By Andrew Warshaw
December 7 – John Mikel Obi, the Chelsea midfielder at the centre of the recent case concerning referee Mark Clattenburg who was cleared of racism, has himself been handed a three-match ban and fined £60,000 ($96,000/€74,000) by the English Football Association (FA) for threatening Clattenburg.
By Duncan Mackay at the Palace Hotel in Lausanne
December 7 – A Disciplinary Commission has been set-up by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) which could see South Korean footballer Park Jong-woo denied the bronze medal he won at London 2012 for his political protest.
December 7 – UEFA has announced an extension of its long-term marketing partnership with TEAM Marketing.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 7 – Twenty four hours before it was due to expire, the latest 45-day suspension of former FIFA vice-president Mohamed Bin Hammam, who has been out of football for 18 months, was again extended today but left open-ended after FIFA-appointed prosecutors completed their investigation into alleged malpractice by the once most powerful figure in Asian football.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 7 – UEFA President Michel Platini’s revolutionary plan to stage the 2020 European Championship finals in at least 12 cities across the entire Continent was officially approved by his Executive Committee today – though with few additional details.
By Tom Degun
December 7 – Londoners must not be asked to pay any more money for the transformation of the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, especially now West Ham United have been named the preferred bidders, a report from the London Assembly said today.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 6 – FIFA has given rival Indonesian football factions until Monday (December 10) to end their in-fighting or face suspension from the world game, according to local reports.
Did the ball cross the line? It’s a question fans have been asking ever since the 1966 FIFA World Cup final when England striker Geoff Hurst’s extra time goal against Germany was dubiously yet innocently allowed to stand by the Swiss referee on the advice of his Soviet linesman.
The other more pressing question is why nothing has ever been done, in the 46 years since, to avoid countless similar occurrences of the referee getting it wrong,
By Andrew Warshaw
December 6 – FIFA has welcomed the introduction of goal-line technology, being rolled out for the first time in official competition at the Club World Cup in Japan starting today.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 6 – Blighted by an alarming crime rate, Brazil is boosting its 2014 FIFA World Cup security budget to 1.879 billion Brazilian real (£560 million/$900 million/€680 million) to make sure the event is “one of the most protected sports events in history,” the Government has announced.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 6 – The death from a routine virus of Diego Mendieta, a Paraguayan player based in Indonesia, has outraged the international players’ union, FIFPro.
By Duncan Mackay
December 5 – Premier League club West Ham United have taken a major step towards moving into the Olympic Stadium after they were “ranked highest of the bids received”, according to the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC).
By Andrew Warshaw
December 5 – The ongoing probe into alleged malpractice by Asian football powerbroker Mohamed Bin Hammam, which has seriously split his increasingly dysfunctional confederation, reaches a crucial stage within the next 48 hours during which FIFA-appointed United States investigators must decide what action to take against him, if any.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 5 – The chairman of the local organising committee for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa, Chief Mwelo Nonkonyana, has branded players opting out of the continent’s showpiece event as “selfish and egotistical”.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 5 – Two months after its first meeting, the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football’s (CONCACAF) new integrity committee, set up to clean up the body after an unsavoury period of blood-letting, is beginning getting to grips with the misdemeanours of the past.