From Andrew Warshaw at Westminster in London
May 15 – Referees at the 2012 European Championship will, for the first time, be given the green light to sanction players for racial abuse, following the publication of new UEFA guidelines.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 15 – Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland have formally informed UEFA they would like to jointly bid for the 2020 European Championship – as revealed exclusively by insideworldfootball.
Two European football giants, Bayern Munich (pictured below) and Chelsea (pictured bottom), will meet for the UEFA Champions League final this Saturday evening (May 19) in Munich. The match, pitting two of the biggest football nations, brings to the fore the power struggle we have seen between Germany’s Bundesliga and England’s Premier League, and between two economic powerhouses.
Back in 2009, we identified the Bundesliga as the main challenger to overtake the Premier League as the dominating force in European football.
By David Gold
May 15 – Brazil’s iconic Maracanã is to be powered by solar energy through a partnership with World Cup sponsor Yingli Solar, who will place 1,500 photovoltaic solar modules at the top of the stadium.
By David Gold
May 15 – Qatari side Al Sadd have clinched the signing of Spain’s former international star Raúl on a reported one-year contract.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 14 – Scotland and Wales are considering launching a joint bid to stage the UEFA European Championship 2020, going head-to-head with Turkey, insideworldfootball has learned.
By David Owen
May 14 – Could this be the start of the German decade – a period of increasing dominance over European football by the Bundesliga?
By Andrew Warshaw
May 14 – Belo Horizonte, the south-eastern Brazilian city scheduled to stage six matches at the 2014 World Cup, have appointed MLA True Communications, sister company of Vero Communications, to support its international promotions campaign in the build-up to the tournament.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 14 – Kelly Smith, Great Britain’s all-time record goalscorer, says London 2012 should help finally shake off the country’s macho male image and put women’s football firmly on the map.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 14 – Crisis-torn Scottish giants Glasgow Rangers look to have finally been saved from potentially going out of business after a deal to take over the iconic club was struck between the administrators and an international consortium headed by Charles Green, former chief executive of Sheffield United.
By David Gold
May 14 – English Championship club West Ham United will have to wait until London 2012 kicks-off to find out if they can move into the Olympic Stadium, after the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) extended the bidding process by eight weeks.
By David Gold
May 12 – Ronaldinho seems set to miss out on London 2012 after failing to make Brazil coach Mano Menezes’ squad for a series of four friendlies in the coming weeks.
By David Gold in Olympia
May 11 – Britain’s International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board member, Sir Craig Reedie, has admitted that the organisation faces an unprecedented decision as they seek to establish whether Istanbul can organise both the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games and football’s European Championships in the same year.
This may not come as much comfort to Blackburn Rovers supporters, but one result of their relegation and how Venky’s, their Indian owners, have managed, or rather mismanaged, the club, is that, at last, high profile politicians may be persuaded that self-regulation in football does not work.
This could even lead to legislation. I am given to understand it might it, and if it does, it will mark a significant development in British football.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 11 – Craig Whyte, owner of beleaguered Scottish giants Glasgow Rangers, has agreed to transfer his 85 per cent majority shareholding so that the administrators running the club can move forward with finding new buyers.