By Paul Nicholson in Miami
May 2 – The unveiling of the Copa America centennial tournament to be played in the US and hosted by CONCACAF June 3 to June 26, plants a huge new football tournament right in the middle of what is already a packed sporting calendar with UEFA’s 2016 European Championships in France and the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 2 -FIFA presidential candidate Jerome Champagne says 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar should be recognised as “innocent unless proved guilty” by the ongoing investigation into the 2018 and 2022 voting process being led by FIFA’s chief investigator Michael Garcia.
By Mark Baber
May 2 – Whilst UK bookmaker Ladbrokes have been laying the foundations for the World Cup the company says that despite a 34% year-on-year increase in football staking, their first quarter profits have been hit by a winning streak by favorites in football matches, leading to big pay outs on accumulator bets.
May 2 – In one of the most severe punishments ever handed out to backup coaching staff in top-flight English football, Rui Faria, assistant to Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, has been has been slapped with a six-match stadium ban for an altercation with officials during a recent Premier League game with Sunderland.
May 2 – In a blow to the development of Asian football, the launch of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) Super League could be delayed until 2016 because of administrative issues.
One match, or even two never define a season, let alone a trend although it is tempting to draw sweeping conclusions from the way the Champions League semi-finals have panned out. Two Spanish clubs in the Champions League final, and that from one city, Madrid, must surely mark a very dramatic shift from the German domination of the League. After all it was only last year we had an all German final. And Bayern Munich was seen as the team that defined everything that was strong and worth emulating in European football.
By Paul Nicholson in Miami
May 2 – The invitation promised history and the event delivered it. North American and Caribbean confederation CONCACAF and South American confederation CONMEBOL announced that the centennial edition of the world’s oldest international football tournament, the Copa America, will be played in the US in 2016.
May 1 – Traffic has renewed its CONCACAF representation deal through to 2021, acquiring sponsorship rights to all the confederation’s properties.
Imagine the scene on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Shouting and panic, white papers being waved in the air, frantic conversations into cellphones and one lone trader desperately trying to discover the route of the pandemonium.
“What’s the Pwanic?”
“It’s Mwoyes,” says the Wolf of Wall Street, “he’s gahn.”
“Omg get me a cwarfee. Dis is BIG!’
By Mark Baber
May 1 – King Abdullah Football Stadium, the new national stadium of Saudi Arabia which will be home to Jeddah’s two Premier League clubs, Al-Ittihad FC and Al-Ahli SC officially opens today with an inauguration ceremony and the hosting of the final of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Cup.
By Tom Parsons
May 1 – Football statistics website whoscored.com has signed an exclusive deal with SkySports to share their unique ‘player characteristics’ on the SkySports website.
May 1 – The Champions League Final in Lisbon later this month will be the first featuring two clubs from the same city after Atletico Madrid joined Real Madrid in the showpiece climax to the European club season.
How much more ugly can the divisions within Asian football become? In a couple of weeks’ time, Jordan stages the latest Soccerex football business conference for the game’s movers and shakers but it does so against the backdrop of festering resentment and unsavoury internecine warfare.
The recent decision by FIFA vice-president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, head of Jordanian football, to issue an open letter to the entire Asian football membership denouncing Asian Football Confederation chief Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa for trying to mastermind his downfall by playing politics took most observers totally by surprise.
May 1 – Thousands of fans could struggle to use the internet at half of the stadiums during this summer’s World Cup, a top government official has admitted, the latest headache in a sea of worry as Brazil readies for the world’s biggest sporting event.
By Richard van Poortvliet
May 1 – Russia’s Minister for Sport, Vitaly Mutko, in his promotion of the bid for hosting Euro 2020 matches, said that “EURO 2020 will be a continuation of the 2018 World Cup.”