By Mark Baber
August 4 – Anjorin Moucharafou, hugely experienced football administrator, former president of the Benin Football Federation (FBF) and a current member of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) executive committee, has been imprisoned, along with Cécile Houssou, the former FBF accountant, accused of mismanagement of sponsorship funds.
By Mark Baber
August 4 – The Ghana Football Association (GFA) end-of season awards ceremony has been cancelled by the GFA due to the non-payment of sponsorship funds by Globacom (Glo), the League’s main sponsor, whose contract is currently due for renewal.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 4 – FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke has admitted there were “challenges and deficiencies” for his organisation at this summer’s Confederations Cup, marred by nationwide street protests, but insists that any mistakes made at the World Cup warm-up tournament helped concentrate the mind on how to prepare for the real thing next year.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 4 – Israeli and Palestinian leaders have hailed Barcelona’s “peace tour” to the region as a vitally symbolic breakthrough but the visit also highlighted the deep-rooted distrust as Palestinian FA boss Jibril Rajoub, not for the first time, denounced Israel’s conduct towards his country’s athletes.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 4 – FIFA’s top medical man has re-iterated there is no systematic doping in football following three reported cases of players testing positive this year in FIFA competitions.
By Alexander Krassimirov
August 4 – The new governing and executive body of Bulgarian clubs CSKA Sofia has kept its promise and revealed the monthly salaries of the team’s players and coaching staff. CSKA is the first club in Bulgaria to disclose the salaries of its employees to the public.
By Paul Nicholson
August 2 – FIFA has provisionally suspended investigations into former FIFA executive committee member Chuck Blazer until the end of 2013 at the latest. The decision, taken by chief of investigation Robert Torres, was made after Torres received written confirmation that Blazer will not be engaging in any football-related activities until at least 31 December 2013.
August 2 – The Italian football federation has banned Lazio captain Stefano Mauri (pictured) for six months for his part in the 2011 Italian match-fixing scandal.
August 2 – Wells Fargo has become the exclusive retail banking and commercial lending sponsor of MLS following a deal struck with MLS commercial rights agency Soccer United Marketing (SUM).
By Mark Baber
August 2 – Nike has extended its apparel sponsorship deal with the All India Football Federation (AIFF) till 2017 whilst the AIFF continues its moves towards the creation of an IMG-Reliance League to run separately to the I-League.
August 2 – The International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) has been accepted as a member of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) Consultative Committee.
By Mark Baber
August 2 – Italy’s first black government minister Cécile Kyenge has likened the racism she has received – she recently had bananas thrown at her – to the racism that Mario Balotelli has received, saying that “a multi-ethnic nation is both inevitable and natural.”
By Andrew Warshaw
August 2 – Russia’s deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozon (pictured) has issued a veiled attack on the decision by the country’s national airline Aeroflot to sponsor Manchester United rather than pour funds instead into domestic sport.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
August 2 – The FIFA-appointed expert who first cautioned about the dangers of taking the 2022 World Cup to Qatar says he made it abundantly clear that playing in the tiny Gulf state would be too hazardous – but was ignored by the majority of voting members.
If you’re a coach that recently delivered your country’s first Africa Cup of Nations trophy in nearly 20 years and also happen to be the only living player in the continent with the distinction of captaining your country to the same title, you would think that the least that could be expected is the prompt payment of your wages.
But that is not the case for Stephen Keshi.
The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) has failed to pay his salary for nearly half a year –