By Andrew Warshaw in Mauritius
May 31 – The issue of workers’ rights in Qatar, which has plagued the Gulf state and FIFA ever since the award of the 2022 World Cup, flared up in Mauritius today when a group of activists were arrested while staging a peaceful protest close to where the FIFA Congress was taking place.
By Mark Baber
May 31 – Mallorca finally admitted defeat in their battle to keep hold of Giovani Dos Santos for their crucial final game of the season, after Mexico had written to FIFA demanding his release in advance of their World Cup qualifier this coming Tuesday.
By Gareth Messenger
May 31 – Portugal’s Sporting CP will be the beneficiary of more than €3.5million from the sale of Joao Moutinho from Porto to French side Monaco for €25 million.
By Paul Nicholson
May 31 – Sir Martin Broughton, chairman of British Airways and investment company Sports Investment Partners, reckons that leaving all the match decisions to the chance of human error is not satisfactory, or necessary. Especially so when the prize for the winning team could be £120 million – as was the case last weekend in England’s premier League play-off.
By Mark Baber
May 31 – With news the Brazil-England game might be cancelled, due to problems with the Maracana stadium, Bayern fans hadn’t abandoned all hope, even as Dante (pictured) departed for Brazil. However, the news soon came that the Brazil-England friendly was back on and they would certainly be without their central defender for Saturday’s DFB Pokal final. The incident has reignited the club vs country debate.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent, in Mauritius
May 31 – In one of the most direct speeches of his 15-year FIFA presidency, Sepp Blatter today launched a tough-talking and passionate defence of his organisation’s efforts to eliminate corruption whilst attacking the scourge of racism in football in similar fashion.
May 31 – Paris St-Germain’s Brazilian sporting director Leonardo has been given a nine-month suspension for pushing a referee, the worst possible timing for the club who are trying to hold on to their manager Carlo Ancelotti as they push towards becoming an established member of Europe’s elite.
During the London Olympics last year much was made about how much football could learn from the Olympics. Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s president, speaking at Wembley just before Team GB played Brazil, was asked whether the world’s most popular game could learn from the world’s greatest sporting event.
“Absolutely,” he answered, “At the beginning of the game, [the behaviour] is okay in football. But, at the end, we still have problems to bring the players together.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent, in Mauritius
May 30 – “Nobody loves us, we don’t care” is the mantra of one of England’s less popular football teams. Barring one word in that phrase, one could argue FIFA is adopting pretty much the same mentality as they approach the climax of Sepp Blatter’s two-campaign to rid his organisation of slease and corruption.
By Andrew Warshaw in Mauritius
May 30 – Despite all expectations to the contrary, Britain will after all maintain its position at the top table of FIFA after striking a deal with other European member federations.
By Paul Nicholson
May 30 – Following hard on the heels of the appointment of Stadium Operations Consultants for the infrastructure build towards the 2022 World Cup, the Qataris have now appointed KEO as project managers and AECOM as the design consultant for the ambitious Al Wakrah Stadium.
By Andrew Warshaw in Mauritius
May 30 – Zhang Jilong (pictured), the Chinese official who ran Asian football as interim president for two years yet opted not to apply for the job full-time, is back at the top table of FIFA. Zhang has been unexpectedly parachuted back on to the FIFA executive committee in place of Sri Lankan’s Fernando Manilal.
By Mark Baber
May 30 – The European Sports Security Association (ESSA), the betting industry’s ‘integrity’ body, published its annual integrity report Tuesday, claiming the evidence shows the battle against match-fixers from defrauding Europe’s licenced bookmakers is being won, The organisation argues the greatest threats to sporting integrity lie in poor governance and unregulated bookmakers outside Europe.
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.
