Inside World Football - Page 1807 of 2159 - For the Business of Football

Lee Wellings: Benitez could be a great coup for Napoli

Have Napoli just landed themselves the best manager in world football?

It would be a quite a coup for a club that isn’t amongst Europe’s elite – I think it’s time to consider the evidence in favour of Rafa Benitez being, well, the true special one.

The only thing he has in common with the great Napoli hero Diego Maradona has been a comedy beard, but he might be the best chance the club has had of real success since the Argentinian legend inspired them to glory in Serie A and the UEFA Cup in the late 1980s.

Archive

Emirates adds Real Madrid to roster of leading clubs across Europe

emirates and real madrid

By Gareth Messenger
May 30 – It’s official, Emirates Airline has confirmed a four-year sponsorship deal with Spanish club Real Madrid believed to be in the region of around €120 million.

Archive

Sticky Toffee puddings! Twitter storm forces Everton u-turn on club crest

Everton logos

By Tom Parsons
May 29 – Everton fans caused a twitter storm over the club’s proposed new club badege with 20,000 people signing a petition against the change. The club moved quickly to apologise and reverse the decision.

Archive

Blatter promises more support for Palestinians in fight for football equality

Palestinian fans

By Andrew Warshaw in Mauritius
May 30 – The head of the Palestinian football federation says the harsh treatment of his country’s players and officials by Israel is showing no sign of receding despite the best efforts of FIFA President Sepp Blatter.

Archive

Crisis over, Fonte Nova Arena roof failure was human error, the show will go on

Fonte Nova Arena

May 29 – The roof failure during heavy rain on Monday at the Fonte Nova Arena was down to “human error” according to a statement by engineering director José Luis Goes, of the Fonte Nova Participacoes (FNP) group, which manages the stadium.

Archive

Iran accuses UAE of racism in renaming Pro League to the Arabian Gulf League

By Mark Baber
May 29 – A row has broken out between the football authorities of the UAE and Iran after the announcement that the UAE Pro League will be renamed the Arabian Gulf League from next season.

Archive

Qatar hires consultants to advise on 2022 stadia business planning

Qatar stadium

May 29 – The Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee has appointed Amsterdam Arena and IMG as the Stadium Operations Consultants for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar.

Archive

UEFA isolated at FIFA’s top table over age and term reforms

Blatter and Platini

Exclusive: by Andrew Warshaw in Mauritius
May 29 – The full extent of the split between Europe and the rest of FIFA – and potentially between Sepp Blatter and his possible successor Michel Platini – over the much-touted reform process has been underlined with the revelation that UEFA were officially outvoted over the decision to postpone age and term limits for senior officials for another 12 months.

Archive

FIFA’s top auditor blasts Warner and Blazer and warns of criminal charges

Domenico Scala

By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent, in Mauritius
May 29 – The official charged with enforcing proper financial controls at FIFA after a spate of corruption scandals has launched an astonishing attack on Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer, the disgraced duo who led CONCACAF for the best part of a generation.

Archive

Mauritius update: Portugal and Columbia win bids, Figueredo takes charge of 2014

FIFA signage

May 29 – FIFA’s executive committee may have been split on the reform package they are to put to Friday’s Congress vote, but they did find concensus on other matters, including the awarding of tournament hosts, shortlisting of tournament bids and an update on next year’s World Cup.

Archive

Webb’s anti-racism task force gets tough with sanction demands

Jeffrey Webb 3

By Andrew Warshaw, in Mauritius
May 29 – The man leading the global fight to wipe racism out of football has confirmed that players and officials face five-match bans and that clubs and national teams face points deductions, stadium closures, relegation and being thrown out of competitions if found guilty of abuse.

Archive

FIFA splits cause age limits and term of office to be dropped from reform vote

Sepp Blatter 5

By Andrew Warshaw, chief correpondent, in Mauritius
May 29 – Sepp Blatter’s personal crusade to clean up FIFA after years of scandal and corruption has taken a massive hit with the news that age restrictions and term of office limits for FIFA officials – viewed as a key part of the two-year road map to reform – have been dropped from the agenda at Friday’s annual congress.

Rolf Willi

I didn’t think they would really do it

Archive

Al Hilal Bank signs on for fifth year of UAE’s Presidents Cup

May 28 – Al Hilal Bank, the Abu Dhabi bank, has renewed its sponsorship of the UAE’s premier club tournament, the UAE President’s Cup, for a fifth year. The other major sponsors are Etisalat and the Abu Dhabi Sports Channel.

Archive

Qatar’s Barwa denies it plans $5.5 billion island to house World Cup fans

Oryx Island Gulf Resort

By Mark Baber
May 28 – Qatar’s Barwa Real Estate Group has denied its proposed Oryx Island & Gulf Resort projects, widely reported as planned to house World Cup fans, are in any way related to projects for the 2022 World Cup.