I can’t tell you exactly why Pep Guardiola, the hottest property in football management, decided this week to hitch his wagon to Germany’s Bundesliga.
But I don’t think it would have happened had it not been for a choice made by an obscure New Zealand football administrator in Zurich on 7 July 2000.
By Mark Baber
January 18 – The 2013 Africa Cup of Nations kicks off tomorrow with hosts South Africa playing Cape Verde at the National Stadium in Johannesburg and the South African organisers are ready to go.
By Mark Baber
January 18 – Napoli have had the two-point penalty imposed for match fixing overturned and Paolo Cannavaro and Gianluca Grava have both had their six month bans revoked on appeal.
By Mark Baber
January 18 – Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia, Sergei Ivanov, has stated that nobody will stop the construction of the Zenit football stadium in St Petersburg and it will be ready for the World Cup in 2018.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 18 – UEFA president Michel Platini has met with French politicians to discuss his organisation’s financial fair play rules designed to prevent clubs spending more than they earn.
By Andrew Warshaw, Chief Correspondent
January 18 – Although match fixing has become arguably the greatest scourge in the game, FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke is confident that elite matches in competitions like the Champions League and World Cup matches are immune from any illegal activity. But he says there needs to be a co-ordinated approach.
When Greek and Turkish Cypriot football officials staged their landmark re-unification talks this week, among the keen observers waiting in the winter sunshine for the eagerly anticipated arrival of the respective federation leaders was 81-year-old Sevim Ebeoglu.
Sevim, perhaps more than anyone else, epitomises what it would mean for the Turkish side of the divided island to be re-integrated with its once friendly neighbour.
By Mark Baber
January 18 – Host nation South Africa kick off their African Cup of Nations campaign on Saturday against Cape Verde with the players refusing to accept any bonuses for their Group A matches unless they qualify.
January 18 – China’s most successful football club, Dalian Shide FC, is in danger of going out of business after a proposed merger with local rivals Dalian Aerbin FC was blocked by the Chinese Football Association (CFA).
By Mark Baber
January 17 – The fall-out from December’s violence at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kalkutta when a player was badly injured by a rock thrown from the crowd, is continuing to cause controversy.
By Andrew Warshaw, Chief Correpondent, in Nicosia
Janaury 17 – Football re-unification on the bitterly divided island of Cyprus took a pivotal step forward today when the leaders of the respective Greek and Turkish Cypriot federations announced they were closer than ever to burying their differences after decades of separation and mistrust.
By Mark Baber
January 17 – Wei Di, the head of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) has been sacked three years after being appointed to the role.
By Mark Baber
January 17 – Pierluigi Collina, UEFA’s chief refereeing officer, visited Brussels to offer support and encouragement as the Belgium introduces additional assistant referees (AARs).
By Andrew Warshaw
January 17 – FIFA’s new director of security says he trying his best to step up the fight against match-fixing which, he believes, is rife throughout the game with as many as 50 leagues targeted by match fixers.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 17 – After months of speculation and innumerable column inches, England’s Premier League clubs have lost out on the services of Pep Guardiola, with the much-touted Spanish coach opting for Bayern Munich next season at the end of his year-long self-imposed sabbatical.