November 14 – Chelsea FC have announced a profit of £18.4 million on a record turnover of £319.8 million for the year ended 30 June 2014. This is the econd and largest profit the largest profit the club has made since Roman Abramovich became owner of the club in 2003. Two years ago the profit was £1.4 million.
By Paul Nicholson
November 14 – Ray Whelan, the British director of FIFA’s World Cup marketing affiliate Match who was arrested at the World Cup in July, has in the last few days returned to the UK. Whelan was bailed in August from Brazil’s notorious Bangu prison but has only just received his passport.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 14 – Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organisers insist they were right to be exonerated from any corruption allegations as reaction continues to pour in, most of it negative, following the controversial summary of Michael Garcia’s report into the entire bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.
November 14 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has extended the domestic ban on six Vietnamese players from Dong Nai FC to confederation level for their role in the country’s match-fixing scandal.
November 14 – More than four years after staging the 2010 World Cup, several of South Africa’s top construction firms have been accused of colluding over tenders in the run-up to the tournament.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 13 – If FIFA had hoped that today’s publication of the summary of Michael Garcia’s report into possible corruption surrounding the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid process would bring some closure, the whole investigation was immediately plunged back into confusion and intrigue when Garcia himself incredibly claimed his evidence had been misrepresented and that he was not happy with the findings.
By Mark Baber
November 13 – The issue of a Roma football club based in Decin in the Czech Republic, whom five league opponents have refused to play, has highlighted the racism and discrimination faced by the Roma communities in Eastern Europe and illustrates the obstacles football administrators need to overcome to ensure equal access and opportunities for all.
November 13 – The Asian Football Development Project (AFDP), one of whose main goals is to use football as a tool for social change and improvement across the region, has agreed to host the Soccerex Asian Forum in Jordan for another two years.
November 13 – A Swiss top-flight team have initiated legal proceedings after one of its players suffered a serious injury following a horror tackle by an opponent last weekend.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 13 – African football chief Issa Hayatou says acceding to Morocco’s request to postpone the Africa Cup of Nations would have been “to sign our death warrant” as yet another country added to the crisis by saying it couldn’t afford to step in and stage the event.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 13 – Qatar is failing to make fast enough progress in dealing with the ill-treatment of migrant workers, Amnesty International has warned in a fresh report. Six months after the 2022 World Cup hosts laid down plans for major reforms, Amnesty says few concrete steps have been taken.
By Paul Nicholson
November 13 – Perhaps the real winner of the report on the inquiry into the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup bidding process is FIFA itself and its president Sepp Blatter, who will be standing for a fifth term as president next year.
By Paul Nicholson
November 13 – While the inquiry into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process clears all the bidders of any wrongdoing that affected the outcome of the December 2012 vote, it is likely that there will be individual casualties as a result of the investigation.
By Paul Nicholson
November 13 – The 2018 and 2022 World Cups will be played in Russia and Qatar, as originally voted for by FIFA’s executive committee on December 2, 2010. The inquiry into the FIFA World Cup Bidding process has found no smoking guns, no bags of cash under tables or even in safety deposit boxes, and no evidence of root and branch corruption that would warrant removal of the biggest event in world sport from the current mandated host countries.
They say a week is a long time in football and the pace of change at FIFA has indeed been remarkable in the four years since the decision to award Russia and Qatar the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting rights.
Since 2010, 12 of the 24 people who voted on the destinations of those World Cups are no longer involved in the FIFA ex-co. Some, such as Ricardo Teixeira, were proved to have been guilty of taking irregular payments at one time or another.