January 21 – Bayern Munich have returned from a training camp in the Middle East to face a barrage of criticism over a friendly played in Saudi Arabia, with politicians and fans claiming the club had ignored the issue of human rights in the country.
January 21 – Manchester United has announced Irish casino game maker KamaGames as the club’s first official Social Casino Games partner. KamaGames is a specialist in developing games for mobile and is targeting United’s global fan based, claimed by the club to number 659 million followers.
By Paul Nicholson
January 21 – The pressure on the Russian Football Union (RFU) to pay its Italian head coach and team manager, Fabio Capello and Oreste Cinquini, has been mounting with criticism of the RFU coming from inside Russia from sports minister Vitaly Mutko and outside from UEFA president Michel Platini.
January 20 – Qatar’s disastrous Asian Cup campaign is exactly the opposite of what they expected both in terms of maintaining progress on the field and also in sending out a message to those who oppose the World Cup going to the Gulf state in 2022.
By Mark Baber
January 20 – Communist multi-billionaire Wang Jianlin is set to take a 20% stake in La Liga Champions Atletico Madrid, with the agreement being signed on tomorrow, according to media reports.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 20 – FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali bin Al Hussein will be conspicuous by his absence when a new pressure group campaigning for greater reform convene at the European Parliament for the first time tomorrow.
January 20 – MATCH Services, FIFA’s accommodation partner for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, has had all charges that it was leveraging “abusive” prices in the hotel market with tickets for matches dismissed by CADE, Brazil’s anti-competition authority.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 20 – Jerome Champagne has finally conceded he is struggling to acquire the necessary backing to stay in the race to become FIFA president and has made a last-ditch appeal for support.
January 20 – The future of Leeds United, a former giant of English football and one of the country’s most iconic clubs, has suffered yet another blow after Italian owner Massimo Cellino lost his appeal against the Football League’s decision to disqualify him.
January 20 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter, in Russia at the weekend for the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Cup youth championship in St Petersburg, said that he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin who had assured him that the World Cup was not in jeopardy despite the country’s economic difficulties.
Back in the late 1990s as a passionate Tottenham Hotspur fan – which I still am – I was mesmerised watching David Ginola. He may have played at a number of other clubs, both in England and his native France, but it was at Tottenham where his silky skills were wholeheartedly embraced by the fans who elevated him to near-legendary status.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 19 – A group of US senators has written to FIFA president Sepp Blatter in support of the elite female players who have been protesting against the decision to stage this summer’s women’s World Cup in Canada on artificial turf.
By Mark Baber
January 19 – The threatened occupation of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) Glass House HQ by the Chris Giwa faction fighting for leadership of the NFF didn’t take place last week as both Giwa and Amaju Pinnick were appearing before the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Lausanne on Friday in attempt to find settlement of the disputed elections into the executive board of the NFF.
By Paul Nicholson
January 19 – The battle for control of Scotland’s Rangers Football Club continued over the weekend with angry fans protesting at Saturday’s match against league leaders Hearts (abandoned after 20 minuted due to heavy snow), and this morning the board announcing to the stock exchange that it is seeking the withdrawal of a notice for a general meeting that would seek to oust four directors.
January 19 – Organisers of the Africa Cup of Nations have sought to play down complaints about sub-standard facilities but have admitted the tournament, which got under way at the weekend, may not be of the highest standard.