Inside World Football - Page 1662 of 2160 - For the Business of Football

Andrew Warshaw: The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men

When Sepp Blatter took to the stage during the gala opening of FIFA’s Congress in Sao Paolo and strutted his stuff with one of Brazil’s most glamourous models, it rounded off an eventful day for the 78-year-old FIFA president.

But not one that went entirely his way.

After a tub-thumping round of self-promotional speeches to his loyal followers among five of FIFA’s six regional confederations, and hearing gushing messages of support come flying back,

Archive

After a triumphant march, Blatter stumbles on a Europe in rare union

Platini and Blatter

By Andrew Warshaw in Sao Paulo
June 11 – Sepp Blatter’s declared intention to run for FIFA president for the fifth time crashed against a rock of European hostility and indignation today as UEFA took a united stand by telling the 78-year-old Swiss to his face it was time to step down as a result of the organisation’s tarnished image.

Archive

Facebook claims football’s ‘largest stadium’ in social media battlespace

Twitter vs Facebook

By Mark Baber
June 10 – With just days to the start of the World Cup in Brazil, Twitter and YouTube and Facebook are challenging for the largest slice of the quickly growing social media pie, with Facebook laying claim to providing the “biggest stadium” of football fans.

Osasu Obayiuwana

Osasu Obayiuwana: Cash, Bin Hammam and Africa

So, the world is surprised and shocked by what informed followers of the African game and its politics have known, through the grapevine, for ages – that Mohamed bin Hammam, the former president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), spent significant sums of money to create a sphere of political influence amongst the continent’s federation presidents.

The spread sheet and emails published by the Sunday Times of London, revealing the sums spent on lavish Qatari and Malaysian vacations for several FA chiefs,

Archive

FIFA 15 to further blur the boundaries between the real and virtual worlds

FIFA 15 cover

By Mark Baber
June 10 – EA Sports has announced FIFA 15 is now available for pre-order. The new version of the game is touted to further blur the boundaries between the real and virtual worlds and comes as CONCACAF issue an official press release announcing the winner of the CONCACAF Interactive 2014 championship who has won a trip to Brazil.

Archive

Exclusive: Ex FIFA GenSec points to serious ethics violation by bidder

Michel Zen Ruffinen (right)

By Paul Nicholson
June 10 – Former FIFA general secretary Michel Zen Ruffinen (right) who was caught in a newspaper sting in 2010 talking about rumours of vote collusion between the Spain/Portugal, Russia and Qatar world cup bids, now believes that the rumours circulating were fabricated, most probably by a rival bidding committee.

Archive

Czech top tier to split from national football association

Gambrinus Liga

By Jaroslaw Adamowski
June 10 – The Czech football association (FACR) is considering a plan to transfer oversight of the top tier to a new entity, according to Miroslav Pelta, chief executive of FACR.

Archive

‘It was a fabrication’

June 11 – “Today, I am certain that the information I received from a European source [football official] was a fabrication,” says Michel Zen-Ruffinen in an exclusive interview with INSIDEWorldFootball.com, referring to the rumours of vote collusion in the race for the 2018 and 2020 World Cup hosting rights

Archive

FIFA’s ‘age and term’ debate rumbles on with no end in sight

FIFA House

By Andrew Warshaw in Sao Paulo
June 10 – The thorny issue of age limits and term mandates, the one FIFA reform measure that shows little sign of being resolved, is back on the agenda at world body’s annual congress starting Tuesday – but it won’t affect Sepp Blatter’s likely bid to go for a fifth term of office.

Archive

Shaikh Salman flexes his political muscle to brush aside Prince Ali

Shaikh Salman and Prince Ali

By Andrew Warshaw in Sao Paulo
June 10 – The youngest and most reformist member of FIFA’s inner sanctum, Prince Ali bin Hussein of Jordan (pictured right), was dramatically shunted out of office as Asia’s FIFA vice-president today when the region took what could prove a totally misguided decision to merge his position with that of AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa (pictured left) in 2015, thereby giving the Bahraini total control of an organisation he only inherited a year ago.

Archive

Blatter breathes fire as he fiercely defends FIFA and its members

Sepp Blatter6

By Andrew Warshaw in Sao Paulo
June 10 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter, riled by repeated criticism of his organisation from elements of the British media, today fired back one of his most vociferous salvos to date as what he dubbed ‘Qatargate’ threatened to overshadow the build-up to FIFA’s congress here.

Archive

FIFA steps up fight against match manipulation

FIFA signage

By David Owen
June 10 – FIFA has urged member associations to designate one individual to be responsible for all matters related to manipulation, as world football’s governing body looks to step up the battle against match-fixing. In the run-up to this week’s Congress, FIFA has distributed a 23-page booklet of guidelines to member associations entitled, ‘Specific Recommendations to Combat Match Manipulation’.

Archive

Cameroon resolve player wage row as Spanish chase winning bonuses

eda96ec37b2fefaa609ffac8971772db crop north

By Mark Baber
June 9- Cameroon’s squad is departing for Brazil 12 hours later than scheduled, after settling a dispute over World Cup pay with their Federation which had to borrow money to be able to meet the players’ demands. Meanwhile, in Spain, there is uproar as the players are offered $720,000 each if they win the World Cup.

Archive

Sponsors pressure FIFA, as Garcia prepares to address congress

330085

By Andrew Warshaw in Sao Paulo
June 9- World Cup sponsors have called on FIFA to deal thoroughly with corruption claims as a second swathe of allegations over Qatar’s conduct in securing the 2022 tournament was published by Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper, overshadowing this week’s big kick-off.

Archive

Blatter in last ditch talks over Palestine, SA drop out of U20 hosting

Sepp Blatter 20

By Andrew Warshaw in Sao Paulo
June 9- FIFA President Sepp Blatter is to hold last-ditch talks with Palestinian and Israeli officials in the next 48 hours in an attempt to bring the two sides together to sign a symbolic memorandum of understanding at this week’s FIFA Congress.