By David Owen
May 12 – FIFA appears to have opted for a tentative approach in its long-running efforts to reform the agent system. An official circular recently sent to FIFA members preparing for next month’s Congress in Sao Paulo seems to indicate that a possible 3% cap on remuneration payable to “intermediaries” would be by recommendation only.
By David Owen
May 12 – With just a month to go before the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the Brazilian Government has launched its largest mobilisation of armed forces, using 30,000 military personnel to patrol its entire 17,000-kilometre national border, one of the world’s longest.
By Richard van Poortvliet
May 12 – Zenit St. Petersburg are in yet more trouble with the Russian Football Union after one of their supporters punched Dynamo Moscow defender Vladimir Granat in the head, towards the end of their Russian Premier League tie.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
May 12 – Municipal authorities in Katowice have bought shares worth PLN 1.1 million (€280,000) in their local football club GKS. The deal follows two other acquisitions of shares made earlier this year making a total of PLN 2 million (€510,000) invested to date.
May 9- Europe’s leading professional leagues have come out in opposition to switching the Qatar World Cup in 2022 from summer to winter, seemingly putting themselves on a collision course with Fifa which most observers believe is edging nearer and nearer to formally adopting a change of timing.
By Mark Baber
May 9- Sparked by the recent massacre in Odessa, the Ukrainian Football Federation (FFU) has ruled that the next round of league games, as well as the cup final, will be held behind closed doors, whilst no matches will be held in the troubled Donetsk, Luhansk, Odessa and Kharkiv regions.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 9- Radical proposals to halt the decline of English football at national level have been met with a mixed reaction but must be implemented to prevent a bleak future, according to English FA chairman Greg Dyke.
On Thursday proposals were unveiled to change the lower-division structure to enhance opportunities for England-registered players, reduce the number of foreign imports and boost the chances of national team success.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 9- Yet another World Cup construction worker has lost his life – just over a month before the start of the finals. This time, the tragedy took place in Cuiaba, one of the most delayed venues, when an electrical accident temporarily halted work on the stadium.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 9- Fifa president Sepp Blatter has made up his mind to stand for a fifth term, according to Swiss reports.
Blatter used a meeting of specially invited Swiss business and sports executives in Zurich to finally confirm that he intends to carry on running world football’s governing body at the age of 78.
May 9 –Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund has forged strong links to the ex-patriate Polish community in its local area. So much so that the club has a significant Polish player contingent and even a major Polish sponsor. In an exclusive interview with leading Polish sports businesss website www.temporada.pl, Dortmund’s head of business development Benedikt Scholz (pictured) explains the club’s strategy approach to maximising its Polish connections.
By Mark Baber
May 9 – Spain’s Secretary of State for Sport Miguel Cardenal (pictured) revealed Thursday that professional clubs in the county’s First and Second Division have accumulated debts of €3.573 billion, according to data from the Sports Council.
By Mark Baber
May 9 – Indian sports broadcaster Ten Sports has agreed a 3-season deal with the Football Federation of Australia (FFA) to broadcast Australia’s top tier competition – the Hyundai A-League – across the Indian sub-continent, from this October.
When Italy won the 2006 World Cup they did so with their club football in turmoil. A corruption scandal engulfed the club game, grave enough for Juventus to be stripped of two league titles and others hit with relegations and points deductions.
No such obvious crisis in 2014. But severe problems are there. We’ll come to hooliganism in a moment but quality-wise Italian football IS in a bad way.
It mysteriously doesn’t seem to be affecting the national team,
May 8 – Louis van Gaal, Holland’s coach at the World Cup, has given the broadest hint yet that he will succeed David Moyes as the next full-time boss of Manchester United.
May 8 – Brazil’s attempt to win the World Cup on home soil will be handed to those who have given the country back its pride under coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. In other words, no big surprises.