By Paul Nicholson
March 2 – Queens Park Rangers (QPR) have announced reduced losses of £9.8 million for the year ending May 2014 – the season QPR won promotion back to the English Premier League. The previous year QPR had announced the largest loss ever recorded by an English club – £65.4 million to May 2013 – in the season the club were relegated from the top flight.
By Mark Baber
March 2 – President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Amaju Pinnick threatened to take legal action against the press on Friday, as his controversial administration continues to be plagued by questions over transparency, NFF finances, a contract for national team coach Stephen Keshi and administrative competence.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 2 – A new FIFA-UEFA spat has emerged, this time over how to resolve the thorny issue of triple punishment – penalty, sending off and suspension – for players who deliberately prevent a goalscoring opportunity.
By David Owen
March 1 – Cardiff City’s Bluebirds may recently have reverted back to their traditional blue home shirts, but when it comes to their accounts they are still in the red. The Welsh club’s brief excursion into the Premier League last season resulted in a near five-fold increase in revenue from £17.3 million to £83.1 million. But, as shown by its recently-published financial statements, not even this was enough to push the club into profit in the year ended 31 May 2014 –
My father used to say that public memory is notoriously short. He was referring to politics not football but that holds very true for the round ball game as well. And herein lies a contradiction. There is nothing that arouses greater fury in football, both among the fans and the media, than the hire fire policy of chairmen and the board of struggling clubs. The moan is that the money men who always know the price of everything and the value of nothing want instant success and just do not understand that success in football takes times.
By Andrew Warshaw in Belfast
February 27 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has been quick to clear up arguably the main sticking point regarding the 2022 winter World Cup by promising it will not stretch as far as two days before Christmas.
By Paul Nicholson
February 27 – Dutch fans of Feyenoord are desperately taking to social media to insist that the inflatable plastic banana thrown on to the pitch during the Europa League match against Roma was not a racist act. Just an unfortunate choice of fruit? Equally unfortunate that it appeared to be aimed at Roma’s Gervinho?
By Paul Nicholson
February 27 – Manchester United, looking to move back into Champions League qualifying position this weekend, have topped the Premier League table of new Twitter followers for the second week running. Arsenal, third last week, have moved up to second, while Liverpool move up a place to third and Chelsea drop from second to fourth.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 27 – The lawmakers of world football are to consider allowing a fourth substitute in extra time and will at last try to get to grips with the contentious so-called “triple punishment” when they convene in Belfast today and tomorrow.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
February 27 – Fox Sports is continuing its TV rights acquisition march across Europe into Poland where it is considered as one of the leading contenders to acquire the TV rights for Poland’s top tier Ekstraklasa. If Fox were win the domestic rights the broadcaster would replace Polish direct-to-home platform nc+ for the 2015/2016 season.
By Mark Baber
February 27 – Ladbrokes has revealed it plans to close 60 betting shops as it revealed its pre-tax profits for 2014 fell from £68 million to £38 million, partly due to its biggest ever football loss on record of £8.1 million on Boxing Day as punters celebrated the favourites winning in the major games.
February 27 – FIFA presidential candidate Michael van Praag steps up his campaign bid early next week by unveiling his manifesto on Monday – then flying straight to the Conmebol Congress in Paraguay to lobby for support.
“If you look at the German TV market, it will not be possible any time soon for the Bundesliga to sell its rights for that much money.” Christian Seifert, Bundesliga chief executive
Investors looking for safe havens for their money in these troubled times have stampeded into German sovereign debt. The rationale is that the strongest economy in Europe will never default on its borrowings and so there is no risk to the investor’s capital.
Leverkusen’s much criticised coach Roger Schmidt, after coming away with the only German victory in this week’s Champions League matches, has shifted pressure off himself, and in so doing focused attention on Stuttgart which might be the next club to make a coaching change. But even more unstable than the Bundesliga in Germany’s coaching sack race is Germany’s second tier.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 27 – Kuwait’s Olympic supremo Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah, one of the most influential powerbrokers in world sport, has formally put his name forward to take up one of Asia’s slots on the FIFA executive committee. Ahead of Saturday’s deadline, Skeikh Ahmad has been officially nominated by his home football federation, prompting immediate speculation that he may ultimately be setting his sights on the FIFA presidency in 2019.