By Andrew Warshaw
17 October – Amidst all the hullaballoo over the 2022 Qatar World Cup, a younger version of football’s biggest global jamboree was set to begin in the Gulf today (Thursday), almost unnoticed outside the region itself. The under-17 World Cup is being staged in six venues by one of Qatar’s neighbours, the United Arab Emirates, with little controversy and hardly any hot air – metaphorically speaking.
By Mark Baber
October 16 – Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has revealed that a decision will be made on which project gets the go ahead for the planned refurbishment of the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu by the end of October, with the club now looking to find a sponsor to add their name to the stadium.
By Mark Baber
October 16 – Manchester United, and their official logistics partner DHL, are to tour the Premier League Trophy to 31 destinations in 24 cities worldwide in the coming months to celebrate last season’s Premier League triumph.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 16 – The World Cup qualifying programme in Europe reached a nail-biting conclusion Tuesday night as Bosnia-Herzegovina celebrated reaching their first finals as an independent nation, beating Lithuania 1-0 to finish top of their group.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 16 – Inter Milan, winners of 18 Italian league titles, have become the latest iconic European club to be taken over by foreign investors. A trio of Indonesian businessmen led by media tycoon Erick Thohir have bought a 70% stake in the Serie A giants.
By Andrew Warshaw
Ocotber 16 – Zambian football has been plunged into a bizarre footballing dispute after three international players refused to travel with the national squad ahead of a 2-0 friendly defeat by Brazil in neutral China.
By Tom Parsons
October 15 – One week ago Andros Townsend was on the receiving end of 3-0 home defeat to West Ham. A week later, Townsend is being hailed as a national hero after his heroic performance for England against Montenegro last Friday.
By Mark Baber
October 15 – Plans by Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development to slash the costs of the construction budget for the 2018 World Cup have been criticised by the influential State Duma Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Katrenko, as short-sighted.
By Mark Baber
October 15 – Shortly before the first leg of their World Cup play-off against Ethiopia the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) banned former secretary general, Taiwo Ogunjobi, and the immediate past chairman of the Nigeria Premier League (NPL), Victor Rumson Baribote, for 10 and 15 years respectively from any football related activity.
By Mark Baber
October 15 – After a clash with paparazzi in Naples, Mario Balotelli has been defended by the Italian FA after journalists used the incident to spark a storm of criticism against the Milan striker.
By Alexander Krassimirov
October 15- The players of Bulgarian first division club Neftohimic Burgas have agreed to play without wages in an attempt to save the club from bankruptcy.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 15 – As the World Cup qualifying programme reaches a nail-biting climax, a row has broken out over the seeding system being used for next week’s playoff draw.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 15 – In the most damaging case of match-fixing ever to strike at the heart of central American football, FIFA has extended worldwide the lifetime bans imposed last month by the El Salvador federation on 14 of its current and past senior internationals.
By Mark Baber
October 11 – The first round of World Cup ticket applications closed yesterday with 6,164,682 ticket requests, 70.86% of them from Brazil. As demand is greatly exceeding supply, FIFA has said it will organise a lottery for various matches. Applications from elderly persons, students and members of the “Bolsa Familia” will go into a special lottery for 300,000 tickets.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 11 – Italy, rocked by an ongoing match-fixing scandal, no longer has the same standing in European football as it used to, according to Juventus president Andrea Agnelli. And unless there are improvements on and off the field, it will stay that way.