By Andrew Warshaw
March 26 – Two months after announcing he was standing as a FIFA presidential candidate against Sepp Blatter, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan has broken his self-imposed withdrawal from the media spotlight by accusing the current regime of not doing nearly enough to develop football on the ground and Blatter in particular of playing politics to meet his own re-election ends.
By Alexander Krassimirov
March 26 – Players at Bulgaria’s Lokomotiv Plovdiv boycotted training for a second day in protest against wages. The club recently changed ownership from businessman Konstantin Dinev to supporters’ association Future for Lokomotiv.
March 26 – Spain’s 42 professional clubs have put strike plans on hold in order to give authorities more time to draw up proposals for a collective bargaining agreement for TV rights.
By David Owen
March 26 – Premier League clubs generated their first pre-tax profit in 15 years in 2013-14, Deloitte, the business advisory firm, has confirmed, as increased revenues from the current, more lucrative broadcasting deal far outpaced any rise in costs.
By Andrew Warshaw in Vienna
March 25 – The vote is over but the resentment lingers – and we are not talking about the FIFA presidency. David Gill may have been clear favourite to become Britain’s new FIFA vice-president on Tuesday but his trouncing of Welsh FA president Trefor Lloyd-Hughes left a sour taste in some mouths – particularly Welsh mouths.
By Mark Baber
March 25 – The infamous ability of well-to-do Italian criminals to string out court cases until the statute of limitations kicks in was again revealed this week as the top Juventus officials involved in the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal escaped prison.
By David Owen
March 25 – One of Scotland’s best-known brands is becoming a sponsor of England’s Football League. Irn-Bru, the distinctive orange-coloured fizzy drink whose publicity materials once claimed it was “made in Scotland from girders”, will be the official soft drink partner of the body overseeing the second, third and fourth tiers of English football, in a three-year deal beginning during this year’s season-ending play-offs.
By Andrew Warshaw in Vienna
March 25 – UEFA president Michel Platini is steadfastly maintaining his stance that he is not specifically backing any one of the three candidates standing against Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency.
By Alexander Krassimirov
March 25 – Julian Indzhov (pictured), who was in the final stages of negotiation to buy Bulgarian football club CSKA Sofia, has this morning withdrawn from the acquisition process.
On the surface, sitting in the front row and surrounded by many of those who want him out, Sepp Blatter showed little emotion. On the inside, as the way he has ruled Fifa for 17 years was picked apart by the three candidates bidding for his job, he may well have been seething.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
March 24 – Bundesliga chief Christian Seifert has unveiled plans for the German top tier to introduce Monday matchdays. Seifert made his comments during a recent trip to Poland’s capital Warsaw, where he met with the management of the Bundesliga’s Polish counterpart, the Ekstraklasa.
By Alexander Krassimirov
March 25 – Bulgaria’s most famous football club, CSKA Sofia, is set for a new ownership! Current majority shareholder Alexander Tomov has announced that negotiations for the transfer of a majority shareholding to the construction entrepreneur Julian Indzhov (pictured left with Tomov) are in full flow.
By Paul Nicholson
March 25 – Scottish giants Rangers have begun the process of extricating themselves financially from the influence of investor Mike Ashley with the agreement of a £1.5 million loan agreement with Douglas Park, George Letham and George Taylor – known locally as the Three Bears.
By David Owen
March 24 – Low taxes and political neutrality: those are two of the reasons why, as I understand it, so many sports bodies over the years have set up headquarters amid the lakes and mountains of Switzerland.
By Andrew Warshaw in Vienna
March 24 – As the sole candidate, Michel Platini was re-elected UEFA president by acclamation today and took the opportunity to defend his organisation against claims they have become enemies of FIFA and are too powerful.