By Andrew Warshaw
December 19 – Just when football authorities round the world are striving to eradicate homophobia and racism, supporters of Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg have demanded non-white and gay players be excluded from the team.
By Mark Baber
December 19 – The war of words following the abandonment of the Copa Sudamerica final in Sao Paolo overshadowed the handing over of the state-of-the-art Estadio Castelao in Fortaleza on Sunday, and any publicity coup for Brazilian World Cup organisers.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 18 – Kosovo’s Football Federation (FFK) are to push for full membership of FIFA after receiving only partial acceptance from football’s world governing body.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 18 – Two years after staging the World Cup and just weeks before hosting January’s African Cup of Nations, South African football has been plunged into crisis after the President of the country’s national federation, Kirsten Nematandani (pictured), was suspended along with four others in a new match-fixing scandal.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 18 – National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) will be the name of a third attempt to create a lasting and credible women’s professional league in the United States of America.
By David Owen
December 18 – Robin van Persie has overhauled Wayne Rooney, his Manchester United team-mate, as the name on the top-selling Barclays Premier League player jersey in North America.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 17 – The most damaging scandal in the history of FIFA came to an abrupt conclusion today when Mohamed Bin Hammam dropped his long-running fight to clear his name, walking away after being banned for life by FIFA for “repeated violations” of the world governing body’s code of ethics while he was head of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
By Andrew Warshaw
December 17 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter is to contact his opposite number at UEFA, Michel Platini, to question the meagre sanctions handed to Serbia by Europe’s governing body in the wake of the racism and violence that marred the under-21 tie against England in Kruševac in October.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 17 – Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner insists Mohamed Bin Hammam would have had a “great chance” of beating Sepp Blatter in last year’s FIFA Presidential race had bribery allegations not derailed his campaign.
It is just over two years since that momentous December day when Qatar stunned the footballing world by winning the race to stage the 2022 World Cup by a landslide.
At virtually every turn since, Hassan Al-Thawadi and his campaign team have had to cope with negative reporting about the methods used by the tiny Gulf state to achieve one of the most jaw-dropping results in the history of sports event bidding.
But if you think Al-Thawadi – the razor sharp,
By Andrew Warshaw
December 17 – FIFA has given Indonesia one final chance to put its house in order in what President Sepp Blatter described as a “Christmas gift”.
Andrew Warshaw in Doha
December 17 – Pinned to a wall in the engine room of Qatar’s 2022 World Cup headquarters in downtown Doha is a detailed planner outlining what is headed “Programme Wide Masterplan: Stage One Draft.”
By Andrew Warshaw
December 14 – Bulgarian police have detained 12 players and two alleged organisers in the first arrests of an ongoing investigation into match-fixing.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 14 – A hugely symbolic development in relations between the football authorities on both sides of the political divide in Cyprus will take place in the New Year when the President of the Cyprus Football Association (CFA), Costakis Koutsokoumnis, holds a formal meeting with representatives on the Turkish-controlled north of the island.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 14 – The FIFA-appointed corruption buster looking into the conduct of Mohamed Bin Hammam, the man who tried to challenge Sepp Blatter for the FIFA Presidency, has admitted no new charges will be brought to support the claim that Bin Hammam bribed Caribbean officials during his doomed election campaign.