By Andrew Warshaw
May 3 – Almost forgotten amid the hullabaloo of Sheikh Salman’s Presidential victory was the appointment of three women to the executive committee of the Asian Football Confederation.
By Mark Baber
May 3 – Monaco are set to return to France’s Ligue 1 this weekend if they win against SM Caen. The club from the Principality has the financial resource to rival Paris Saint-Germain, thanks to their billionaire Russian owner, Dmitry Rybolovlev.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 3 – Twenty-four hours after being sworn in as the new leader of Asian football, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa followed up his election victory with a call to the warring factions to put an end to all the sniping and backbiting and come together for the common good. But festering resentment still remains.
April 3 – “I’m (insert club name) until I die” is a chant heard in many British football grounds most weekends. Now it appears more fans are holding the sentiment after their death. Former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly would likely approve.
By Mark Baber
May 3 – On the pitch, Manchester United won the 212-13 Premier League title with four games to spare. Off the pitch financial results for the three and nine month periods ended 31 March 2013, announced yesterday, which show record third quarter revenue of £91.7m, sponsorship revenue increasing by 52.2% and adjusted EBITDA increasing 22.5% to a third quarter record of £25m.
By Monica Villar
May 3 – The LFP are to investigate match-fixing allegations in the Spanish Primera match between Levante and Deportivo, played April 13 at the Ciutat de Valencia stadium. The match ended with Deportivo thrashing Levante 4-0.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
May 3 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter, with typically deliberate timing, has re-opened the prickly debate over World Cup slots by promoting Asia’s case for more representation.
Questions arise, and only the un-inducted don’t have answers. Why does football play such a central role in the world today? What is it that makes the wealthiest people in the world and the poorest sods alike flock to The Game religiously and cherish it beyond comprehension? What is it that makes football different, to the extent that pundits, writers and idiots alike make a living commenting about The Game, about those who own it,
By Tom Parsons
May 2 – The English Rugby Football Union has announced that eight football grounds will be used to host games at the 2015 Rugby World Cup. The tournament, predominately held in England, will be staged at 13 different venues around England and Wales during September and October 2015.
By Mark Baber
May 2 –Alisher Usmanov claims Arsenal’s majority shareholder Stan Kroenke “doesn’t show any wish” to create a winning team according to reports in the British press.
By Gareth Messenger
May 2 – The doctor at the centre of Spain’s biggest doping scandal has been handed a one-year suspended sentence after being found guilty of endangering public health. But the big winners in the case are the alleged dopers from sports other than cycling, and including football, who will retain their anonymity.
Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa’s runaway success in becoming the new leader of Asian football – on paper only until 2015 but in all probability far beyond – was about as clearcut as you can get. But it nevertheless contained all the elements of a classic Shakespearean plot: revenge, intrigue, conspiracy theories, false promises – and just as many questions as answers.
Revenge, says the old cliche, is a dish best served cold.
By John Duerden in Kuala Lumpur
May 2 – It is hard to know which was the most extraordinary sight at the Asian Football Confederation’s Extraordinary Congress at the Mandarin Hotel in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday morning: Sheikh Salman Ebrahim Al-Khalifa winning the election to become the next president of the AFC in the first round of voting, his bitter rival Yousuf Al Serkal coming in last or Sepp Blatter lecturing delegates about the necessity of returning to core football values.
By John Duerden in Kuala Lumpur
May 2 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter congratulated Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa for his “brilliant election” victory to the Presidency of the Asian Football Confederation but not before cautioning that Asian football had to put its house in order.
