Germans to put trust in Freiburg’s Keller to lead the DFB
August 15 – Freiburg’s Fritz Keller has been nominated to head the German Football Association (DFB) and succeed the discredited Reinhard Grindel, who stepped down in April.
James Dostoyevsky: Goodbye, Africa. I am FIFA, and you do as I say
In a speech delivered at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, on 23 January 1963, Malcom X spoke about the House Negro and the Field Negro. He said:
Bility says railroaded FIFA TV deals for African rights could damage FA funding
By Paul Nicholson
August 14 – Musa Bility, the CAF executive committee member who has been banned by FIFA, has criticised the mandate issued by FIFA for the collection of African FA World Cup qualification TV rights to be controlled and sold directly by FIFA.
Cats have nine lives, will Jeff Webb get 10?
By Paul Nicholson
August 14 – When Jeff Webb was president of Concacaf he was always a pretty cool cat – approachable, friendly, always reasonable, nice guy to be around and pretty generous with it. Since his US Justice Department indictment in 2015 on corruption chrages he has needed all of a cat’s nine lives to stave off sentencing.
CAF-FIFAgate: ‘If this isn’t colonisation, the Spaniards were pilgrims in South America’
By Paul Nicholson
August 13 – She has only been in the job two weeks but already Fatma Samoura, FIFA Secretary-General and General Delegate for Africa, has landed herself in a governance and conflict of interest crisis over the move to consolidate all African national federation World Cup broadcast rights under a FIFA sales arm.
FIFA reschedules dates as Ghana FA works towards regaining control
August 14 – The Normalisation Committee running football in Ghana has set a new date for an Extra-Ordinary Congress, moving it from August 26 to September 5.
Porto and Celtic crash out of Champions League on a night of surprises
August 14 – Porto and Celtic were the shock losers on a dramatic night of Champions League qualifying action on Tuesday.
Real Salt Lake sack Petke for homophobic rant at Leagues Cup
August 14 – The head coach of an MLS team has been sacked for using profane homophobic language.
‘Minor’ fine for Man City for breaking under age transfer rules
August 14 – Don’t mess with FIFA and you might receive less of a punishment for breaking the rules.
Bury cling on but EFL postpones fourth fixture
August 14 – The on-going survival saga of English League One club Bury has seen the English Football League (EFL) suspend another of their fixtures – this weekend’s home league match against Gillingham.
Liberian FA bans ref for 2 years for taking bribe
August 14 – The Liberia Football Association (LFA) has banned referee Josephus Torjilar for two years for accepting a bribe.
Exclusive: FIFA swoops on African FAs’ World Cup rights with 8-day ultimatum
By Osasu Obayiuwana
August 13 – In a highly unusual move, FIFA has asked the 54 member associations of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to sign a one-page media rights “mandate” that gives the world governing body “an irrevocable mandate to implement a central marketing plan to market and commercialise the media rights for the FIFA African Qualifiers 2022 & 2026.”
Clubs concerned as Brazilian rhythm interrupted by long VAR pauses
August 13 – Brazilian club matches truncated by the intervention of VAR have stirred a nationwide debate over the pros and cons of the new technology. To remedy the situation, Sao Paulo giants Palmeiras have demanded the clubs meet the CBF’s refereeing committee.
De Boer says equal pay at international level would be ‘ridiculous’
August 13 – Atlanta United coach Frank de Boer has weighed in on the equal pay debate, controversially claiming that “equal pay at international level now would be ridiculous”.
Caged in Croatia: Aberdeen complain to UEFA over fan treatment
August 13 – Aberdeen have complained to UEFA over the treatment of their fans during last week’s Europa League qualifier against Rijeka in Croatia.