By Andrew Warshaw
July 29 – The domestic election crisis that is understood to have prevented acting Thai football federation (FAT) president and FIFA executive committee member Worawi Makudi from attending the recent Asian Football Confederation executive meeting has taken yet another twist.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 29 – Torino’s Belgian international goalkeeper Jean Francois Gillet (pictured) has failed with his appeal against a 43-month match-fixing ban imposed by the Italian football federation (FIGC).
By Andrew Warshaw
July 27 – United States head coach Jurgen Klinsmann has been banned from Sunday’s Gold Cup final against Panama, CONCACAF’s showpiece fixture, after being sent off in the semifinal for dissent. The former German international striker, who managed his country at the 2006 World Cup, was dismissed in the 87th-minute of Wednesday’s 3-1 semifinal win over Honduras and incurred a one-match ban.
By Mark Baber
July 26 – In November last year, the Chief Executive Officer of Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment, Norbert Teufelberger (pictured), was arrested by Belgian authorities at the airport after he attended a business conference. On Thursday, his company become the online gaming and betting partner of Belgium’s most successful club and current Pro League champions RSC Anderlecht.
July 26 – Football may not be considered to have a drugs problem but in the same week as track and field was embroiled in a fresh doping scandal, it has been revealed that a Jamaican player failed a test following a World Cup qualifier against Honduras on June 11.
By Mark Baber
July 26 – With English Premier League clubs in Hong Kong for its pre-season Asia Cup, Hong Kong Football Association chairman Brian Leung Hung-tak appealed to local authorities to relax betting rules to allow more top-quality matches into the market and boost the game in the country.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 26 – Kenya are the latest African country to come under the spotlight for alleged footballing corruption over allegations that several hundred thousand dollars, part of it a donation from FIFA, have gone missing. The country’s Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has received information about the alleged misappropriation of up to $410,000 by the Kenyan FA (FKA), according to the EACC’s public relation chief Yasin Ayila.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 26 – FIFA vice-president Worawi Makudi, embroiled in an internal dispute in his native Thailand, was forced to miss last week’s Asian Football Confederation summit in Bahrain citing unexplained other commitments, Insideworldfootball has learned.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 26 – Senegalese striker Papiss Cisse has patched up his differences with Newcastle United and has now agreed to wear the club’s Wonga logo despite his religious beliefs.
When Lord Palmerston, the 19th century British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, made the oft-quoted comment that there are no “permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests”, in the cold-blooded pursuit of agendas, he certainly wasn’t thinking about the South African Football Association (SAFA).
But he jolly well could have been.
With barely eight weeks to the election of SAFA’s president and executive committee on September 28, the impending polls have reawakened old enmities,
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
July 25 – Growing calls for switching the Qatar World Cup to winter – now led by FIFA president Sepp Blatter – have taken a dramatic new twist with Germany’s top FIFA official declaring it was a “blatant mistake” to award to the 2022 tournament to the Gulf state in the first place.
By David Owen
July 25 – The origins of one of football’s most emotive and universal concepts are to be celebrated in a small town in north Derbyshire, not far from Sheffield, on Saturday.
Who’s going to win the Champions League this year?
Bayern? Barca? One of the newly rich clubs – a PSG or Manchester City?
Maybe an EPL club – Chelsea? Manchester United?
Or what about one of the teams who came through the second round this week.
By Mark Baber
July 25 – Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia and the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) have agreed a S$1.8 million ($1.4 million) sponsorship deal, including the cost of flights for the under-21, under-23 and senior national teams, as well as the National Football Academy’s age-group teams and women’s teams.
By Mark Baber
July 25 – South African Football Association (SAFA) vice-president and respected anti-apartheid activist Dr Danny Jordaan has been appointed to serve as advisor to Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Issa Hayatou.