By Richard van Poortvliet
April 30 – The Russian Football Union has moved Russia’s friendly match against Slovakia in May from Kazan to St. Petersburg, due to the poor state of the pitch in the capital of Tatarstan.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 30 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has revisited the home-grown player debate by arguing that too few are given a chance to prove themselves because of the foreign invasion.
April 30 – Horrific pictures of a Polish fan emerging unhurt after being doused in flames has been picked on up social media around the world and has heaped more concern on a country that has struggled to eradicate spectator violence.
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” John Donne, No Man Is An Island
Liverpool’s time was the 1970s. This is not at all to diminish their achievements or the anguish that great club enjoyed and endured in the 1980s. But the foundations for becoming the club they are today were laid under Bill Shankly in the decade before.
April 30 – The Stade de France in Paris will host both the opening game and the final of Euro 2016 after UEFA confirmed the match schedule. Host nation France will get the competition under way on June 10, with the climax to the tournament – the first Euros to comprise 24 instead of 16 teams – a month later.
The Caribbean is one seriously beautiful region in this world.
Plush rain forests, beautiful beaches, sunshine all year round – and dirty little tax secrets amid the pebbled and/or sandy beaches.
Much of the Caribbean was her Majesty’s property for hundreds of years.
The structures that were left behind in the sixties, when nearly all Crown Colonies were thrust into “independence”, are decidedly British, too.
By Paul Nicholson
April 29 – With CONCACAF and South American confederation CONMEBOL readying for their Miami press conference, CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb has hinted that changes to the accepted structures of the regional competitions could be considered in the future.
By David Owen
April 29 – FIFA will run up $250,000 in extra costs as a result of having to send samples from this summer’s World Cup across the Atlantic for analysis, the chairman of the body’s Medical Committee has acknowledged, as he set out plans for the most extensive anti-doping controls ever at international football’s flagship tournament.
By Paul Nicholson
April 29 – History will be made in the Caribbean next month when the first Caribbean Football Union (CFU) senior women’s tournament will be held. Winners of the inaugural CFU Women’s Caribbean Cup will qualify for both the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup and the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 28 – FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke has endorsed the ongoing probe being conducted by the organisation’s ethics investigator Michael Garcia into the voting process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
By Richard van Poortvliet
April 28 – Spartak Moscow could be in yet more hot water with the Russian Football Union following the behaviour of their fans during their 2-1 defeat at Rubin Kazan on April 20.
A week has now gone by since one of the game’s most high-profile managerial sackings – and what have we learned?
Only, perhaps, that football, far from being “just a game”, as many traditionalists would love to believe, is in fact the most ruthless of businesses. And that the cash-rich Premier League, supposedly the Holy Grail for any coach worth his salt, is the most ruthless league of them all.
Incredibly,
By Mark Baber
April 28 – Following the successful auction of Indian Super League (ISL) franchises, the new competition has run into difficulties with fixture congestion and recruitment of players. With Bollywood superstars have been drawn into popularising the game, the AIFF for the first time has suggested a merger possibility of the new league with the pre-existing I-League.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
April 28 – Hungary’s MTK is planning to spend 6.5 billion forint (€21 million) on building a new stadium, according to Tamas Deutsch, the club’s chief executive.
By Paul Nicholson
April 28 – Speaking in Toluca, Mexico, CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb said that he would support the re-election of current FIFA president Sepp Blatter for a fifth term if he decided to stand.