Question; which international defender with over 100 caps had to start their career washing the underwear of Denis Bergkamp and his Arsenal team mates?
Surprise surprise it wasn’t a man. England’s Casey Stoney was a senior player for Arsenal when she had to do laundry to supplement her income.
That was in 1999 so how far have women in football come since then? Well let’s say there’s still work to do on the field –
By Andrew Warshaw
March 14 – Arsene Wenger has described the decline of English clubs in the Champions League as a “massive wake-up call” after his Arsenal team became the last of the country’s four representatives to be eliminated from European club football’s elite competition.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
March 14 – The outgoing head of the Asian Football Confederation has called for unity as lobbying intensifies ahead of the AFC presidential election in May.
By Mark Baber
March 14 – AS Roma have signed a 10-year kit supply deal with Nike as part of its plans to return it to the top tiers of European and world fotball.
By Mark Baber
March 14 – The Indian State of Goa is holding a football conference on March 15-16 to further develop the coastal state as the ‘gateway to football’ in India.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 14 – The international players union FIFPro has issued a damning indictment of the dysfunctional nature of Indonesian football, saying nothing had changed since the tragic death in December of Paraguayan player Diego Mendieta.
Exclusive: By Osasu Obayiuwana
March 14 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has admitted that public criticism of its ongoing governance reform progress, especially by key officials at the heart of it, could put the credibility of the entire process at great risk.
By Andrew Warshaw and Paul Nicholson
March 13 – A three-page newspaper scoop claiming that Qatar is planning to launch a groundbreaking ‘Dream Football League’ next month, featuring the world’s most iconic clubs in a 24-team tournament that could ultimately rival the Champions League, has been dismissed as an elaborate hoax.
Exclusive: by Osasu Obayiuwana
March 13 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has told InsideWorldFootball, in an exclusive interview, that he was “surprised” by the decision of China’s Zhang Zilong, to withdraw from the race for the presidency of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
March 13 – Football at the top level is a rich man’s ownership game and attracts the richest men in the world. Business magazine Forbes has issued a list of the 11 richest football billionaires from the Forbes Rich List.
March 13 – Tanzania has again been warned by FIFA that it will be suspended if the government interferes in the administration of the sport.
By Mark Baber
March 13 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed the appeal against the spectator ban imposed on Hungary for its March 22 World Cup qualifier against Romania.
But for the incontrovertible geographical fact that Marrakech is in Morocco, I would have argued, to the death, that the just concluded Ordinary General Assembly of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), which I attended, took place in Kim Jong Il’s Pyongyang, North Korea.
Speech after speech at the Palais De Congres eulogised its president, Cameroonian Issa Hayatou, who enjoyed the anniversary of his 25th year in power on Sunday, by securing a record seventh four-year term in office.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 13 – Caribbean football, striving to enhance its image since the 2011 cash-for-votes scandal, at last has some good news, no doubt in part due to the efforts of Jeffrey Webb, president of CONCACAF which covers the region.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 13 – Just as his club were staging one of their greatest comebacks to take their customary place in the Champions League quarterfinals, Barcelona president Sandro Rosell (pictured) found himself at the centre of possible fraud charges in Brazil.