By Andrew Warshaw in Doha
February 20 – Former Asian football chief Mohamed Bin Hammam’s eagerly-awaited appeal against his lifetime ban for alleged bribery will be heard on April 18 and 19 at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne.
By David Gold
February 20 – Partizan Belgrade coach Avram Grant (pictured right) has claimed that Iranian team Sepahan Ishafan have cancelled a friendly with his team because he is Israeli.
By David Gold
February 20 – Spanish giants Real Madrid have signed an agreement with the Iraqi Sports Ministry to create four football academies in the Kurdistan province.
By David Gold
February 20 – The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) interim chairman Anwar Saleh has revealed that the country’s Premier League, suspended following the Port Said tragedy which left dozens dead, will probably not resume.
By David Gold
February 20 – Bebeto has joined fellow former Brazilian goalscoring great Ronaldo and embattled football chief Ricardo Teixeira on the 2014 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee.
By David Gold
February 20 – Clive Palmer, the chairman of Australian team Gold Coast United, has been condemned for an outspoken tirade in which he admitted not liking football and refused to guarantee the future of his “insignificant” club.
By Andrew Warshaw in Doha
February 18 – Qatar’s preparations for the 2022 World Cup took a significant step forward when organisers announced leading global management firm CH2M HILL as a key strategic partner.
By Andrew Warshaw in Doha
February 19 – Qatar’s determination to be taken seriously as a football nation has resulted in the appointment of a fourth national coach in just over a year as 55-year-old Brazilian Paulo Autuori became the latest figure to try and take the tiny Gulf state to its first ever World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 19 – The future of corruption-tainted FIFA powerbroker Ricardo Teixeira appears ever more uncertain after the Brazilian Football Federation (CBF) announced he was to remain in his post as its President despite widespread reports that he was about to step down under mounting pressure.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 17 – Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner (pictured) is taking legal action over what he claims is “completely unacceptable defamation and libel” reporting over his alleged wrongdoing in the Haiti earthquake fund dispute.
Administrators being called into Glasgow Rangers is more than yet another football club living way beyond its means. This is one of those seminal moments when you feel the world has changed and may not be the same again. It illustrates the perils of football commercialism and how dangerous it can be.
No, it is not quite football’s equivalent of the fall of the Berlin Wall; to suggest that would be going a touch too far.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 17 – Chris Eaton (pictured), the former Interpol crime-buster whose blueprint to weed out match fixing and other forms of football corruption was hailed as a major breakthrough, is leaving his post as FIFA’s head of security to join the world’s first non-profit-making organisation specialising in safety and security across all sports.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 17 – Manchester City have protested to UEFA over alleged racist abuse aimed at their players during last night’s 2-1 Europa League victory at FC Porto.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 16 – Steve Lawrence (pictured), the architect who who wrote the original masterplan for the London Olympics and Paralympics, has identified himself as the mystery figure behind the anonymous complaint to the European Union Commission which scuppered West Ham United’s hopes of moving to the Olympic Stadium after the Games.
By David Gold
February 20 – Leyton Orient chairman Barry Hearn has claimed that the London 2012 Olympic Stadium “is not fit for football.”