By Paul Nicholson
July 23 – The Asian Football Confederation has announced plans to create its own Ethics Committee that it expects will be operational by January 2014. An initiative of new AFC president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, he said he hoped that the committee will help fight AFC corruption at all levels.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 23 – Palestine has made another bold move to make its political presence felt in Middle East football by putting its name forward to host the FIFA Congress in 2017.
By Mark Baber
July 23 – FIFA has warned the Uganda Football Association (FUFA) against government interference which could lead to a worldwide football ban for the country.
By Mark Baber
July 23 – Manchester United are looking to restore the words ‘Football Club’ to the club badge – a move which makes great business sense, as millions of fans will be looking to update their merchandise. But the stated motive behind the change is to emphasise Manchester United is a football club and “not a business”.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 23 – The English Premier League’s opposition to a winter World Cup in Qatar is looking increasingly isolated after the head of the European Club Association, which represents over 200 clubs across the Continent, re-iterated his organisation’s support for switching the 2022 tournament from the searing heat of the summer.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 23 – FIFA has lifted Cameroon’s suspension from world football, allowing the Indomitable Lions to play a key World Cup qualifier against Libya. FIFA imposed the ban on July 4, preventing Cameroon from taking part in all football activity after ruling that the government had interfered in the Cameroon Football Federation’s (Fecafoot) elections in June, breaching FIFA rules obliging member associations to manage their affairs independently.
By Gareth Messenger
July 23 – Delays in wage payments by cash-strapped football clubs in Portugal have forced dozens of players to ask their union for money, according to the head of the country’s players’ association.
By Mark Baber
July 22 – German Football Federation (DFB) president Wolfgang Niersbach says Germany are considering a bid to host the European Championships in 2024 and doesn’t rule out a personal bid for the UEFA presidency if it becomes vacant.
Have we got technology wrong? I speak as one who has always believed that sport should use technology. Yet the events in the first Ashes Test between England and Australia have made me think that technology may be becoming a sporting monster. I am well aware that the use of technology in football bears no relation to cricket, given how different the two games are. But the question is how far do you allow technology to decide events on the field of play.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
July 22 – Britain’s FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce (pictured) says he will support moving the 2022 Qatar World Cup to winter because it makes “common sense” for everyone involved, not least the players. Boyce is anxious to avoid getting into an argument with the English Premier League – which steadfastly opposes a winter tournament – but is backing FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s call for a switch.
By Mark Baber
July 22 – The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has stopped its Women’s Team from participating in a tournament in Berlin, Germany, the organisers discovered as the team was due to fly in. The federation claims the reason behind the ban is to do with Ramadan, but the ban has been linked to threats and opposition to women’s football from Islamic extremists.
By Gareth Messenger
July 22 – Madrid’s High Court of Justice (TSJM) has confirmed the 2007 decision over the leasing of 120,000 sq m of land in 1998 by Las Rozas Town Hall to the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), enforcing the return of the land to the local authority.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 22 – Brazilian authorities have backed down from a threat to ban shirtless and standing fans at the revamped Maracana stadium after the latest public outcry.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 22 – Ticket prices for next year’s World Cup in Brazil have been kept as low as possible, say FIFA, in a move the authorities hope will appease local Brazilian fans angered about the costs of staging the event. Of the three million tickets on sale, 400,000 will be available at a discount to Brazilians, with the cheapest costing around $30.
Not an easy thing to figure all of this out, admittedly. When Qatar won the hosting rights over several rival bidders who were pretty sure that they would have beaten the peninsular state in the middle of the Middle East, there was plenty of crying about alleged foul play.
Several investigations later, be they internal, overt or covert, executed by ‘official investigators’ (such as chief FIFA investigator Garcia, who, one hears, is about to throw in the towel in favour of kitchen utensils,