a bitter internal row or risk being thrown out of international competition because of government interference.
By Mark Baber
May 7 – Real Madrid tops the annual Forbes list of the world’s most valuable clubs, for the third year in a row, with Barcelona and Manchester United still in second and third place respectively.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 7 – The crisis in Greek football that led to a threat by UEFA and FIFA to throw them out appears to have been resolved after the country’s controversial new sports law, designed to crack down on fan violence, was submitted to parliament with the requisite adjustments.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 7 – Spanish football has burst into outright warfare over plans to introduce the sale of centralized tv rights from 2016. The Spanish football federation has indefinitely suspended competition from May 16 in a dispute with the government over a new law on collective bargaining, effectively halting the final two rounds of La Liga and the rest of domestic football.
By Samindra Kunti
May 7 – Rio de Janeiro giants Flamengo will renew their club sponsorship deal with Brazilian bank Caixa, worth €7.3 million, this week. Flamengo’s shirt is projected to have a total sponsorship value (shirts carry more than one sponsor logo) of €26.1 million this season.
May 7 – Newly promoted club Union Saint-Gilloise has written an open letter to UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino asking the support of Europe’s football governing body in protest against the structural reform of Belgian domestic football from the 2016/17 season onwards.
By Paul Nicholson
May 6 – Spain’s Malaga are in talks to sell up to 95% of the club to a consortium of Chinese investors, according to media reports from China. Chinese money has also been linked with takeovers of Aston Villa in the English Premier League and AC Milan in Italy’s Serie A.