By Paul Nicholson
July 24 – FIFA executive committee member Sonia Bien-Amie has become one of only two female presidents currently heading their national federations, the other is Sierra Leone’s Isha Johansen. Bien-Aime was elected president at the Turks & Caicos Islands Football Association (TCIFA) at the association’s AGM earlier this week. She has been general secretary of the TCIFA for the past eight years.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 23 – Jaime Byrom, one of the founders of long-established FIFA marketing affiliate Match, is confident the World Cup ticket tout investigation in Brazil will not jeopardise the group’s relationship with world football’s governing body when it comes to future contracts.
July 23 – In an effort to bring some order to the general chaos that is prevailing in Nigerian football, a delegation of club owners from the Nigerian Premier League have met with the Minister of Sports and Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Tamuno Danagogo (pictured) with the aim of restructuring the game in Nigeria.
July 23 – Big-spending Paris Saint-German have been ordered by UEFA to close part of their stadium as punishment for their supporters’ abuse of disabled Chelsea fans during a Champions League quarterfinal match in April. UEFA said that it had ordered a one-match closure of two parts of the Parc des Princes, “for the discriminatory conduct” of some of the French club’s supporters.
July 23 – In what many are commenting is a backward step, Brazil have as expected turned to Dunga for a second spell in charge of the national team in succession to Luiz Felipe Scolari two weeks after the 7-1 hammering by Germany in the World Cup semi-finals.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
July 23 – Croatia’s HNK Rijeka has unveiled the design of its new stadium, with works on the 14,000-seat facility expected to begin by the end of 2014, with completion of the new Kantrida stadium in 2016.
By Ben Nicholson
July 23 – Since MLS Commissioner Don Garber announced the league’s intentions to add teams until it reaches 24 competitors, various states and cities have put their foot forward in hope of bringing the top US soccer league to their area.
July 23 – English Premier League champions Manchester City took their players off the pitch during an Elite Development Squad U21 fixture against Croatian side HNK Rijeka because of an alleged incident of racism against one of them.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
July 22 – The boss of the FIFA affiliate at the heart of the ongoing World Cup ticket tout investigation in Brazil has made an impassioned plea to the authorities to release its director caught up in the probe, insisting he has done nothing wrong and is simply the victim of a huge misunderstanding.
July 22 – English Premier League champions Manchester City have launched a new membership and loyalty scheme, Cityzens, costing £35 per year for adults and £25 for under 16s.
July 22 – The Danish Football Association (DBU) has backed FC Copenhagen’s bid to move their Champions League qualifier at Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk later this month to a neutral venue following the Malaysia Airlines crash over territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
July 22 – South African football, going through a rebuilding phase under Danny Jordaan (pictured), is set to appoint a new head coach for its national team, but at club level it still has difficulty convincing everyone that country comes first.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 22 – The eagerly awaited report into possible wrongdoing during the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid process has been delayed for several weeks. FIFA’s chief independent prosecutor Michael Garcia was expected to deliver the findings of his investigation this month but has delayed handing it over to ethics committee adjucatory chamber chief Hans-Joachim Eckert until the first week of September.
By David Owen
July 21 – The President of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) is hoping that next year’s Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Presidential election will usher in a period of much-needed harmony in the region’s football affairs. Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, the former OPEC chairman who has become one of world sport’s foremost power brokers, said he thought the 2015 election “will found the unity of Asia”.
July 21 – Chinese telecommunications specialist Huawei has unveiled its first Arsenal smartphone as part of a multi-million pound sponsorship deal that was signed in January and will see the brand as the Official Smartphone Partner of the north London club until the end of season 2015/16.