By Alexander Krassimirov
November 15 – Not all Bulgarian football stories are about owners at war, death threats to referees and violent fans forcing coaches to quit. The love of football by one Bulgarian fan has touched the hearts of the nation and his favourite club CSKA Sofia.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 15 – A leading United Nations official has called on Qatar 2022 World Cup organisers to use the tournament to improve the conditions of migrant workers. Qatar has the highest ratio of migrants to citizens in the world: nearly 88% of the total population are foreign workers, employed largely in construction, services and domestic work.
By Paul Nicholson
15 November – The Caribbean Football Union (CFU) and Major League Soccer (MLS) have signed a partnership agreement in Antigua that will showcase young Caribbean football talent to the MLS and give the players the opportunity to progress towards professional football in the US. “This provides an opportunity to get our best young players on to the professional ladder. It is the start of an initiative to develop the standard of football across the region,”
November 15 – Former US national team player Mia Hamm became the first woman to be inducted into the World Football Hall of Fame in Pachuca, Mexico. Hamm played 275 times for the US over a 17-year career, scoring 158 goals – more than any other international players, male or female.
November 15 – English Championship club Derby County are to rename Pride Park the iPro Stadium in a 10-year sponsorship deal worth £7 million. A deal that the club maintain is the highest ‘independent’ deal (ie not involving ‘soft’ ownership sponsorship) outside the Premier League.
There is no question we should raise questions about how the football authorities are dealing with or, more accurately, failing to tackle the issue of race. But let us not forget that while skin colour remains a huge problem being a woman in the game is no easy task as Ebru Koksal, Board member of Galatasaray, knows all too well.
She was on the panel I chaired at the recent International Football Arena in Zurich,
November 14 – Manchester United’s latest major sponsor partner, Russian airline Aeroflot, have released a series of new aerial images of Old Trafford. The sponsor, who recently signed a 5-year deal taking them up to the World Cup in Russia in 2018, is gathering aerial film and photography content of fans and the stadium as part of its sponsorship activation.
What is the link between La Liga bottom club Real Betis, French strugglers Lyon, English FA Cup winners Wigan Athletic, now mid-table in the English Championship, and Eintracht Frankfurt, fourth from bottom in the Bundesliga?
Thursday nights. The Europa League.
The ugly little brother of the Champions league gets such bad press one sometimes feels reluctant to criticise it.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
November 14 – FIFA are distancing themselves from a suggestion by their leading financial scrutineer that Qatar could be stripped as 2022 World Cup hosts by the world governing body’s independent ethics committee if the Gulf state is found to have broken any bidding rules.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 14 – FIFA have been urged by football’s main players’ union FIFPro to come to the aid of a French-Algerian midfielder involved in a contract dispute in Qatar.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
November 14 – Poland’s Widzew Lodz has signed a sponsorship deal with local pharmaceutical company Aflofarm Farmacja. The logo of one of the drugs manufactured by the company, Braveran, will appear on its squad shirts.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 14 – Austria is the latest European country to be hit by the global match-fixing scourge with a former international reportedly detained after apparently attempting to blackmail SV Grodig defender Dominique Taboga into manipulating one of the country’s top-flight games.
November 14 – FIFA has fined both England and Poland for the crowd trouble that occurred at their decisive World Cup qualifying match at Wembley last month.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 14 – Uruguay and Mexico have all but booked their places in next year’s World Cup with thumping victories over rank outsiders Jordan and New Zealand respectively.
By Paul Nicholson
November 14 – German data giant SAP has increased its foothold in football and signalled an intention to grow its business in the sports area with an expansion of its relationship with the German Bundesliga football club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and the addition of German national team manager Oliver Bierhoff as a brand ambassador.