By Andrew Warshaw in Geneva
September 19 – UEFA officials appear to have been caught unawares by a strongly worded demand by Ukraine’s football federation to suspend Russia from international football over the Crimea crisis.
By Paul Nicholson
September 19 – Russia’s minister of sports Vitaly Mutko (pictured) has responded to European politicians’ calls for sports sanctions saying that nothing can be ruled out but that sports and politics should be kept separate.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 18 – Just as FIFA hosts a landmark summit on ethics in sport, fresh details have emerged that a raft of high-ranking officials were offered expensive watches at the World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw in Geneva
September 18 – Nineteen hopeful countries will learn on Friday which 13 of them have been selected by UEFA to stage the one-off pan-European finals in 2020.
By Mark Baber
September 18- Palestine, Iraq, South and North Korea and Indonesia men’s teams have all won both their opening matches at the Asian Games guaranteeing places in the round of 16 (bar a miracle in Iraq’s case) and, organisers hope, ensuring better ticket sales.
By Mark Baber
September 18- The start of the second division of Greece’s Football League is being postponed indefinitely due to the financial difficulties faced by most of the clubs involved, it was on Wednesday.
Diciamo la verità, non invidiamo l’esposizione mediatica di Carlo Tavecchio, presidente della Federcalcio. Da quando la gaffe estiva con accuse razziste ha messo a rischio la sua elezione (e l’Uefa ha aperto un procedimento su di lui), persino l’abbigliamento del numero uno del calcio italiano è spesso soggetto a “revisione” da parte dei media italiani. Eppure la scorsa settimana, in Consiglio Federale, un primo passo verso la riforma del calcio è stata fatta. Tavecchio, infatti,
September 18 – Nizhny Novgorod has received the go-ahead to build a new stadium for the 2018 World Cup, according to the city’s governor Valery Shantsev. Russia’s Ministry of Sports is expected to sign a contract for the build with construction firm Stroitransgaz before the end of October.
Scotland goes to the polls today to decide whether to break with the most successful political union in the history of the world. England and Scotland have been bound in statutory togetherness since March 1, 1707. Yet a decision to end that economic and political union – so powerful that it once dominated the globe in an age of empire – could come within the next 24 hours.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 18 – National team coaches from Europe have played down the likelihood of a boycott of the 2018 World Cup as a penalty for Russia’s incursion into Ukraine. Meeting in St Petersburg for a technical study of the Brazil World Cup, the coaches of UEFA’s 54 member nations are reported to have been lukewarm over the idea of a boycott that has the support of a raft of European diplomats.
September 18 – English FA chairman Greg Dyke says it is highly unlikely UEFA will put up a candidate to take on Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency next year now that their main man, Michel Platini, has decided not to run.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 18 – Sports ministers from across Europe will convene in Switzerland today to sign a landmark agreement in an attempt to reduce match-fixing.
By David Owen
September 17 – Sony Corporation, the Japanese consumer electronics group that is one of six FIFA top-tier sponsors, has announced that it will pay no dividend for its current financial year, for the first time since its shares were listed in 1958, the year of Brazil’s first World Cup victory.
By Mark Baber
September 17- Claims by Guinea that the country will be allowed to play home matches again have been denied by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) who will be guided by World Health Organisation (WHO) advice, whilst the early response of FIFA to the Ebola crisis in West Africa has been fully justified by subsequent events.
September 17- The long-running saga over Carlos Queiroz’s future as coach of Iran has finally been concluded with the former Real Madrid and Portugal manager agreeing a four-year extension to his contract.