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.
By David Gold
April 26 – Team GB Chef de Mission Andy Hunt has told insideworldfootball that he has “no concerns whatsoever” about the prospect of men’s football coach Stuart Pearce also taking charge of the England team at this summer’s European Championships, just weeks before London 2012.
By David Gold
April 26 – The head of the Russian Football Union (RFU) match fixing committee has promised to eradicate match fixing from the country.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 26 – The second tier of English football is adopting UEFA’s break-even model designed to stem haemorrhaging losses and stop clubs spending beyond their means.
By David Gold
April 26 – The former chief of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), Xie Yalong (pictured), has stood trial for allegedly accepting bribes.
Change in football (let alone the wider society) is difficult to predict. It is often best left to historians with their long lenses to look back and tell us when one era ends and another begins.
However, despite the fact that we do not know for sure who will win this season’s English Premier League title, it is my firm belief that this campaign marks a momentous season of change in the Premiership – the third such change since the Premiership started 20 years ago.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 25 – Team GB head coach Stuart Pearce insists he is perfectly capable of combining London 2012 with leading England at the 2012 European Championship finals if asked to do both jobs.
By David Gold
April 25 – Serie A side Genoa has been ordered to play two matches behind closed doors following bizarre scenes at the Luigi Ferraris Stadium when players gave in to demands from fans to remove their shirts during the 4-1 loss to Siena on Sunday (April 22).
By Andrew Warshaw
April 25 – Senegalese football has been thrown into chaos just as the country’s under-23 team bagged the final place at London 2012.
By David Gold
April 25 – Britain’s women’s coach Hope Powell is relishing the prospect of pitting her wits against Brazil at the Olympic Games after the draw was made yesterday.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 25 – Administrators running ailing Scottish powerhouse Glasgow Rangers have hit out at the club being handed a crippling transfer embargo, saying the move could affect the very survival of the 54-time Scottish champions.
There were no oooos and aaahhhs from either the dignitaries or the media seated respectfully in the bosom of the national stadium. Not much of the usual celebrity spotting. In fact, a minimum of razzmatazz.
Compared with the equivalent events preceding the World Cup and European Championships, it was all rather low key.
Yet there was no doubting the significance of today’s Olympic football draw at Wembley for organisers of London 2012.