“C’est bien facile d’être bon, le malaisé c’est d’être juste.” Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
Financial Fair Play has posed football’s regulators with a quandary that Victor Hugo would no doubt quickly have recognised. When making the law it’s dead easy to be good; the hard part is being fair.
By Mark Baber
September 11 – An attempt by the Chris Giwa-faction in Nigeria’s Football Federation (NFF) to hang on to power by appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for a restraint order against FIFA fell at the first hurdle this week.
By Andrew Warshaw in Manchester
September 11 – Three months after discovering that he will lose his position as Asia’s FIFA vice-president, Prince Ali bin Hussein of Jordan has come out fighting by announcing that he will stand for election as a member of FIFA’s executive committee next year.
By Mark Baber
September 11 – The Swedish Football Association (SvFF) announced has reported a case of “suspected bribery” to the police in relation to Jonkopings Sodra’s match against Syrianska on August 25 which Jonkoping won 4-0.
September 11 – The head of FIFA’s Task Force for Women is taking a diplomatic approach to the outcry over the use of synthetic pitches at the next year’s women’s World Cup in Canada.
September 11 – UEFA president Michel Platini has taken a veiled swipe at FIFA’s zero tolerance approach towards racism at the World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 11 – Countries hoping to stage the pan-European Championship finals in 2020 have received mixed news from UEFA’s evaluation panel with the vote just a week away.
September 11 – The race is hotting up in the Caribbean for qualifying places at the CFU Caribbean Cup finals in Jamaica this November. The finals will not only crown the Caribbean champions but will also provide the region’s qualifiers for the CONCACAF 2015 Gold Cup and the 2016 Copa America Centennario, both to be played in the US.
September 11 – St Petersburg city officials have launched a tender for the completion of the Zenit Arena, which is currently being built on Krestovskiy island for the 2018 World Cup. The 61,251-capacity stadium will cost about €934 million. The total value of the contracts that will complete the project is RUB 9.14 billion (€190 million).
By Paul Nicholson
September 11 – Betting industry integrity body ESSA has signed an information sharing agreement with CONCACAF, the only hook-up for the online sportsbook organisation with a football confederation. ESSA already has agreements with FIFA and a number of national federations including the English FA and Germany’s DFB.
By David Owen
September 10 – A substantial reduction in finance costs has enabled Manchester United, in danger of becoming the fallen giants of English football, to bounce back into profit in its latest financial year, in spite of a profoundly disappointing season on the field of play.
By Mark Baber
September 10 – The men’s and women’s Indian national teams for the Asian Games have finally been given the go-ahead to participate in the tournament, bringing to an end a nail-biting few days as Indian officials decided which sports would be cut from India’s contingent.
By Andrew Warshaw in Manchester
September 10 – Between 60 and 80 countries have reported cases of football match-fixing per year over the last three years. That was one of many stark revelations at a hard-hitting session on the subject at the Soccerex Convention in Manchester today.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
September 10 – Czech football side FK Usti nad Labem has reopened its revampled stadium which was modernised at a cost of CZK 168 million (€6 million). As part of the redevelopment, a new stand was added with a seating capacity of 4,000.
It’s just NOT cricket. That, in a nutshell, is the biggest obstacle the Indian Super League faces when it launches in October. It is football sold and packaged with the successful IPL formula. A burst of action over an intense couple of months. Big names, star backers (none bigger than team owner Sachin Tendulkar). Not too may teams (eight), a good spread around the country’s major cities, and a big focus on marketing, promotion, sponsorship and advertisers.