By David Gold
April 30 – Arsenal’s minority shareholder, billionaire oligarch Alisher Usmanov, has reiterated his desire to increase his stake in the Premier League club to over 30 per cent.
Penny for Harry Redknapp’s thoughts. Just when neutral fans everywhere were anticipating an imminent call from the English Football Association to the man dubbed the “people’s choice” to be the next England manager, the favourite to replace Fabio Capello has been overlooked in favour of Roy Hodgson.
The move has inevitably led to a media frenzy and emotion-packed accusations that the FA have bottled it, that yet another major blunder has been made by the inner sanctum responsible for choosing Capello’s successor.
By David Gold
April 30 – FIFA has continued its inspection of potential host cities for the Russia 2018 World Cup with visits to St Petersburg and Kaliningrad.
By David Gold
April 30 – Brazil’s Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo has sought to allay fears about the 2014 World Cup they are hosting, insisting that they are working hard and that the country “has done more important and more difficult things”.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 30 – After years of false dawns and broken promises, goal-line technology is to be officially trialled in a match scenario as football’s lawmakers press ahead with further testing pending a final decision on July 2.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 29 – Roy Hodgson (pictured) looks set to become the surprise choice as the new manager of England, ending months of intense speculation that has focused almost exclusively on the favourite, Harry Redknapp.
By Tom Degun
April 29 – London 2012 have revealed that 1.4 million tickets for the Olympic football competition will go back on sale to the public tomorrow morning (April 30) at 11am on a first come, first served basis with Ticketmaster stating they are confident there will be no issues or technical problems for people trying to purchase them via the official website.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 28 – The administrators running beleaguered Scottish giant Glasgow Rangers have confirmed they have finally received two formal bids for the club – one from the Blue Knights consortium controlled by former director Paul Murray and the other from American tycoon Bill Miller.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 27 – Germany have pulled out of the race to stage the 2020 European Championships, a decision that once again impacts on Turkey.
By David Gold
April 27 – Following this week’s draw for the London 2012 Olympic Games football tournament, Brazil and the United States (pictured left) are favourites with the bookmakers for the men’s and women’s gold medals.
By David Gold
April 27 – Turkish side Fenerbahçe have dropped a case with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against UEFA over their expulsion from this season’s Champions League.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 27 – Brazilian World Cup icon Ronaldo has attempted to play down the mountain of problems being faced by the 2014 hosts by insisting the country is on course to ensure a successful tournament in two years’ time.
By David Gold
April 27 – The UEFA Champions Festival, the now traditional curtain-raiser to the Champions League final, is to take place in Munich from May 16 to 19, with the Olympiapark hosting the free event.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 27 – FIFA’s drive to clean up its act is set to take centre stage at next month’s Congress in Budapest after the published agenda revealed that all 208 member nations have been urged to kick out bribery, match fixing and corruption once and for all.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 26 – Brazil icon Ronaldo, one of the main ambassadors at Tuesday’s Olympic football draw at Wembley, has lent his support to David Beckham being selected as a member of the Team GB squad.