By Andrew Warshaw
April 29- Fifa President Sepp Blatter has condemned the recent case of racism aimed at Barcelona’s Brazilian defender Dani Alves as an “outrage” and has re-iterated that a policy of zero tolerance will be implemented at this summer’s World Cup.
The Caribbean is one seriously beautiful region in this world.
Plush rain forests, beautiful beaches, sunshine all year round – and dirty little tax secrets amid the pebbled and/or sandy beaches.
Much of the Caribbean was her Majesty’s property for hundreds of years.
The structures that were left behind in the sixties, when nearly all Crown Colonies were thrust into “independence”, are decidedly British, too.
By Paul Nicholson
April 29 – With CONCACAF and South American confederation CONMEBOL readying for their Miami press conference, CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb has hinted that changes to the accepted structures of the regional competitions could be considered in the future.
By David Owen
April 29 – FIFA will run up $250,000 in extra costs as a result of having to send samples from this summer’s World Cup across the Atlantic for analysis, the chairman of the body’s Medical Committee has acknowledged, as he set out plans for the most extensive anti-doping controls ever at international football’s flagship tournament.
By Paul Nicholson
April 29 – History will be made in the Caribbean next month when the first Caribbean Football Union (CFU) senior women’s tournament will be held. Winners of the inaugural CFU Women’s Caribbean Cup will qualify for both the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup and the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 28 – FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke has endorsed the ongoing probe being conducted by the organisation’s ethics investigator Michael Garcia into the voting process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
By Richard van Poortvliet
April 28 – Spartak Moscow could be in yet more hot water with the Russian Football Union following the behaviour of their fans during their 2-1 defeat at Rubin Kazan on April 20.
A week has now gone by since one of the game’s most high-profile managerial sackings – and what have we learned?
Only, perhaps, that football, far from being “just a game”, as many traditionalists would love to believe, is in fact the most ruthless of businesses. And that the cash-rich Premier League, supposedly the Holy Grail for any coach worth his salt, is the most ruthless league of them all.
Incredibly,
By Mark Baber
April 28 – Following the successful auction of Indian Super League (ISL) franchises, the new competition has run into difficulties with fixture congestion and recruitment of players. With Bollywood superstars have been drawn into popularising the game, the AIFF for the first time has suggested a merger possibility of the new league with the pre-existing I-League.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
April 28 – Hungary’s MTK is planning to spend 6.5 billion forint (€21 million) on building a new stadium, according to Tamas Deutsch, the club’s chief executive.
By Paul Nicholson
April 28 – Speaking in Toluca, Mexico, CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb said that he would support the re-election of current FIFA president Sepp Blatter for a fifth term if he decided to stand.
By David Owen
April 28 – The revenues of Paris Saint-Germain, the French club whose prospects have been transformed since Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) took control three years ago, exceeded those of its smallest Ligue 1 rival by a factor of 20 in the 2012-13 season.
Easter Monday brought one of those chance juxtapositions: FIFA Presidential candidate Jérôme Champagne’s third campaign letter bounced into my inbox just as those rumours of David Moyes’s impending departure from Manchester United started seriously swirling.
One of the many things that Moyes’s fate demonstrates is that transition seasons are no longer acceptable among football’s super-elite.
His ousting in this way helps to illustrate the validity of Champagne’s point that a “financial iron curtain”
By Andrew Warshaw
April 26 – Traditional powerhouse rivals Germany and England will go head to head off the pitch for the right to stage the semifinals and final of Euro 2020 after Turkish officials unexpectedly withdrew favourites Istanbul from the running in order to concentrate solely on 2024.
April 25 – The Malaysian ringleader of Australia’s notorious match-fixing scandal has been jailed for three years – with two of them suspended – and the club involved deducted eight points.