By Samindra Kunti
January 2 – The KNVB and the KBVB, the Dutch and Belgian FA’s respectively, will redesign their professional women’s league after a joint-decision to end the BeNe League due to insufficient financial resources in the Netherlands.
The season of good will and cheer is always the season of the sack and the managerial changes we are seeing in the Premier League should come as no surprise. However Alan Pardew’s decision to leave Newcastle for Crystal Palace has raised many an eyebrow. The argument, much touted on twitter and the airwaves, is why move from a great club to one whose ambition can be never higher than to hope for a sustainable place in the Premier League?
“History… is the lesson and the example of the future,” Alphonse de Lamartine, Antar.
This time last year this column carried an annual review of 2013 by pretty much the same title (see related article below). It seems worthwhile 12 months later to recapitulate over what it said and to discover whether any of its lessons were valid.
December 30 – David Beckham’s prospective MLS franchise in Miami has stalled ever since the city batted down several stadium proposals. Beckham’s group has been quietly licking its wounds over the past months while other US cities have been loudly courting the MLS in hope of receiving an expansion bid.
December 30 – Japanese players have leapt to the defence of head coach Javier Aguirre after the Mexican vehemently denied any involvement in a match-fixing scandal during the time he worked in Spain.
December 30 – North Korea is reported to have replaced suspended head coach Yun Jong-su with his predecessor Jo Tong-sop (pictured) for next month’s Asian Cup in Australia.
By Paul Nicholson
December 30 – Scottish Championship club Hibernian is giving the opportunity to its fans to become 51% owners with a new share issue. The club also announced that as part of the restructuring it is now free of bank debt.
By Alexander Krassimirov
December 30 – The Supporters Trust of Bulgarian club Levski, ‘Blue Bulgaria’, has called for their representative on the club’s Board to be appointed as CEO. The demand has not been dismissed by Levski owner Todor Batkov but early indications are that he will not make a management change.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 30 – Candidates for FIFA president have exactly one month from yesterday to decide whether or not to go for the most powerful job in world football.
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.