By David Gold
January 18 – Hassan Al-Thawadi (pictured), secretary general of the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, has promised to give more rights to construction workers building stadiums for the World Cup in the gulf state.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 18 – Swiss football, already tarnished by the FC Sion affair, has been plunged into yet more disarray after Neuchatel Xamax, a club whose honorary President is Sepp Blatter, were thrown out of the league and stripped of their licence less than a year after being taken over by the Chechen businessman Bulat Chagaev.
By David Gold
January 18 – African Cup of Nations co-hosts Equatorial Guinea are embroiled in a dispute with South Africa over a hotel bill arising from a friendly between the two countries to open the Estadio de Bata earlier this month.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 18 – Europe’s top clubs have finally opened talks with FIFA aimed at resolving a long-running dispute over World Cup revenues and other club-versus-country issues.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 18 – David Beckham has finally ended speculation about him returning to Europe by signing a new two-year deal to remain at LA Galaxy in the United States.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 18 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter (pictured) has reaffirmed that he will definitely step down for good when his fourth and final spell in charge expires in three years’ time.
By David Gold
January 17 – United States women’s team coach Pia Sundhage has arrived in Vancouver with a 20 woman squad for the 2012 Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) Olympic women’s qualifying tournament, which takes place on January 19 until 29.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 17 – Guests from the world of politics, sport and journalism attended the launch of The Spirit of The Game: How Sport Made the Modern World, the latest book written by Mihir Bose, insidethegames and insideworldfootball columnist.
By David Gold
January 17 – The ongoing case against Glasgow Rangers for £35 million (€42 million/$54 million) in allegedly unpaid taxes continues at a tribunal hearing in Edinburgh this week.
By David Gold
January 17 – David Beckham (pictured left) has confirmed his interest in representing Team GB at the London 2012 Olympic Games, as has his former teammate Manchester United player Ryan Giggs (right).
By Andrew Warshaw
January 17 – FIFA general secretary Jérôme Valcke (pictured) has repeated his call for a quick resolution to Brazilian legislation in order to prevent holdups over the 2014 World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 17 – Adidas, the world’s second biggest sporting goods manufacturer, decided not to renew its kit deal with Liverpool partly because the club were not being successful enough on the pitch.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 17 – Brazil’s under fire FIFA administrator Ricardo Teixeira (pictured) reportedly plans to lodge an appeal in the Swiss federal court this week to try to prevent the now-infamous ISL file being published.
By David Gold
January 16 – The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) women’s qualifying tournament for the London 2012 Games gets underway in Canada on Thursday (January 19), with eight teams vying for two places at this summer’s Olympics.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 16 – The steering group set up to put Caribbean football back on the map after the worst year for public relations in its history has made several fresh appointments.