By Mark Baber
April 17 – A-League club Perth Glory have given up their fight against Football Federation Australia (FFA) sanctions, admitting their guilt in breaching the salary cap regulations and accepting a $269,000 fine and relegation to seventh spot in the home-and-away season – losing their place in the A-League finals.
By Paul Nicholson in the Bahamas
April 16 – If there was any lingering confusion as to where the CONCACAF federation votes were heading, in bulk, at the May election for FIFA president, no-one was left in any doubt after an extraordinary show of support from the floor for Sepp Blatter at the confederation’s congress in the Bahamas today.
By Paul Nicholson in the Bahamas
April 16 – CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb used his opening remarks at the confederation’s congress in the Bahamas to acknowledge the progress they have made as a group but to reset their goals for the next stages of reform and building.
By Paul Nicholson in the Bahamas
April 16 – Speaking at the opening of the CONCACAF Congress in the Bahamas today (Thursday) FIFA president Sepp Blatter told his audience of national federations their confederation should have four automatic places at the FIFA World Cup.
By Samindra Kunti
April 17 – Next season the women’s Super League will replace the BeNe League in Belgium. Eight teams will compete in the newly designed league format with the champions crowned after play-offs.
April 17 – Marco Polo Del Nero has officially succeeded Jose Maria Marin as the president of the CBF, the Brazilian Football Confederation.
By Mark Baber
April 17 – The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) is the latest football governing body to see vicious infighting, with allegations of corruption, attempts to disqualify potential electoral opponents, threats of legal action and attempts by the incumbent to lever FIFA’s power against potential rivals, prior to this Friday’s Punjabi Football Association (PFA) elections.
The politics of football have long been rife with allegations of corruption, hypotheses, behind-the-scenes manoeuvring and a fair share of proven malpractise.
By Paul Nicholson in the Bahamas
April 16 – For anyone taking the global annual football confederation congress tour, the Caribbean is the current stop on the schedule which will end in Zurich in May with the main event of the election of the FIFA president. And as in previous elections, the Caribbean is having its day in the FIFA political sun.
April 16 – FC Twente and its main sponsor XXImo have reached an agreement to terminate their contract. The Dutch club is going through troubled times after losing the Dutch Cup final against PEC Zwolle.
April 16 – While their federation presidents were in the Bahamas at the CONCACAF Congress, 15 clubs from nine Caribbean Football Union (CFU) member associations were starting their quest for qualification to the CONCACAF Champions League for the 2015/16 next season.
April 16 – Manchester United are to return to the US for their pre-season tour this summer and will defend their ‘International Champions Cup’ title which they won last last year.
A sad, very disturbing, fact remains constant, over the decades I’ve covered the African game, which is fuelling my deepening pessimism about its future – the ruthless cultivation of a reactionary climate that is extremely hostile to the desperately needed transformation of CAF, the continent’s governing body, into an organisation that will finally command the genuine respect of the global fraternity and use its political capital in the interests of those it ought to primarily serve.
April 15 – A striker with Manchester City’s women’s team has been forced to apologise after causing a social media storm by posting a photograph of herself sharing a laugh with Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal just hours after City’s derby defeat on Sunday.
April 15 – Croatian football, marred by constant problems involving hooligan fans, is back in the spotlight again for all the wrong reasons after national team coach Niko Kovac was assailed by a group of supporters wearing Hajduk Split colours.