FIFA issues warning to Botswana: comply or face expulsion

Ian Khama

By Mark Baber
June 19 – The long-running dispute over Botswana President Ian Khama’s (pictured) constituency football tournaments has reached a new level of seriousness as FIFA insist the issue of bringing the tournaments under the authority of the Botswana Football Association (BFA) must be resolved by September 22 or the BFA faces possible suspension from FIFA.

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Matt Scott: Hertha Berlin – what it tells football about tapping into a new world of riches

“How does it feel to have a trillion dollars burning a hole in your pocket?” Andrew Blackman, the Wall Street Journal

Not since the conquistadors discovered Potosí, Bolivia’s famed silver-ore mountain and “Cerro Rico”, has anyone known the answer to the question Blackman rhetorically posed this week. But with the data-cruncher Prequin estimating that private-equity firms now hold $1.141 trillion in investible funds, the managed-investment arm of the financial-services industry seems to have a fair idea.

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World Cup TV viewing data in Africa shows strong youth demand

Africans watch World Cup

June 19 – World Cup TV viewing data in the African continent is showing pan-regional interest in the World Cup and in African teams in particular. GeoPoll has released data on viewing figures in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda showing large proportions of national populations are tuning in, skewed strongly towards young adult males.

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Andrew Warshaw: Spain’s reign over but what of succession?

Let’s be realistic. Not many of us expected for one moment that one of the greatest dynasties to grace the game would actually be able to clinch an unprecedented fourth straight major crown.

After all, no European country has ever won the World Cup on South American soil. And not since 1962 had the reigning world champions retained the title.

But by the same token, few believed that the reign of Spain would come to such a shuddering halt before the end of the first week –

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