By Paul Nicholson
January 14 – Russian 2018 World Cup focus is increasingly turning to budgets and costs as the national economy falters under the pressure of declining energy prices and Western sanctions. But the government’s commitment to deliver seems undiminished despite the financial hardships.
January 14 – Middle Eastern countries have changed the face of football sponsorship over the past 10 years, not by the number of deals that have originated from the region but the amount of money spent.
January 14 – Asia is proving fertile ground for the Manchester clubs from the English Premier League. City have broken into China with local lottery provider DJI Holdings, while United have announced the second day of the club’s UNITED: LIVE fan party will take place in Jakarta, Indonesia January 31.
January 12 – Telecom brand VIVO, part of Telefônica Brasil, has renewed its sponsorship with the Brazilian national teams for another eight years. The partnership has existed since 2004 and incorporates both male and female teams.
By Mark Baber
January 13 – The refusal of the current Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) Executive Committee to set up an arbitration panel in order to bring a sense of legitimacy to football governance in the country, following the disputed elections of September 30, has returned Nigerian football to a full-blown crisis – this time with influential opponents of the Warri-elected NFF President Amaju Pinnick promising to take action simultaneously.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 13 – Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the forgotten potential candidate in the FIFA presidential election campaign, says he will not make up his mind whether to stand until the last moment.
January 13 – The 2014 World Cup in Brazil is fading into the distance as CONCACAF gathers in Miami, Florida on Thursday, January 15 for the preliminary draw for the qualification rounds for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. Games will be played March 23-31.
By Andrew Warshaw
Jnauary 13 – Players at this year’s women’s World Cup in Canada appear close to conceding that they will lose their battle to compete on natural grass.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 13 – As usual there were a few bizarre voting patterns but in the end the favourite won hands down as Christiano Ronaldo was crowned world player of the year for the second straight time and the third time in his career on Monday night.
January 12 – Russia’s sports minister Vitaliy Mutko has slammed his national football federation over their financial difficulties, their failure to pay coach Fabio Capello for six months and their attitude of waiting for the government to come and bail them out and fix their problems.
By Alexander Krassimirov
January 13 – Bulgaria’s Lokomotiv Plovdiv will come under new ownership in the next few days according to a representative of the group running the club, ‘Alliance for Lokomotiv’s Future’. Dian Kolev (pictured with club legend Hristo Bonev) made the announcement before the start of winter training camp of the team.
By Samindra Kunti
January 13 – The Belgian FA, the KBVB, has presented a roadmap to stimulate the growth of its women’s football. The KBVB wants 35,000 active members by 2016 and qualification for EURO2017.
Last week a group led by British politicians announced a one-day forum to be hosted at the European Parliament in Brussels, titled ‘A New FIFA Now’, and promising uncompromising talk of effecting change. In a guest column, Howard Wells, a former national federation CEO and former FIFA insider, argues the meeting is a political vanity project that clouds the debate rather than contributes to it. In the real politik of international football the talk-shop falls at the very first hurdle of failing to understand the basic structure of how football is governed worldwide.
By Mark Baber
January 12 – The 2015 AFC Asian Cup, being held outside Asia for the first time, is well underway with teams from radically different cultures competing on Australian soil in the 16th edition of the world’s second oldest continental competition.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 12 – The woman who runs football in Sierra Leone has denounced the “deceit, lack of integrity and indiscipline” plaguing the game in her country as she attempts to fight off an unofficial group of rebel administrators who claim they have unseated her and are now in control.