October 7 – Mario Balotelli, at only 23, is now the 19th most powerful person in world football with fellow players Messi (14th) and recently retired Beckham (8th), according to a list of ‘Football’s 20 Most Influential People’.
By Mark Baber
October 7 – Annual accounts for 2012 filed by Footwork Productions show David Beckham received a £14.1 million pay package as director of the company set up to handle much of the former Manchester United, Real Madrid, Milan, LA Galaxy, Paris Saint-Germain and England star’s sponsorship and image rights income.
October 7 – Lazio captain Stefano Mauri has had his ban for failing to report match-fixing increased to nine months after losing an appeal against the original six-month suspension, effectively ruling him out for the rest of the season.
By David Owen
October 7 – High-profile matches at next year’s World Cup tournament in Brazil may effectively be played over four periods rather than two, following FIFA’s endorsement of additional “cooling” breaks to protect the health of players.
By David Owen
October 7 – Clubs which supply squad members for teams qualifying for the 2014 World Cup can look forward to receiving about $2,800 a day for each player selected. The figure represents a substantial increase from the $1,600 per player per day paid by FIFA after the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
By David Owen
October 7 – FIFA President Joseph Blatter is aiming to join forces with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to urge the Brazilian Government to do its utmost to ensure the country’s new doping control facility is operational, and duly accredited, before next year’s World Cup, insideworldfootball has learnt.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent, in Zurich
October 4 – Sepp Blatter admitted today he “took responsibility” for the Qatar 2022 World Cup winter-summer debacle – but left open a key number of questions, not least the eventual rescheduling of the tournament. Announcing, as expected, that a commission involving all the game’s stakeholders would be set up to try and find a way through a myriad of complexities, the FIFA president was in typically canny mood.
By Mark Baber
October 4 – The Russian Foreign Ministry commented on Thursday evening on the possible entry into Russia of Michael Garcia, confirming that the head of the FIFA ethics committee was not welcome.
October 4 – With a week to go before the end of the first phase of ticket sales for the 2014 World Cup, over 4.5 million tickets have been requested for the 64 matches.
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
October 4 – No decision on switching the 2022 Qatar World Cup to winter will be made until next year’s World Cup finals in Brazil, at the earliest, Insideworldfootball has learnt. As FIFA’s eagerly awaited two-day executive meetings in Zurich wound up, as anticipated, an agreement was reached to set up a commission to examine the issues of moving the 2022 World Cup date away from the heat of the Qatar summer.
By Mark Baber
October 4 – Head of Iran’s Football Federation (IFF), Ali Kaffashian said on Thursday that the US football federation has welcomed the prospect of a friendly football match between Iranian and US national teams.
By Paul Nicholson
October 4 – Leyton Orient owner Barry Hearn (pictured)may have lost his £750,000 legal battle to allow the club to ground share London’s Olympic Stadium with Premier League club West Ham United, but he hasn’t given up hope and he could be handed a lifeline by the EC.
By Paul Nicholson
October 4 – FIFA has suspended sanctions against Ukraine and Peru for their upcoming World Cup Qualifying matches in October.
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
October 4 – With the hype of the Qatar ‘winter or summer’ debate reaching fever pitch amongst the world’s media, providing a feast of guesswork and mis-interpretation, Qatar 2022 chief Hassan Al Thawadi has re-iterated once again that his country’s intensive lobbying campaign to secure the tournament was totally above board and broke none of FIFA’s strict bidding rules.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 3 – Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organisers have re-iterated their pledge that they are prepared to host the tournament any time FIFA requires and remain committed to their revolutionary air-cooling technology.