Inside World Football - Page 1807 of 2202 - For the Business of Football

Andrew Warshaw: Forget the legals, it’s staying put, but May change?

Ever since FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s exclusive interview with this website explaining his preference for switching the 2022 Qatar World Cup to winter, time has hardly stopped still over the issue.

Everyone, it seems, is having their say and whilst many stakeholders have expressed intelligent, sensible, well-argued points, many other so-called experts have been jumping on the bandwagon for no other reason than to cynically question Qatar’s right to host the event.

Let’s make a few things clear,

Archive

Gazprom signs 4-year deal as official FIFA partner

Vladimir Putin and Sepp Blatter

By Mark Baber
September 16 – Russian state-controlled natural gas company Gazprom has officially became a FIFA partner at a ceremony on Saturday at the Black Sea resort of Sochi attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, FIFA President Sepp Blatter and Gazprom chief executive Aleksei Miller.

Archive

Gulati calls for more information before any 2022 decision is taken

Sunil Gulati

By Andrew Warshaw
September 16 – The United States’ most influential football administrator says he will try to block any move by FIFA to switch the Qatar 2022 World Cup to winter. Sunil Gulati, whose country was unexpectedly beaten by the tiny Gulf state to stage the tournament when the vote was taken three years ago, says he will oppose any attempt by FIFA’s executive committee to change the dates of the tournament when it meets on October 3 and 4.

Archive

‘Protected’ Perumal suspected as Australian police arrest 10 for match-fixing

Chris Eaton 2

By Andrew Warshaw
September 16 – Football’s most notorious match-fixer is believed to have played a prominent role in Australia’s biggest scandal of its kind where police arrested 10 people at the weekend.

Archive

Hillsborough investigation could bring manslaughter charges

Hillsborough Justice

By Andrew Warshaw
September 13 – The new criminal investigation into the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster, in which 96 fans died, could lead to manslaughter charges, according to the head of the inquiry.

Archive

Seattle Sounders flying high with Xbox and Delta

Seattle Sounders

By Mark Baber
September 13 – Seattle Sounders, who have reportedly sold 52,000 tickets for today’s MLS game against Real Salt Lake, have signed a new deal with Delta Airlines as well as extending their partnership with Xbox for another year.

Archive

Clubs drop ticket prices to keep fans, but Spurs still costs double Man City

Tickets

By Mark Baber
September 13 – A survey of clubs has found average ticket prices across English football’s top four divisions have fallen by up to 2.4%. There remains a large differential between clubs, with Tottenham fans paying a minimum of £49.26 per match for a season ticket, programme, pie and tea – compared to just £24.34 for a Manchester City fan.

Archive

Webb’s task force finds its feet in battle of ‘human kind’

Jeffrey webb 4

By Andrew Warshaw
September 13 – FIFA’s recently established anti-discrimination Task Force will not get involved in the furore over 2018 World Cup host Russia’s controversial so-called anti-gay legislation. The task force, meeting in Zurich yesterday, has identified a series of key priorities including allocation of resources, a best practice manual and identification of high risk games.

Archive

CSKA reject €40m ISF cash offer to build new stadium

cska

By Alexander Krassimirov
September 13 – Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia has turned down a €40 million investment offer for a new stadium from German company ISF, CSKA rejected the deal after failing to agree to conditions that included handing over the stadium to ISF to maintain and operate, shared use of the stadium with another club and the Bulgarian national team.

Archive

Czech and Slovak players arrested in swoop on match-fixers

match fixing2

By Andrew Warshaw
September 13 – The scourge of match-fixing throughout European football has now hit the Czech Republic and neighbouring Slovakia with 19 current and former players charged, and 20 others summoned for questioning over links to illegal betting dens in Asia.

Archive

Inside Insight: That twisted thing

By Paul Nicholson, Editor-in-chief, Insideworldfootball

Disappointing habits are alive and well – actually thriving across all media. Insideworldfootball’s big scoop on Monday set the agenda for the day and a couple of days after – we’re proud of that and stand by every word of the interview as it was printed.

But let’s get this straight from the start. At no point did FIFA’s president ever say that awarding the World Cup to Qatar was a mistake.

Africa

Cape Verde dropped from 2014 play-offs for fielding banned player

FernandoVarela

By Andrew Warshaw
September 13 – Cape Verde’s World Cup dream has been turned into the ultimate nightmare after the unheralded African country had its hopes of qualifying for the finals for the first time dashed for fielding an ineligible player.

Archive

Newcastle academics call for restrictions on booze ads at football

we want beer

By Mark Baber
September 12 – Academics at Newcastle University say that the government should consider restricting alcohol marketing during televised football matches, “after studying a selection of games and finding they were ‘bombarded’ by references [sic] to drink.”

Archive

Azerbaijan joins the race for Euros 2020 hosting with new Baku venue

Baku Olympic Stadium

By Paul Nicholson
September 12 – Azerbaijan have added their name to the list of European nations bidding to host matches at the Euro 2020 tournament, putting forward Baku and the new Olympic stadium currently under construction as their venue.

Lee Wellings

Lee Wellings: Give Moyes some Fergie time

Manchester United fans won’t want to hear it, and David Moyes certainly won’t be thinking it…but it might be best for them to write this season off. Give him time.

If they win a big trophy of any description it will be a huge bonus.

This is no ordinary club and Moyes is no short term solution. He has been put in a desperately difficult situation which short term will be a nightmare,