September 5 – The Jamaican Premier League launched this week with the announcement that Red Stripe has committed to the sponsorship of the competition for the next five seasons.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 5 – Europe’s top coaches are not convinced that UEFA’s plan to change the seeding system for the Champions League will be that significant. The format is being altered in future to avoid domestic champions being ranked lower than other clubs from the same country and to prevent them being drawn in the same group such as Group A this season where the champions of Italy (Juventus), Spain (Atletico Madrid),
By Andrew Warshaw
September 5 – Human rights organisations have renewed their offensive against 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar, this time after the apparent disappearance in the Gulf state of two British researchers probing workers’ rights. Krishna Upadhyaya and photographer Ghimire Gundev reportedly arrived in Qatar on August 27 to research a forthcoming report on the conditions of Nepalese migrant workers but there are fears they may have since been detained according to the body that employs them,
September 5 – South African officials say they are becoming increasingly frustrated by a match-fixing saga that has been dragging on for four years and has still not been resolved.
September 5 – A diverse group of stakeholders set up under the auspices of FIFA to get to grips with third-party ownership of players’ economic rights met for the first time this week with a view to coming up with concrete proposals later this month.
September 5 – Manchester United’s £16 million Argentine signing Marcos Rojo has been cleared to join the club following a third party ownership wrangle and the complications of a criminal case back home.
September 5 – CONCACAF president and chairman of the FIFA Anti-Racism and Discrimination Task Force, Jeffrey Webb, has moved swiftly to praise the Brazilian expulsion of Gremio from the Brazilian Cup following a section of the club’s fans racially abusing a Santos player.
By Paul Nicholson
September 5 – Sports data gathering giant STATS has acquired Bloomberg Sports, the sports data and analytics leaders in the US sports market. The merger creates a powerful data, technology, analytics and content group serving a broadbase of clients from media to leagues and teams globally.
September 4 – The World Football Forum 2014 to be held at the Ritz-Carlton in Moscow, November 13, has announced that a panel discussion on the implications of UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations will be led by the Chief Executive of Chelsea Football Club, Ron Gourlay.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 4 – Lawyers representing many of the world’s leading female footballers protesting against playing next year’s Women’s World Cup in Canada on artificial turf have written to FIFA president Sepp Blatter as well as all six Confederation heads as the campaign for natural grass intensifies.
By Mark Baber
September 4 – FIFA has again stepped into the Nigerian football morass in a further attempt to bring sanity to the troubled federation which has seen rival factions emerge, both claiming leadership. The Giwa faction claims Chris Giwa was fairly elected whilst Aminu Maigari was under arrest by security forces. The Maigari faction was planning to hold elections today and regards Giwa as an interloper.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 3 – Although he is mainly known in football politics for being Asia’s FIFA vice-president and one of the game’s renowned modernists, Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein is also head of Jordanian football and in an attempt to boost his country’s profile has turned to one of England’s most familiar faces to be its next national coach.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 4 – Despite all the pre-World Cup rhetoric about the tournament helping to reduce racism in Brazilian football, leading club Gremio have just been banned from the country’s main cup competition after some of their fans abused a Santos player.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 4 – Further evidence has emerged that Germany will withdraw its bid to host the latter stages of Euro 2020, ensuring Wembley stages the semi-final and final. Last week in Monaco, both countries privately hinted that a deal had been done, echoing a previous gentleman’s agreement England were accused of reneging on back in the 1990s.
September 4 – A Female Coaches Advocacy Group has been launched in the US to encourage and promote women into coaching the game. The group is to start at the state level in Colorado and in Southern California with Cal South to create a state network of women in coaching to start dialogue with mentor college women to get involved in coaching.