By Andrew Warshaw
October 21- The international players union, FifPro, has issued a damning indictment of the exploitation of minors in South American football, urging Fifa to take action and demanding a complete overhaul of the practice.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 21- Brazilian Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo, the government official in charge of preparations for next year’s World Cup, appears to have staged a u-turn and has decided to stay on.
By Alexander Krassimirov
October 18 – German company IFS has unveiled its plans to build a new modern stadium in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia. The stadium will have a capacity of 24,000 (22 000 plus 2000 VIP) seats and should be completed in 2016.
By Gareth Messenger
October 18 – Portuguese giants FC Porto have turned in a chunky €20.3 million profit for the 2012/2013 season. The profit came against a loss of €35.7 million in the previous campaign and despite a 39% slump in ticket revenue.
By Mark Baber
October 18 – With the upcoming debate at the International Football Arena on October 29 focussed on the future for mega sports events, a recent survey in Brazil suggests that despite the protests in country, there is a majority positive public feeling towards the World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 18 – After months of sensitive negotiations, Greek and Turkish Cypriot officials are celebrating securing a landmark meeting with FIFA president Sepp Blatter aimed at possible footballing re-unification on the disputed Mediterranean island.
By Mark Baber
October 18 – Pay TV provider BSkyB said it is enjoying record demand for its TV and broadband services, despite the launch of BT’s new rival sports service. BSkyB, which is 39% owned by Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox, added 111,000 broadband customers and 37,000 TV customers in the quarter to the end of September.
By Mark Baber
October 18 – The slogan for UEFA EURO 2016 was announced in the Marseille city hall, after being approved by the tournament’s steering group. The new slogan is ‘Le Rendez-Vous,’ which represents the organisers’ desire to bring together the best of football, of Europe and of France.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 18 – Controversial Thai football boss Worawi Makudi has finally retained control of his federation after months of internal squabbling. Makudi was re-elected president of the Football Association of Thailand for another four years after defeating former national team boss Virach Chanpanich 42-28 in a secret ballot to earn his fourth straight term. Two votes were deemed invalid.
By Mark Baber
October 17 – Libya’s most popular football club, Tripoli’s Al-Ahly, have withdrawn in protest from the newly relaunched Libyan Football League after their coach was shot at while at home, players were threatened and star player Mohamed Al-Maghrabi was shot in the arm.
By Mark Baber
October 17 – After failing in a forlorn attempt to get FIFA to make a last minute change to the seeding system, this morning’s FIFA Ranking confirms that France have missed out on being seeded for the decisive World Cup qualifiers, after being ranked 21st in the world on 870 points, just a single place and a single ranking point below Ukraine, who are in 20th place on 871 points and who will be seeded.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 17 – Egypt look set to hang on to their American coach Bob Bradley despite Tuesday’s humiliating 6-1 World Cup playoff first leg defeat to Ghana which all but ends the Pharoahs’ dream of reaching next year’s finals.
By Mark Baber
Ocotber 17 – FIFA and the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) have appointed a normalisation committee to take control of the Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) after the federation’s funding was put on hold whilst an investigation looks into poor accounting by the federation’s administrators.
By Gareth Messenger
October 17 – Barcelona president Sandro Rosell has backed his decision to start charging under-sevens for entrance to games at the Camp Nou.
October 17 – Switzerland’s meteoric rise in football’s world rankings has been rewarded with the central European country being seeded for next year’s World Cup finals.