By Tom Degun
June 22 – The mascot for the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup in Azerbaijan later this year has been officially named the “Top Top Girl” following a nationwide competition to decide what she would be called.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 22 – FIFA and UEFA are on a collision course over whether to allow Kosovo the right to play international matches, with European officials furious at what they see as a clear attempt by the world governing body to undermine their regulations.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 22 – UEFA’s refereeing chief Pierluigi Collina has defended the organisation’s experimental system of two extra goal-line officials but admits that an “unfortunate mistake” helped eliminate Ukraine from the 2012 European Championship.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 21 – Debt-ridden Scottish giants Rangers have denied a report that they plan to re-emerge as an English club by taking over third-tier team Bury.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 21 – The English Football Association (FA) has been fined a token €5,000 (£4,000/$6,000) by UEFA for the “inappropriate conduct” of a small group of fans in Friday’s (June 15) European Championship win over Sweden.
By David Owen
June 21 – Didier Drogba, the Ivorian striker who starred in Chelsea’s recent European Champions League victory, has confirmed his long-expected move to Shanghai Shenhua of China.
By Stuart Newman
June 21 – The first ever captain of Australia’s national football team, the late Alex Gibb, has been honoured in a special ceremony during the recent FIFA 2014 World Cup Asian qualifying match between the hosts and Japan in Brisbane, which ended 1-1.
The European Championship once again raises the question of whether we are right in believing that sport, and in particular football, can reach out to society in the way nothing else can. The answer so far from the Euros is a chilling one: those of us who believe in the redemptive power of modern sport need to re-examine our beliefs – or at least ask if we do not need to prepare much better before we burden sport with this heavy load of transforming society.
By Lauren Mattera
June 21 – Nike has become the first United Kingdom company to have a Twitter campaign banned following tweets from leading English footballers Wayne Rooney and Jack Wilshere which were deemed as breaching advertising rules.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 21 – Palestinian footballer Mahmoud Sarsak, who has been on hunger strike in protest at being held in an Israeli jail without charge, has agreed to resume eating in exchange for early release, according to his lawyer.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 20 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter has renewed his call for the introduction of goal-line technology following Ukraine’s disallowed goal in the 1-0 defeat by England that saw the joint hosts tumbling out of the 2012 European Championship.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 20 – Italy may have progressed to the last eight of the 2012 European Championship but off the field the image of the game has taken another damaging blow after the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) announced it had upheld newly promoted Pescara’s two-point deduction and banned four players for five years over the country’s match-fixing scandal.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 20 – With three months to go until the Russian cities bidding to host the 2018 World Cup learn their fate, a FIFA inspection delegation has moved on to Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod, two of the lesser-known prospective venues.
By Tom Degun
June 20 – Azerbaijan 2012 has revealed that the Official Draw Ceremony for the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup will take place on July 6 at the International Mugam Centre (pictured) in Baku.
What goes around comes around. Ever since Frank Lampard was denied a clear goal when he crashed a shot against the underside of Germany’s crossbar at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the clamour for goal-line technology has become increasingly louder.
Fast forward two years to the 2012 European Championship in Donetsk last night and that clamour has now become a deafening roar.
This time England were the ones that had all the luck.