By Samindra Kunti
November 16 – The president of the Brazilian Football Confederation CBF Marco Polo del Nero has submitted a Habeas Corpus request with the Superior Federal Court STF to prevent him from being imprisoned.
As regular readers may know, I am sceptical about sport’s ability to bring doping by top-level athletes under anything resembling control. Equally, the spectre of a complete pharmaceutical free-for-all is, in some respects, so disturbing that I would concede we need to be certain we have exhausted all avenues before we all, to borrow a phrase used last week by Independent Commission chair Richard Pound, “go home”.
November 13 – Premier League football has mirrored an overall trend of a slight drop in activity in recent weeks. But Man Utd continued their inexhaustible assault on the summit of being the English club with the most twitter followers, having overtaken Chelsea and are now chasing down Arsenal.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 13 – After years of evading punishment and blocking reform while others around him were hit hard, Spain’s Fifa vice-president Angel Villar Llona was finally sanctioned today for failing to co-operate with the official investigation into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid process.
By Mark Baber
November 13- According to a report in L’Equipe, Leonardo, the former Sporting Director of Paris Saint-Germain, is intending to sue the French Football Federation for €8.5 million in the wake of having had his suspension for barging a referee in the tunnel rescinded.
By Samindra Kunti
November 13 – Leading Dutch Eredivisie club PSV Eindhoven have agreed a new ten-year sponsorship deal with Philips. The agreement is worth €22.5 million.
November 13 – Suspended FIFA president Sepp Blatter has been discharged from hospital after what was described as a “small emotional breakdown”.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 13 – FIFA’s electoral committee were unanimous in allowing Asian football chief Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa to run for the presidency and in banning Liberia’s Musa Bility from standing, Insideworldfootball has learned.
November 13 – Premier League Tottenham Hotspur have extended their long-term deal with Carlsberg. The brewer will continue as the Club’s Official UK Beer Partner for another three seasons.
By Ben Nicholson
November 13 – While FIFA insist that sports and politics are separate, the US has been exposed as using sport to host patriotic displays honoring American soldiers. A government oversight report released information detailing that the Department of justice had paid $6.8 million to sports teams for military tributes.
By Ben Nicholson
November 13 – LAFC, the newly formed Californian MLS club that has picked up their berth from the now defunct Chivas USA, look poised to have sorted out a new-build stadium to play in. While in Texas, the city of San Antonio has put down a stadium marker in its bid to land a new MLS franchise.
By Paul Nicholson in Manama, Bahrain
November 12 – Bahrain’s most famous footballer and the national team’s top scorer Ala’a Hubail, has told Insideworldfootball that he hopes “Shaikh Salman becomes president because he would be the first arab president and that makes me very proud.” He also said that the allegations swirling around Shaikh Salman’s candidacy are not true, “it is not in his character”.
By David Owen
November 12 – Manchester United continue to show the financial effects of their attempts to restore their dominance of the English club game, in spite of scoring a near 40% jump in first quarter revenues. A hike in costs, plus a financial hit on transfer dealings as manager Louis van Gaal and colleagues attempt to create a team worthy of the United brand, meant that pre-tax profits in the three months to September 30 were down 36% on a year earlier at £5.2 million.
November 12 – Former FIFA vice-president Eugenio Figueredo, one of the ‘Zurich Seven’ arrested in May as part of the US-led probe into $150 million worth of financial corruption stretching back 24 years, has instigated a tug of war between the United States and his native Uruguay for his extradition.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 12 – The race for the FIFA presidency will be contested by five candidates, pending Michel Platini’s appeal against suspension, after Liberia’s Musa Bility was unexpectedly ruled out following integrity checks into the potential contenders to take over from Sepp Blatter on February 26.