As Manchester United celebrate yet another Premiership, and a record haul of 20 of the most sought after prize in English football, spare a thought for Dave Whelan. Had things turned out differently the Wigan owner would today not be fearful that his team may not survive in the Premiership. Instead he would be lording it over Old Trafford and joining the celebrations of the fans as the owner of greatest club in the land.
By Paul Nicholson
April 24 – German Chancellor Andrea Merkel has been dragged into the tax evasion scandal surrounding Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 24 – Twenty-three players and one official who were sanctioned by Lebanese authorities in February for helping to rig international and regional matches have had their bans extended worldwide by FIFA.
By Krzysztof Baranowski
April 24 – The crisis facing Polish top division football is deepening with Ekstraklasa club Polonia Warsaw on the brink of going out of business.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 24 – The new president of the Spanish Football League says his top priority is bringing an end to match-fixing.
By Mark Baber
April 24 – According to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Qatar may reduce the number of stadiums for the 2022 world cup from the widely expected 12 to 8 or 9.
April 24 – Former German icon and FIFA administrator Franz Beckenbauer has signed a personal endorsement deal with Russian gas giant Gazprom designed to promote football as a tool for social integration among children.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
April 24 – Here we go again. Veteran FIFA powerbroker, about to be exposed, quits citing health reasons. The figure this time is 84-year-old Nicolas Leoz, head of CONMEBOL, who has announced he is stepping down as well as relinquishing his place on FIFA’s executive committee, held since 1998.
By Monica Villar
April 23 – A Spanish judge has threatened Deportivo de La Coruña with liquidation unless an agreement can be found between the banks and the club over the share out of the Media Pro money held in escrow buy the court.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 23 – Surely it couldn’t possibly be genuine? After all, April 1 was three weeks ago. Sepp Blatter, according to Twitter, was sensationally stepping down as FIFA president and the decision to award Qatar the 2022 World Cup involved money illegally changing hands.
By Gareth Messenger
April 23 – The on-going Spanish debate over the collective sale of club TV rights could be ended by the government if a new law is passed to force the teams into group sales.
April 23 – Work upgrading the Juscelino Kubitschek International Airport in Brasilia has been guaranteed to be completed on time for the World Cup in June 2014, as negotiations for new retail concessions get under way.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
April 23 – Just weeks after complaining that anti-corruption proposals to clean up FIFA had deliberately been “neutered”, one of the reform process’s key advisers has quit in protest.
The chances are that at least one of those eleven footballers you are cheering is what English people might call a wrong’un. A ne’er do well. A nasty piece of work. Increasingly you suspect it’s far more than the odd bad apple, but half the team.
I raise this of course because of Luis Suarez, arguably the third best player in the world and with a charge sheet longer than the bite marks in Branislav Ivanovic’s arm.
By Monica Villar
April 23 – Controversial Sevilla president José María del Nido has said that although they are still chasing a European place, the club’s financial crisis is such that every player has a price on his head and any of them could leave in the summer.