By Andrew Warshaw
March 21 – Belo Horizonte officials say their stadium will be 100% ready for the World Cup this summer and have played down a recent leak in the roof just hours before a regional game.
By Alexander Krassimirov
March 21 – CSKA Sofia supporters were sent into a scrambling frenzy after the official release of the club on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. Fans bought more than 55,000 shares in less than an hour after they went on sale this morning.
March 21 – Adidas have agreed to supply the kit for debutants Bosnia and Herzegovina at this year’s World Cup finals, meaning it will sponsor nine of the 32 teams taking part.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 21 – The debate over staging the 2022 World Cup in Qatar has been stoked again by hard-hitting remarks in the United States from MLS Commissioner Don Garber who championed the ability of his own country to take the job on.
By Alexander Krassimirov
March 21 – Levski Sofia owner Todor Batkov (pictured) has stopped player wages until the end of the season. The lawyer was furious at the club’s elimination from the Cup of Bulgaria, which means that Levski will remain without any trophy in its jubilee season.
Do I think Qatar was awarded the World Cup fairly? I don’t know for sure. But nor do you.
If you happen not to have read any opinion on Qatar 2022 this week let me help you out with an example, from my country.
“It’s a scorchingly hot Islamic desert hellhole which routinely employs slave labour and has the kind of respect for human rights you might expect from, say, Darth Vader.”
By Mark Baber
March 20 – Pressure from politicians, who wish to use football as a political lever to punish Russia, is putting football authorities’ political independence to the test in the wake of the toppling of Ukraine’s President and government, and the accession of Crimea and Sevastopol to the Russian Federation.
By Alexander Krassimirov
March 20 – Bulgaria’s Levski Sofia, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, is switching its kit sponsor from Germanys Puma to Spain’s Joma for the start of its centenary season.
By Richard van Poortvliet
March 20 – Despite their excellent 2-1 win at Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday, Zenit St Petersburg are likely to be in hot water with UEFA once again, following the behaviour of their fans in the second leg of their Champions League Round of 16 tie in Germany.
By Richard van Poortvliet
March 20 – Legally or illegally, the biggest country in the world has just got a little bigger, with Crimea set to become part of the Russian Federation. While a lot has been made of the political ramifications, spare a thought for two football clubs from the peninsula, who ply their trade in the Ukrainian Premier League.
March 20 – FIFA is being urged by Amnesty International not to downplay the mistreatment of construction workers’ on Qatar’s 2022 World Cup sites when football’s world governing body hears an update on the issue at its executive committee meeting today and tomorrow.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 20 – The international players’ union FIFPro has again called on FIFA to reform the international transfer system which, it says, is failing the game and badly need to be addressed.
March 20 – Australian-born Croatian international Josip Simunic will definitely miss the World Cup after losing his appeal against a 10-match ban imposed by FIFA for discriminatory behaviour.
March 19 – The takeover of iconic English club Leeds United by controversial Italian entrepreneur Massimo Cellino has still not been approved with fans now braced for a period of uncertainty.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 19 – A key meeting of FIFA’s executive committee (exco) opens on Thursday with the latest on Brazil’s troubled World Cup preparations high on the agenda along with the thorny issues of Israeli-Palestine relations and workers’ rights in Qatar.