By Andrew Warshaw
February 3 – Football’s lawmakers will consider allowing a fourth substitution in extra-time as well as finally doing away with the so-called “triple punishment” when they hold their main annual meeting later this month.
February 2 – Stand-in hosts Equatorial Guinea may have surpassed all expectations by reaching the semi-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations but the tournament, already criticised for lack of organisation, faces a barrage of fresh anger over both the officiating and player indiscipline.
By Mark Baber
February 2 – Across most of Europe today is transfer deadline day with the window shutting at 17:00 GMT in Germany, 22:00 GMT in Italy, Greece, 23:00 GMT in England, France, Austria, the Netherlands and 00:00 GMT in Scotland. Below is a summary of activity and targets for English Premier League clubs.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
February 2 – Bjorn Vassallo, the chief executive of the Malta Football Association (MFA), has called on the country’s authorities to update the laws that deal with sports corruption following its decision earlier this year to set up an experts’ task force to coordinate against match-fixing and organised crime in Maltese football.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 2 – Sepp Blatter has fired the opening salvo in his bid to remain as FIFA president by pledging that countries with poor human rights records would never again be allowed to stage the World Cup as long as he is in office.
February 2 – FIFA have formally announced that four candidates, including present incumbent Sepp Blatter, are in the running to become president at the election on May 29.
By Paul Nicholson
February 2 – The Old Firm matches returned to Scotland for the first time in three years this weekend with Celtic hosting Rangers at Hampden Park in front of a packed house 50,000 crowd in the Scottish League Cup semi-final. But for the majority of Rangers’ shareholders and fans the most important battle currently is not against bitter cross-town rivals Celtic, but against investor Mike Ashley and his financial incursion from the South.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 2 – Jerome Champagne, the first prospective contender to take on Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency, is out of the race after angrily accusing his critics of deliberately blocking his bid to gain sufficient backing.
February 2 – The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Governing Board has given the boot to the seven-a-side football discipline for the 2022 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, but five-a-side football is staying in.
By Samindra Kunti
February 2 – Corinthians have closed the financial year 2014 with a €29.8 million deficit. The losses could impact on the club’s presidential elections on February 7.
Whatever happens in the FIFA Presidential election one thing is already clear. Sepp Blatter has split Europe wide open. The most powerful and richest confederation in world football, whose leagues dominate the game and whose prize competition, the Champions League, is the greatest club competition in the world, cannot agree on a candidate to oppose the Swiss. Already 11 of the 54 national associations of UEFA are publicly pledged to three different rivals of Blatter: Michael van Praag,
FIFA isn’t the only International Sports Federation (IF) with a Presidential election on at the moment. And, looking at the way the campaign for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Presidency has started, it is hard not to conclude that world football’s governing body has a few lessons to learn.
By David Owen
January 30 – Barcelona, one of the two giants of Spanish club football, are claiming that the FC Barcelona Museum has again won the title of most visited in Catalonia, outpulling museums devoted to the famous painters Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 30 – Jordan’s Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, regarded by many as the most credible rival to Sepp Blatter for the presidency of FIFA, today unveiled his vision for the future of football’s world governing body – but declined to name the five federations who have officially endorsed his candidacy.
January 31 – The shadow of Jack Warner and his dealings as president of CONCACAF has made a reappearance in Trinidad where a tribunal has been appointed to investigate his assets and registered interests as part of the integrity checks on the island for public officials.