How much would you pay to see Real Madrid play your local team?
And I mean Real Madrid, not Real Madrid’s third team, or youth team?
There has been a great deal of debate, as well as excitement, about the confirmation that the first team will come to play Bournemouth, a club on the English south coast who have reached the Championship, one below the Premier League, for the first time in 23 years.
By Mark Baber
July 4 – FIFA have re-imposed its ban on Iraq hosting international friendlies following a surge in violence, including bombings aimed directly at players and fans. FIFA notified the Iraqi Football Association (IFA), citing over 2,500 deaths in violence from April through June and at least 123 people killed in the first three days of July.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 4 – English Championship club Bournemouth, not so many years ago on the verge of extinction, have managed to pull off a remarkable coup by persuading Real Madrid to visit their modest south-coast home for a prestigious pre-season exhibition game on 21 July.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 4 – The battle for brand supremacy in Asia has been stepped up with Manchester City announcing they have struck a two-year regional deal with Thailand’s fast-growing est Cola company which will become the Abu Dhabi-owned club’s official soft drinks partner in the country.
July 4 – The growing desirability and influence of sports statistics has been underlined by the Perform digital media group agreeing to buy Opta Sports Data for over £40 million ($60 million). The deal is conditional on a successful £120m fundraising. Opta offers statistical information and player performance data from football leagues in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands to media clients and clubs themselves.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 4 – Controversial Fifa executive committee member Worawo Makudi (pictured) continues to cling to power as boss of Thai football despite growing demands for fresh presidential elections which he, so far, has refused to implement. Thailand avoided being thrown out of world football by FIFA last month after a tiny fourth-tier club agreed to withdrew a lawsuit that threatened to stop the Thai FA (FAT) from holding elections.
July 3 – Deutsche Bank have struck a one-year deal with Italian giants Internazionale to become one of the club’s leading sponsors in a partnership which will see the financial service provider become the club’s official bank.
By Mark Baber
July 3 – adidas is to Bayern, as the Oktoberfest is to Munich, whilst Nike are adidas’ main competitor in the global soccer apparel market, having consolidated that position with the sponsorship of the England, French and Brazilian national sides. So adidas officials were not amused when, at the official unveiling of his new adidas Bayern Munich shirt in Munich, Bayern’s new 37-million-euro man, Mario Götze wore a T-Shirt featuring a giant Nike Swoosh logo.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 3 – South Korea and Iran, whose recent spat made headlines throughout Asian football, have agreed to bury their differences and sign a symbolic sporting exchange agreement barely two weeks after a war of words ahead of and following their crucial 2014 World Cup qualifier which ended in ugly scenes of chaos when the Iranian players were pelted with bottles of water from the stands.
By David Owen at the Beaulieu conference centre in Lausanne
July 3 – Neither Sepp Blatter, FIFA president, nor Issa Hayatou, the African football leader who is also an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member, are to attend this week’s extraordinary Session of the body behind the Olympic Games in Lausanne.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 4 – UEFA have given more details of their plans to introduce blood tests for players in their two main club competitions, first announced in May. Until now UEFA has only conducted blood tests at international tournaments – Euro 2008 and 2012 – but from this month the detection regime is to be extended to the Champions League and Europa League. Checks will be made during and out of competition and players may be asked at routine doping controls to give urine samples,
By Andrew Warshaw
July 3 – Despite not being needed for any contentious decisions during the Confederations Cup, GoalControl, the German goal-line technology system, looks like being employed at next year’s World Cup as planned.
The camera-based system was the last to throw its name into the hat for both tournaments after the International Football Association Board finally approved GLT last year. It was surprisingly selected ahead of Hawk-Eye and GoalRef,
Whilst amusing – even outrageous – events provide much-needed cannon fodder for writing interesting commentary, my unhappiness with the pervasive absence of astute management across the African game, whose administrators appear to be falling even further behind their global peers, often leaves me in a depressed mood.
And the ever unfolding diary of (mal)administration, in Cameroonian football, rudely reminds me that the continent’s leading nations continue to revel in their nasty old habits.
When back in 1992 Bill Clinton launched his campaign for the US Presidency his campaign team told the workers forget all the other slogans, remember: It is the economy, stupid.
Much the same can be said of the spat between FIFA and UEFA over the World Cup in Brazil. There can be little doubt that concern about protecting FIFA’s money lies at the heart of the attack on UEFA launched by Jerome Valcke,
July 2 – Italian football yesterday paid an emotional tribute to Stefano Borgonovo, who died last Thursday after a battle against ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) aged 49. His funeral in his home town of Guissano was attended by representatives from across the sport including his closest friend from his days at Fiorentina, Roberto Baggio, but also Paolo Maldini, Arrigo Sacchi, Juventus CEO Marotta and many well-known faces who formed part of the cheerful striker’s all-too-short life.