Mexico 1 Honduras 0
July 2 – The question on the lips of pundits and fans at Levi Stadium, Santa Clara, was “would tonight be business as usual or unusual business?” as Mexico and Honduras met for the right to face the United States in the Concacaf Gold Cup Final on Sunday in Houston.
Spain 5 Portugal 0
July 3 – With an imperious display, world champions Spain waltzed past neighbours Portugal at the Wankdorff Stadion in Bern, winning 5-0 to back up their status as tournament favourites.
By Andrew Warshaw at the International Football Arena conference in Zurich
November 13 – Football can learn several lessons from how the NFL operates in the United States, not least giving more black coaches the opportunity to be interviewed for senior positions, the NFL’s United Kingdom managing director, Alistair Kirkwood, declared today.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 13 – The much publicised road map to reform undertaken by FIFA after the most scandal-tainted period in its history will come to a definitive end in May next year when the organisation’s 209-member congress is presented with a series of proposals designed to bring transparency and accountability back to world football’s governing body.
By Duncan Mackay
November 13 – A Russian builder was killed today after a crane collapsed at the construction site of the 2018 FIFA World Cup stadium in Kazan, local authorities said.
By Tom Degun at the Aspire Dome in Doha
November 13 – Qatar’s capital, Doha, has been confirmed to host the Asian qualifying rounds of the 2013 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw at the International Football Arena conference in Zurich
November 12 – Sepp Blatter admitted today that he had made mistakes during his 14-year FIFA Presidency but said he would not have got where he is without taking risks.
By David Owen
November 12 – Chelsea’s handling of the Mark Clattenburg controversy has split British football fans clean down the middle.
By Duncan Mackay
November 12 – Alisher Usmanov, a major shareholder in Premier League club Arsenal and Russia’s richest man, today found himself at the centre of controversy after a London-based public relations firm edited his Wikipedia entry to remove information that could cast him in a bad light.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 12 – Former Everton and Wolves footballer Michael Branch, who was once also on loan to Manchester City, has been sentenced to seven years in jail after pleading guilty to drugs offences.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 12 – French football is reeling from one of the most stringent domestic bans ever imposed after star midfielder Yann M’Vila was kicked out of the international game until June 2014 after an unauthorised night out while on under-21 duty.
By Andrew Warshaw at the International Football Arena conference in Zurich
November 12 – A groundbreaking new sponsorship deal will be announced in the next two months between Chelsea and the Sauber Formula One team, the club’s chief executive Ron Gourlay revealed today.
As United States President Barack Obama swept back into power, I felt a real surge of pride because young, old, white, black, gay, straight, Hispanic and people of all dispositions had voted once again to make a man of colour the most powerful person on the planet.
It didn’t take long for me to realise that perhaps my own footnote in history might not be any of my professional deeds. Rather a sporting happenstance that saw me become Malia and Sasha Obama’s first “soccer”
By Andrew Warshaw
November 11 – Nicolás Leoz, the 84-year-old President of the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL), is recovering in hospital in São Paulo following heart surgery.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 9 – The Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) has set up a special body to deal with appeals over the bans handed out in the country’s infamous match-fixing scandal.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 9 – Senior Asian officials are privately questioning why prosecutors in Malaysia have suddenly dropped charges against a man accused of stealing documents linked to banned former powerbroker Mohamed Bin Hammam.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 9 – All six venues slated to stage next year’s Confederations Cup – the dress rehearsal for the 2014 World Cup – have now been confirmed by FIFA though some will face a race against time.