By Andrew Warshaw
September 13 – British professional clubs are cutting down on spending and battening down the hatches in anticipation of UEFA’s financial fair play rules according to a new outlook on the game’s financial viability.
By David Gold
September 12 – More players from Spain will participate in this season’s European Champions League than any other, with 81 players, and France close behind on 78, a new survey published today has revealed.
Given how Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the legendary former Germany forward and chair of the European Clubs Association (ECA), had compared Sepp Blatter’s FIFA reign to Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship in Egypt and threatened to bring it to a similar end, there was surprise among the assembled journalists at the President Wilson hotel last week when he seemed to retreat from his battle lines.
Just a month ago, the 95-times capped Germany forward, when asked if Blatter was fit for the job of FIFA President,
By David Gold
September 12 – Vitaly Mutko, the Russian Sports Minister who chairs the Organising Committee for the 2018 World Cup, has revaled that the country is likely to use 13 stadiums rather than the originally planned 16.
By David Gold
September 11 – North Korea’s women’s football team qualified for the London Olympic Games after crushing Thailand 5-0 in the final round of qualifiers in Jian, China, finishing second behind Japan.
By David Gold
September 10 – A group of young Chinese footballers are heading to Portugal to participate in a two year programme as part of their “Future Star” initiative which aims to improve football in the country.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 9 – Manchester City’s chief executive Garry Cook resigned today over an offensive email that plunged Europe’s richest new team into embarrassment.
By David Gold
September 9 – World champions Japan qualified for the London 2012 Olympic Games after a 1-1 draw with North Korea whilst Australia beat China 1-0 in the Asian football women’s qualifying tournament in Jinan today.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 8 – Swiss club Sion’s appeal against being thrown out of this season’s Europa League will be heard next Tuesday (September 13), just 48 hours before the group stages of the competition are due to get under way.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 9 – FIFA have terminated a multi-million pound TV deal for the 2014 World Cup after discovering the rights had been sublicensed to a company owned by Jack Warner, their former senior vice-president who resigned from all footballing activities after being charged in the recent bribery and corruption scandal.
Mohammed Bin Hammam may have been self-serving in accusing FIFA of racism and alleging that, had he been an European, he would not have suffered the punishment he has – banished for life from world football for having been found guilty of vote buying during the FIFA presidential race.
He could not have put it more clearly in a letter to Petrus Damaseb, the deputy chairman of the Ethics Committee: “Were I a European,
By Andrew Warshaw
September 8 – Mohamed Bin Hammam’s eagerly awaited appeal against his life ban for bribery will be heard next week – with the outcome almost certain to rubber-stamp his permanent exclusion from all footballing issues.
By David Gold
September 8 – A dozen La Liga sides have decided to press ahead with plans to reform Spanish televison rights after a meeting at Sevilla’s Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium today.
Messy, sloppy, awkward, embarrassing. Just four of the adjectives that could be applied to the ongoing spat between Swiss club FC Sion and UEFA. Let’s add a fifth: dangerous.
Football fans at large may not be too interested in an argument involving a middle-ranked football club that has little or no international relevance outside its own country. But didn’t they say a similar thing about journeyman Belgian footballer Jean-Marc Bosman all those years ago?
By David Gold
September 7 – SportsMark, who are involved in the London 2012 Olympic Games on behalf of British Airways, has been appointed the exclusive agent in the United States for the sale of Official Hospitality Programmes for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.