Inside Insight: No Swiss at the World Cup – really?
February 9, 2014 is a day to remember in many more ways than one.
It is not an earthquake that hit something somewhere. It is not a flood that engulfed English villages (although that happened too) and it is not some major lottery win that would have astounded folks around Europe (although that also happened).
February 9, 2014, is a day of shame (for 49.7% of the voting public) or indeed a day of glorious victory (for the slim majority of the voters,
Man City gets go-ahead to boost Etihad capacity by 14,000
February 17 – Manchester City’s status as one of the new elite of European football has been further enhanced by plans to increase the capacity of their Etihad stadium from 48,000 to over 62,000.
Herzog spearheads the European front of a US Soccer revolution
By Paul Nicholson
February 17 – The US men’s national team may face the ‘group of death’ in Brazil at the World Cup finals – Germany, Portugal and Ghana are their opponents – but it is very much alive and kicking as preparations for the Finals start to take shape with one eye also firmly fixed on the future.
Curitiba stadium deadline looms as teams gather for pre-finals logistics briefing
By Andrew Warshaw
February 17 – Twenty-four hours before the FIFA-imposed deadline for Curitiba’s World Cup stadium to meet completion requirements, tension is growing as to what, if any, contingency plans are in place for ditching the venue which is due to stage four group games.
Gazprom still in the frame at Levski as supporters launch trust
By Alexander Krassimirov
February 17 – Levski Sofia owner Todor Batkov (pictured) says that the Russian energy giant Gazprom is still an option for the main sponsorship of the club. The Russian company has frequently been named in connection with the Bulgarian cub for almost for two years, but there has been no firm developments to date.
Blatter says whistle-happy refs need to balance spirit with letter of law
February 17 – The controversial “triple punishment” of penalty, sending-off and suspension for offences that prevent a goalscoring opportunity could be eased if referees used more intuition and sensitivity, according to FIFA president Sepp Blatter.
Moldovan match-fixer targeting U17 women gets life ban
February 17 – A Moldovan sports official has been banned for life for trying to bribe the coach of the country’s women’s under-17 team to fix an international match.
Mihir Bose: Sochi and the lessons Brazil can learn
On the face of it a winter Games should hold no lessons for a summer football World cup. Yet Sochi 2014 does have lessons for Brazil 2014 and it would be unwise of the Brazilians to ignore what is taking place along the Black Sea.
Brazil it must be said starts with an advantage that Sochi could never have had. For anyone interested in football Brazil is the home of football. England may have invented the game and framed the rules but Brazil,
Legia Warsaw eyes legal fireworks display to beat ban and sanctions
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
February 14 – After being hit by several heavy fines for its fans’ behaviour at home and away matches last year, Legia Warsaw has announced plans to organise the first legal fireworks display at its stadium. Legia’s management aims to overcome the fireworks ban which has led to sanctions and subsequent financial losses for numerous Polish football clubs.
Andrew Warshaw: Qatar needs time to clean up its act
Amid the often emotional rhetoric and highly-charged language used by human rights and trade union leaders at this week’s European Parliament session denouncing Qatar’s treatment of migrant workers were the usual trademark demands for the country to be stripped as 2022 World Cup hosts.
This is not being an apologist for some of the Gulf state’s notoriously archaic and antiquated laws. I, as much as anyone, believe that Qatar needs to rid itself of the totally unacceptable kafala employment system that has no place in the modern era and which French-Algerian footballer Zahir Belounis so movingly brought to the attention of fans worldwide.
The end of the line or the start of a proper football journey?
By Paul Nicholson
February 14 – “Barrow’s Holker Street ground is no more. It is now the Furness Building Society Stadium, Wilkie Road. But on emerging through the turnstiles on to the terraces, it is difficult to see what substantive changes the Furness Building Society have actually made, beyond financing a new mundane rectangular administrative block at one end of the ground, from which the teams later came out,” writes Steve Leach,
Zwanziger says Garcia’s World Cup bidding ethics report will be released this year
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
February 14 – The eagerly awaited report into whether any of the contenders for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were involved in corruption and broke bidding rules is expected to be released later this year according to a senior FIFA official.
Palestinians to demand FIFA expels Israel and say they have support
February 14 – Jibril Rajoub, chairman of the Palestinian Football Association, has said they will seek the expulsion of Israel from FIFA at the next FIFA Congress, and that he has the support of other Arab and North African nations.
‘No, no, no’, stadium will be ready and Curitiba will be a 2014 World Cup host
February 14 – FIFA and local officials have dismissed reports that contingency plans are being made to move World Cup matches away from Curitiba if authorities there fail to meet a February 18 deadline for completing the stadium.