May 24 – Mauritius, host to next week’s gathering of the world’s football federations for the 63rd FIFA Congress, will kick proceedings off with the opening of a new facility and the renaming of an older one.
By Paul Nicholson
May 24 – Manchester United will cut their interest payments by £10 million a year under a new loan secured with the Bank of America at lower interest rates.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 24 – Dan Tan, the elusive and notorious Singaporean who is on almost every list of wanted match-fixers, has been charged over an international conspiracy stretching back four years, along with 44 Hungarians.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
May 23 – David Gill, who recently stepped down as Manchester United’s chief executive, looks certain to become English football’s most influential voice in Europe when he is elected to the executive committee of UEFA on Friday.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
May 23 – UEFA’s unprecedented crackdown on racism – involving 10-match bans and stadium closures – will kick in on June 1, while blood tests are to be routinely conducted across all UEFA competitions from next season.
In the next few days we shall hear much about how the all German Champions League Final on Saturday is a game changer. True, the way Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund destroyed Real Madrid and Barcelona suggested a dramatic shift in power from Spain to Germany. But such conclusions, while both common and tempting immediately after the whistle has blown, rarely stand up to more considered scrutiny.
If a couple of matches can produce such dramatic football changes then why did the Manchester United-Chelsea final in Moscow in 2008 not leave an imprint on the game?
‘New York , New York so good they named it twice’.
I’m pretty sure singer-songwriter Gerard Kenny wasn’t referring to soccer when he delivered this hit record in 1978, but suddenly the game will be all over the city.
New York WILL be named twice in the MLS have when the New York City FC franchise join the Red Bulls in 2015. The Red Bulls actually play in New Jersey but remember also the famous old New York Cosmos are about to re-emerge in the second tier of American football……
By Mark Baber
May 23 – The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) has this morning decided to postpone its 7th VFF Congress scheduled for June 5, with a new date to be set at a meeting of the Executive Board on June 11.
By Mark Baber
May 23 – The Greek Football Federation has decided not to issue licenses to eight clubs including AEK Athens, Aris Thessaloniki, Panathinaikos, PAS Giannina, OFI, Kerkyra, Panionios and Panthrakikos. The decision was taken yesterday after a two day meeting examining the records of the Greek Super League.
By Paul Nicholson
May 23 – The difference between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ in English football was emphasised again by the release by the Premier League of their broadcast payments to clubs for the 2012/13 season just finished. Even within the Premier League, the payments to clubs show a huge gap with Manchester United at the top earning 34% more than bottom placed QPR.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 23 – Malaysian football authorities have pledged to investigate new claims of match-fixing and have urged police to protect players amid death threats from bookies, according to local reports.
EXCLUSIVE: By Andrew Warshaw
May 23 – Turkish Cypriot football officials insist that a landmark agreement aimed at unifying football on the politically divided island is not dead in the water and that a further meeting with the Greek side will be held next month.
Yes, OK, this is the German renaissance – and the juxtaposition of Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich in Saturday’s European Cup final certainly indicates that German football is doing something right.
But, in one small detail, the match is a notable coup for the English game: it is being played at Wembley, the second time in just three years that European club football’s flagship occasion has been staged underneath the now famous arch.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
May 22 – German football supremo Christian Seifert today added his voice to the clamour against the 2022 World Cup taking place in Qatar’s scorching summer heat – but warned that switching it to winter could end up in the courts.
By Paul Nicholson
May 22 – Former CONCACAF president Jack Warner has hit back at the confederation’s Integrity Committee report that blackened his name even further following the cash for votes scandal that lead to his resignation from the sport in 2011.