If there is one subject everyone agrees on is that FIFA needs to be more accountable and transparent. Yet even as there is unanimity on this subject in one area of football there is so little transparency and information is so tightly controlled that it makes those who run the politburo in China look liberal and media friendly. This is in the area of how clubs communicate to the world.
By Andrew Warshaw at Soccerex in Manchester
September 8 – Prince Ali bin al-Hussein is poised to announce tomorrow that he is standing for FIFA president for the second time in a matter of months. Sucker for punishment? He clearly doesn’t think so.
“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same.” Rudyard Kipling, If
We all want to know who’s hot and who’s not, and in football our assessment of triumph is for the most part a binary process. In these days of blink-of-an-eye judgements, the measure of a man or a manager is made in what is little more than the sixty seconds of a single season.
September 8 – All clubs in the Champions League and Europa League are to make a donation to support the thousands of migrants fleeing war-torn countries for Europe. The European Club Association announced today that 80 clubs have agreed to give €1 for every ticket sold during their first home games in the group stages of the two competitions.
September 8 – Amid all the interest surrounding Wales’ attempts to reach a first tournament finals for half a century – they are still on the verge despite being pegged back by Israel – arguably a far more laudable achievement is that of Iceland.
By Andrew Warshaw at Soccerex in Manchester
September 8 – Spanish league boss Javier Tebas has once again defended the use of Third Party Ownership, this time blasting FIFA and UEFA for dictating to clubs how they should behave and lambasting the English Premier League for buying up all the best players.
September 8 – Football relations between north and south Korea are to be revived when South Korean FA boss Chung Mong-gyu visits Pyongyang later this month with the possibility of friendly fixtures taking a step closer.
By Andrew Warshaw at Soccerex in Manchester
September 8 – Video technology, arguably the biggest ever law change to football, must be given the green light sooner rather than later to pull the game into the modern age, according to Dutch pioneers of the idea.
By Paul Nicholson
September 8 – Former FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb has had his bail conditions altered allowing him to return to his US home in Loganville, Georgia. Webb had been restricted to living within 20 miles of the Brooklyn, New York, courthouse where the case against him is being heard.
By Mark Baber
September 8 – EA Sports FIFA 16 is today (depending on geographical location) available to users in demo version. The company has been promoting the new game through release of its ratings for players, including a top 50, with the full version of the game due for release around September 22.
By Samindra Kunti
September 9 – Indian football is a parallel world of a struggling national team and a vibrant Indian Super League, but the All Indian Football Federation considers the 2017 U17 World Cup as a stepping stone for the development of the domestic game.
August 8 – Manchester United continue to drive regional partnerships with the announcement of Sbenu, South Korea as the club’s Official Casual Footwear Partner in South Korea. The club’s Official Timekeeping Partner, Bulova has also unveiled its Manchester United Club Watch.
August 9 – Watch James’ Rodriguez’s Colombia play Peru international friendly live on Insideworldfootball today. A rematch of their meeting at the Copa America this summer, the match, being played in the Red Bull Stadium in New York, is live on insideworldfootball at http://bit.ly/1OubYJQ. Kick off is 8pm EST, 1am UK.
By Andrew Warshaw at Soccerex in Manchester
August 7 – Breaking a three-month silence since losing to Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan gave the broadest hint yet today that he wants to have another crack at the job but left a number of questions unanswerered, not least where his votes might come from next time.
By David Owen
August 7 – Which Premier League club had the best summer transfer window in purely financial terms? By which I mean whose player trading will have the most positive direct impact on their club’s bottom-line?