By Andrew Warshaw
January 9 – Key Asian football chiefs have staunchly re-iterated their support for FIFA president Sepp Blatter following young pretender Prince Ali’s announcement that he was making a bid for the FIFA throne.
January 9 – The International Sports Press Association, AIPS, has issued a damning statement condemning the terrorist attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that killed 12 people including 10 journalists.
January 9 – English third-tier club Oldham Athletic have pulled out of a deal to sign a convicted rapist in a case that has split public opinion over whether he should be allowed a second chance.
By Ben Nicholson
January 9 – Debate over the eligibility of Frank Lampard to stay playing in England at Manchester City and miss the start of the MLS season for his new club New York City (NYFC) has continued over where NYCFC stands in relation to the contractual ownership of the player. The issue has raised questions on the status and commitment of Steven Gerrard who leaves Liverpool to join LA Galaxy in July.
By Samindra Kunti
January 9 – Vasco Da Gama president Eurico Miranda has criticised the TV rights structure in Brazilian football. He opposes what he calls the elitism and ‘Hispanisation’ of the domestic game with unequal shares of TV money widening the gap between clubs.
By David Owen
January 9 – Details of recipients of a $70 million pot earmarked by FIFA for clubs whose players took part in last year’s World Cup in Brazil have been disclosed, with Germany’s Bayern Munich emerging as comfortably the biggest beneficiary.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 8 – Just days after he announced that he was taking on Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency, Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein has his first opportunity on Friday to gauge how much support he might get from within his own region.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 8 – Former England captain Steven Gerrard, the latest footballing icon to further his career in the United States, as expected has chosen Los Angeles Galaxy where David Beckham made his name in the country.
The public attention for Team China’s trip to Australia this January has been very high, even though the topics mostly are not related to the potential achievements of this team in 2015 Asian Cup. Alain Perrin, the French head coach of Team China, selected a reasonably young team, with an average age of 24.5 years old, and laid off quite a few settled international players. However, the stories were all about other issues, like a funny Now We Start departure ceremony held on the sports channel of CCTV,
By Mark Baber
January 8 – As the numbers of new Ebola patients falls off dramatically in Liberia, with just eight new infections reported in 29 December to January 4 reporting period, the Liberian Football Federation has announced the resumption of competitive matches “with immediate effect,” marking a major milestone in the impoverished country’s struggle against the deadly disease which has killed at least 3,471 people in Liberia.
“It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look farther than you can see.” Winston Churchill
Last week this column took a look back over what it had predicted for 2014 to see how they had fared in reality. Now, for the first column of 2015, and as one of history’s great men once said, it seems wise to look ahead, at least as far as we can see.
January 8 – Barcelona have been quick to dispel reports that Lionel Messi is unhappy with the way the club is being run and could be on his way out of the Nou Camp.
January 8 – Despite fierce opposition from fans and the general public and a number of sponsors threatening to pull out in protest, an English lower-league club appears on the verge of offering a contract to a convicted rapist who has served a jail sentence.
By Alexander Krassimirov
January 8 – Grisha Ganchev (pictured), a member of the Bulgarian Football Union executive committee and owner of Bulgaria’s Litex Lovech is facing court charges, one of which names him as the leader of an organised crime syndicate.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
January 7 – Carlo Tavecchio, the president of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), has continued to promote his plans for a reformed Italian league structure that would see both Serie A and B decrease from 20 to 18 teams.