Inside World Football - Page 1421 of 2018 - For the Business of Football

Mihir Bose: How Blatter has split Europe

Whatever happens in the FIFA Presidential election one thing is already clear. Sepp Blatter has split Europe wide open. The most powerful and richest confederation in world football, whose leagues dominate the game and whose prize competition, the Champions League, is the greatest club competition in the world, cannot agree on a candidate to oppose the Swiss. Already 11 of the 54 national associations of UEFA are publicly pledged to three different rivals of Blatter: Michael van Praag,

Archive

David Owen: A tale of two elections

FIFA isn’t the only International Sports Federation (IF) with a Presidential election on at the moment. And, looking at the way the campaign for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Presidency has started, it is hard not to conclude that world football’s governing body has a few lessons to learn.

Archive

Forget Picasso or Dali, FC Barcelona’s museo is the cool place to visit

By David Owen
January 30 – Barcelona, one of the two giants of Spanish club football, are claiming that the FC Barcelona Museum has again won the title of most visited in Catalonia, outpulling museums devoted to the famous painters Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí.

Archive

Prince Ali launches campaign with promises of openness, but no detail of backers

By Andrew Warshaw
January 30 – Jordan’s Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, regarded by many as the most credible rival to Sepp Blatter for the presidency of FIFA, today unveiled his vision for the future of football’s world governing body – but declined to name the five federations who have officially endorsed his candidacy.

Archive

Warner faces new look at old charges by Trinidad integrity tribunal

January 31 – The shadow of Jack Warner and his dealings as president of CONCACAF has made a reappearance in Trinidad where a tribunal has been appointed to investigate his assets and registered interests as part of the integrity checks on the island for public officials.

Archive

Figo finds favour and joins race for FIFA hot seat

January 30 – Six European federations have formally endorsed Luis Figo’s bid to become FIFA president, sweeping away any doubts about whether Portugal’s most capped footballer will meet one of the strict criteria for standing.

Archive

News analysis: deadline signals end to phoney war, let battle commence

By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
January 30 – The deadline for applications has passed. But the political manoeuvrings and strategic mind games have only just begun. Welcome to another tactical FIFA election process.

Archive

Spanish FA warns it will halt play unless ‘government interference’ stops

By Mark Baber
January 30 – Relations between the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and the Spanish Government Sports Council (CSD) and their respective leaders have taken an dramatic turn for the worse as the Federation requested the head of the CSD be removed from all positions in football and on Thursday warned it was prepared to halt football in the country over “government interference”.

Martin Volkmar

Martin Volkmar: Boring Bundesliga? Not at all! Langweilige Bundesliga? Von wegen!

Boring! Only a fantasist would have believed the Bundesliga season would generate a voltage title fight. But experts like Reiner Calmund say the German elite league is never boring, even though the title was virtually secured by Bayern at the halfway point.

Africa

All ends in tears for Mali as Guinea get the luck of the draw

January 30 – African football chiefs admit that the system of drawing lots in their major competition must be revised after Mali’s quarterfinal dream in the Africa Cup of Nations was unfairly dashed.

Archive

AFC family row: unwanted Aussies may have to leave after hosting the party

By Andrew Warshaw
January 30 – Australia’s euphoria at reaching the Asian Cup final on home soil is being partly overshadowed by an apparent move by Gulf nations to have them thrown out of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and sent back to Oceania.

Archive

CSKA Sofia costs rocket to record €7.5m after year of infighting

By Alexander Krassimirov
January 30 – The chief executive officer of Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia, Alexander Todorov (pictured), has revealed that the costs of running the club in 2014 year were almost BGN 15 million (€7.5 million), a high amount by Bulgarian standards.

Archive

Greek Super League takes tough line with cash-strapped clubs

By Jaroslaw Adamowski
January 30 – The Greek Super League hardened its position on clubs in financial difficulty, dropping Niki Volou from the country’s top league. Rival side OFI Crete has been deducted four matches, and had its upcoming match against Athromitos FC later this week postponed until the club pays off debts owed to two of its former players.

Archive

Ginola breezes in and blows out of FIFA presidency race

By Andrew Warshaw
January 29 – David Ginola’s unlikely bid for the FIFA presidency appeared to be on the brink of collapse even though his Team Ginola website insisted they were “still in it and fighting”.