By Andrew Warshaw in Vienna
March 24 – UEFA president Michel Platini used his keynote address to his confederation’s congress today to highlight the ills afflicting European football, with the “insidious” scourge of nationalism-fuelled fan violence at the top of the list.
March 24 – England FA chairman Greg Dyke has called for top-flight clubs to increase the number of home-grown players in their squads in order to boost the fortunes of the national team and the effectiveness of club academy systems..
March 24 – With five days to go before the 16-team 2015 CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship in El Salvador kicks off, official rosters have been announced. A month ago, CONCACAF gathered the head coaches of the national teams for a four-day technical workshop in Florida.
“What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is my own.” Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation
By making assets of men, football has always had a unique relationship with property. In no other walk of life can the right to employ someone be a tradable commodity worth tens of millions of pounds, dollars or euros.
By Alexander Krassimirov
March 24 – The owner of Bulgaria’s Botev Plovdiv Tsvetan Vasilev (pictured) has withdrawn from the football club. The majority shareholder at the troubled Corporate Commercial Bank (CCB), is transferring his assets in Botev Plovdiv to fans group Association Botev.
March 24 – Fernando Santos, the coach of the Portuguese team who was in charge of Greece at the World Cup last year in Brazil, has had his FIFA penalties halved on appeal to the Court for Aribtiration for Sport (CAS).
By Mark Baber
March 23 – A delegation tasked by FIFA with finding a solution to the Kenyan football crisis, including Ghana Football Association (GFA) president Kwesi Nyantakyi, development officer Ashford Mamelodi, and FIFA’s head of Member Associations Primo Carvaro has arrived in Nairobi. A meeting which will include Kenya Football Federation (FKF) and Kenyan Premier League (KPL) officials is scheduled for Monday evening.
By Andrew Warshaw in Vienna
March 23 – Having already rejected an invitation to take part in a televised debate with the three candidates bidding for his job, FIFA president Sepp Blatter has now declined an offer to go head-to-head with them at the UEFA Congress on Tuesday.
By Andrew Warshaw in Vienna
March 23 – Any suggestion that peace and harmony reigns at UEFA was dramatically undermined today when European football’s governing body launched an unprecedented rebuke on one of its own powerbrokers.
By David Owen
March 21 – FIFA’s decision to make $209 million available to the employers of squad members of teams qualifying for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups means top European clubs in particular can look forward to dramatically enhanced payouts.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 23 – Leagues across Europe are angrily refusing to accept FIFA’s decision to switch the 2022 Qatar World Cup to winter, saying they will back any legal action against the unprecedented move.
March 23 – Carlos Queiroz’s uncomfortable tenure as Iran’s coach ended on a bitter note when he was briefly barred from leaving the country over allegations of a reported $300,000-plus in unpaid taxes.
By Samindra Kunti
March 23 – Dutch club AZ Alkmaar have hired Moneyball baseball guru Billy Beane (pictured) in an advisory role to try and close the gap on big-spending clubs in the Eredivisie.
By Paul Nicholson
March 23 – Premier League Twitter stats for the week ending Friday March 20 show no change in the top five positions of clubs ranked by new followers. Manchester United continue top the table, 7,000 new followers ahead of Arsenal and Chelsea, with Liverpool fourth and Manchester City trailing in fifith.
By David Owen
March 23 – World Cup ticketing income combined with a bonus from a well-subscribed hospitality programme to enable FIFA to shoulder a number of additional costs in 2014 without slipping into deficit or dipping into its rainy day reserve.