By Andrew Warshaw
June 4 – While considerable focus is on the FIFA Congress in Sao Paulo next week, the executive committee agenda which precedes it this coming weekend could be just as appetising, containing a number of highly significant items that have dominated the political landscape in recent months.
June 4 – Spanish tax authorities have re-opened the Neymar tax case by claiming Barcelona have evaded a payment of €9.2 million in the signing of Brazilian World Cup superstar.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
June 4 – Czech football association FACR has signed a sponsorship deal with betting operator Synot which will replace the Gambrinus beer brand as the title sponsor of the country’s top tier league.
The material published in the latest Sunday Times expose has sparked renewed calls for Joseph Blatter, FIFA’s 78-year-old President, to stand down. This is not remotely surprising. And, indeed, I concur there are strong arguments for his current term being his last – even though, in the real world, he still looks well-placed to sail triumphantly to a fifth term from 2015.
I also think, though, that the question of Blatter’s personal future tends to distract attention from the more important issue.
So UEFA will register its protest about events in FIFA by sitting down in Sao Paulo at next week’s Congress just as Sepp Blatter, as is widely expected, announces that he will stand for another term as President? My goodness what a protest. This I am sure Nyon thinks is the Lionel Messi moment for the men in suits when a wonderful shimmy delivers a beautiful, game changing goal. Don’t you believe it.
In fact when I heard about this UEFA protest against Blatter I merely flicked open my cuttings book and went back to another FIFA Congress,
By Mark Baber
June 3 – Official World Cup sponsor Hyundai, who recently extended their deal with FIFA up to 2022 is rolling out advertising campaigns focused largely on brand-loyalty and the passion of fans for football and their cars. So far it has avoided of the major faux-pas of recent campaigns.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
June 3 – UEFA chief Michel Platini rejected a request by Mohamed bin Hammam to take on Sepp Blatter in 2011 for the presidency of FIFA, INSIDEworldfootball has learned. High-ranking UEFA sources have confirmed that Platini held “a number of informal discussions” with bin Hammam shortly before the December 2010, vote for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups but that these were solely about the presidency and nothing to do,
By David Owen
June 3 – Real Madrid appear to have taken a leaf out of French rugby club Stade Français’s marketing handbook, introducing a pink change strip for the 2014-15 season.
June 3- A investigative report by FIFA has found that at least five international friendlies in South Africa just before the 2010 World Cup were fixed, according to the New York Times.
By Tom Parsons
June 3 – It’s the end of the season and dreams have either come true or been broken, leaving football fans wanting for more from the football club’s they support. With ‘silly season’ approaching and transfer rumours spreading it’s not always easy for the football teams to generate relevant content on social media for their fans. Arsenal and Manchester City however have excited fans by recreating some of their biggest moments in history on their Twitter feeds.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 3 – Former Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness, whose fall from grace as one of European club football’s most influential administrators has been well chronicled, has begun serving his three years and six months jail sentence for tax evasion.
By Alexander Krassimirov
June 3 – After its failed attempt at becoming a publicly-owned company on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, CSKA Sofia looks to have dragged itself away from the possibility of bankruptcy with the appointment of one of Bulgaria’s biggest businessmen, Petar Mandjukov (pictured), to the board.
Un passo avanti, e adesso il burrone è proprio davanti a noi, basta solo che si voglia vederlo. Nel lento cammino che avvicina sempre di più la violenza del calcio italiano a quella del Sudamerica, il 3 maggio 2014 è stata una data che non dimenticheremo. Dopo i feriti per risse e coltelli, adesso si è arrivati anche alle pistole. Una infatti ha sparato prima della finale di Coppa Italia tra Napoli e Fiorentina dopo un agguato da parte di ultrà della Roma a quelli del Napoli.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 2 – The anti-corruption investigation into the entire bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will be completed three days before the start of the World Cup – but it will take “approximately” another six weeks before the findings are submitted and probably even longer for any sanctions to be announced.
For three and a half years, ever since FIFA president Sepp Blatter opened the proverbial envelope and pronounced the word “Qatar” to a tense auditorium in Zurich and millions more following proceedings worldwide, hardly a week has gone by without the hosts of the 2022 World Cup being forced on the defensive amid a spate of corruption claims.
Time and again, just when they think the furore over their fourth round landslide victory in December 2010,