Exclusive – By Andrew Warshaw, Chief Correspondent
March 7 – Exclusive: At least one of the three west Asian candidates bidding to replace Mohamed bin Hammam as head of Asian football looks set to drop out of the race in the next month to reduce the chances of handing the Continent’s power base to Thailand’s controversial Makudi Worawi.
By Paul Nicholson
March 7 – Sunil Gulati (pictured), president of the US Soccer Federation, has his sights set on international committee work and giving the US a bigger voice at confederation and FIFA level.
By Mark Baber
March 7 – The Hungarian Football Federation (MLSZ) has filed a lawsuit at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to appeal against the decision by FIFA that the 2014 World Cup qualifier against Romania on 22 March be played without spectators.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 7 – UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against Manchester United following their highly contentious Champions League defeat by Real Madrid on Tuesday.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 7 – Football’s use of the London 2012 Olympic stadium has been plunged into uncertainty once again – just when it seemed on the verge of being resolved.
The darkest hour comes before the dawn. It’s difficult to think of a club whose prospects look brighter than Bayern Munich.
May 20 last year; Munich airport. Hundreds of supporters, most but not all German, packed into the club shop. Bayern shirts everywhere, in bags and on backs. Not what i was expecting after events of May 19. But hiding or sulking doesn’t seem to be in the DNA here.
Bayern somehow threw away their chances to win their home Champions league final,
By Osasu Obayiuwana in Marrakech
March 7 – With Issa Hayatou guaranteed re-election to the presidency of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the spotlight at the CAF Congress, in Marrakech this weekend, now falls on the battle for CAF executive committee places.
Until Tuesday, Issa Hayatou, in his 25th year as president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), was, at least in theory, at risk of being at the end of an unfavourable decision, from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, which could have stood in the way of getting another four-year term in office, that would take the Cameroonian’s tenure to a near 30-year stretch.
No longer. With CAS ruling that the case brought by Ivorian Jacques Anouma,
The resignation of Paul Elliott from the FA and other bodies because he used the “n” word in a private text sent to another black player and a business colleague, is both sad and revealing. It is sad because Elliott had, probably still has, the capacity to go from having played the game at the highest level into becoming an excellent football administrator. It is revealing because it shows how attitudes to race, and particularly use of certain racial words,
By Tom Parsons
March 6 – FIFA ambassador for fair play Simone Farina has admitted he has “no regrets” in refusing to take a bribe during a Coppa Italia match in 2011 and says “we must protect this beautiful sport with all means necessary”.
By Mark Baber
March 6 – Sudan’s qualification campaign for FIFA World Cup 2014 took a body blow when it had its win over Zambia turned into a loss after the country was found to have fielded an ineligible player.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 6 – Brazil’s World Cup preparations – or lack of them – have once again been called into question by FIFA, with Rio’s iconic Maracana stadium the biggest worry.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 6 – The future of Portsmouth, the stricken English club locked in administration for over a year with debts of about £60m, could finally be resolved next month – to the relief of the fans’ consortium hoping to take over.
By Mark Baber
March 6 – Pakistan is planning to launch a new football competition, modelled on the successful Indian Premier League for cricket, in a bid to overcome Pakistan football’s problems.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 6 – After more than a century without a commercial sponsor, Barcelona will break new ground next season by sporting the logo of Qatar Airways on its shirts – the starkest illustration yet of the club needing to embrace commercial reality as Qatar continues its drive to make inroads into European football.