By Mark Baber
March 10 – Manchester City are poised to sign a massive £80-million-a-year sponsorship deal with Etihad, according to rumours in the British press. The new deal would mean a renegotiation of the current £400 million deal.
March 10 – The South African government has accused FIFA of not acting decisively enough over match-fixing investigations, notably regarding a series of warm-up games that preceded the 2010 World Cup.
March 10 – Premier League Tottenham Hotspur activated the next stage of its participation in the regeneration of the local area around its stadium with the opening of the University Technical College of Tottenham by the club’s former Chairman and star of the TV series The Apprentice, Alan Sugar (now Lord Sugar).
March 10 – A report into a swathe of alleged rigged Ligue 2 games in France last season has concluded that one match was subject to “an understanding” between the two clubs concerned.
March 10 – The Gulf region has struck yet another blow for staging major tournaments with the news that The United Arab Emirates has been awarded hosting rights to the 2019 Asian Cup.
March 10 – New data from the CIES, the Swiss-based Centre for Sports Studies, finds that €1.072 billion has been generated from sales of academy players by clubs in Europe’s Big 5 leagues. Topping the chart is Premier League club Southampton earning €90.2 million from sales since July 2012.
The Champions League. The pinnacle of European and indeed world football. Oh the glory. That music. Popular in all parts of the globe. And it’s all about winning isn’t it? Isn’t it?
March 10 – Qatar has awarded the Design Architect contract for its showpiece Lusail Stadium to UK firm Foster + Partners. The stadium is the proposed venue for the opening ceremony and the final of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
“To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune.” William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing.
What sets the superstars of today apart from their forebears of football’s past? Is it their talent? Their drive and determination, perhaps? Or is it something more modern? I for one cannot believe that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are any more driven than were Pelé or Diego Maradona. Nor indeed that the latter pair’s talent would not transcend the generations and light up the sky as brightly as those stellar rivals from Barcelona and Real Madrid.
By Mark Baber
March 9 – China’s domestic league kicked off this weekend, with the clubs having spent twice as much as ever before during the winter transfer window, with a major infusion of foreign talent and with the country’s political leadership committed to a reform programme to achieve the triple aims expressed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2011: for the People’s Republic to qualify for, host and finally win the World Cup.
March 9 – Quotas should be introduced to increase the number of women in top football positions according to panelists who attended the first FIFA Women’s Football and Leadership Conference.
March 9 – Russian national team manager Fabio Capello and his compatriot Oreste Cinquini, the team’s general manager, have at last been paid the outstanding salaries owed to them going back to June of last year. Reports are that the Russian Football Union (RFU) has now paid the outstanding $5.96 million up to February.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 9 – FIFA presidential candidate Michael van Praag says he and fellow contender Luis Figo have no chance of dethroning Sepp Blatter unless one of them pulls out of the running in the weeks ahead.
March 9 – Abby Wambach, the United States’ best-known women’s player who led the ultimately unsuccessful bid to play next year’s women’s World Cup on natural grass, says FIFA and its national federations should do more to help female players become self-sufficient.
March 9 – Germany’s outgoing FIFA executive committee member Theo Zwanziger is back on the offensive over the award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.