By David Owen
November 5 – The other club in Barcelona – Espanyol, currently 10th in La Liga – look poised to fall under Chinese control. The Guangdong-based Rastar Group has said its Hong Kong unit is to buy 45%-56% of the club in a deal valued at up to almost $20 million.
By Paul Nicholson in New York
November 5 – The pay equity issue between men and women’s football could be solved by making the women’s game a much bigger business, said Sunil Gulati, president of the US Soccer Federations (USSF) and a FIFA executive committee member.
By Paul Nicholson in New York
November 5 – Former US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, speaking at the Securing Sport 2015 conference in New York, sent a strong message out on the importance of sport security: securing sport integrity from corruption, securing vulnerable athletes; and securing events from terrorist attack.
By Paul Nicholson in New York
November 5 – The US Department of Justice assault on FIFA has not been motivated by sour grapes over failing to win the bid for the 2022 World Cup, said former US attorney journal Eric Holder who was part of the initial investigation but left his post in April, before the arrests in Zurich and indictments were announce last May.
By Paul Nicholson in New York
November 4 – The first formal steps towards the formation of a worldwide anti-corruption body were announced by Michael Hershman (pictured) in his closing remarks at the Securing Sport 2015 conference.
By Paul Nicholson in New York
November 3 – In his opening remarks at the Securing Sport 2015 conference in New York, ICSS President Mohammed Hanzab (pictured) issued a call to action to organisations around the world to speed up the fight against sport corruption.
By Paul Nicholson in New York
November 3 – FIFA presidential candidate Tokyo Sexwale, speaking in New York at the Securing Sport 2015 conference, said that he felt FIFA’s sponsors had gone too far in issuing an ultimatum that either current president Sepp Blatter must go or they will pull their funding.
By Paul Nicholson in New York
November 3 – The biggest threat to sport globally and football in particular is not corrupt administrators or athletes doping, but the infiltration of organised crime and the fixing of matches, said Chris Eaton, Director of Sport Integrity at the ICSS, speaking at the Securing Sport 2015 conference in New York.
By Paul Nicholson
November 3 – The chair FIFA’s reform committee Francois Carrard says that he does not believe FIFA is systemically corrupt and that he hopes he will have the opportunity to speak to all the presidential candidates before the elections in February.
November 3 – Under-fire Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, the self-styled ‘Special One’ who is suffering the worst spell of his coaching career, has been hit yet with yet another sanction amid reports that he is being sued personally by former Chelsea doctor Eva Carneiro.
November 3 – First he accused African players of being “banana eaters”, then made disparaging remarks about the sexuality of women footballers. Now the president of Italy’s Football Association Carlo Tevacchio is at it again, this time accused of making anti-Semitic and homophobic remarks.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 3 – South Africa’s Tokyo Sexwale still has work to do before convincing his own African confederation that he should become their preferred candidate for the FIFA presidential election.
By Mark Baber
November 3 – Talks are continuing Tuesday, amidst high hopes, as a joint FIFA and AFC delegation meets with key stakeholders, including the Indonesian president, to find a solution for Indonesian football and to lift the country’s suspension which is causing increasing damage to the football infrastructure of one of SE Asia’s leading footballing powers.
November 3 – Tax authorities in Germany have raided the headquarters of the German Football Federation (DFB) as part of an investigation into the country’s increasingly suspicious 2006 World Cup bid campaign.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 3 – The ability and willingness of FIFA to clean itself up following the biggest scandal in sporting history looks to have been undermined after Asia’s most influential sports administrator says a number of reform proposals will be rejected, not least term limits for senior officials.