Racial tensions bubble amongst fans over the LA ‘SuperClasico’
June 11 – Allegations have been made by supporters of Chivas USA that they were subjected to racist abuse by LA Galaxy fans during their MLS game last week.
Last minute Thai court ruling in favour of pay tv for World Cup broadcasts
By Mark Baber
June 11 – Thailand’s Supreme Administrative Court, this morning, ruled in favour of RS Plc, a pay tv broadcast rights holder for the tournament, in a legal dispute with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC).
EPFL launches web-based transfer deadline day tracker
June 11 – The European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) website has launched a live transfer-window countdown for all of its member leagues. Each league has its own countdown bar, detailing the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the window ceremoniously slams shut.
Webb tells CONCACAF congress solid foundations are now in place to build on
By Andrew Warshaw in Sao Paulo
June 11 – CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb pledged to never to return to the confederation’s corruption-tainted past. In a dignified yet passionate address to the region’s 41 member nations at the CONCACAF congress here, Webb told delegates there would be no letup in maintaining the transparency showed in his two years in charge.
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,
After a triumphant march, Blatter stumbles on a Europe in rare union
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.
Facebook claims football’s ‘largest stadium’ in social media battlespace
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: 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,
FIFA 15 to further blur the boundaries between the real and virtual worlds
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.
Exclusive: Ex FIFA GenSec points to serious ethics violation by bidder
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.
Czech top tier to split from national football association
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.
‘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
FIFA’s ‘age and term’ debate rumbles on with no end in sight
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.
Shaikh Salman flexes his political muscle to brush aside 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.
Blatter breathes fire as he fiercely defends FIFA and its members
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.