By Andrew Warshaw at the International Football Arena conference in Zurich
November 12 – Sepp Blatter admitted today that he had made mistakes during his 14-year FIFA Presidency but said he would not have got where he is without taking risks.
By Andrew Warshaw at the International Football Arena conference in Zurich
November 12 – A groundbreaking new sponsorship deal will be announced in the next two months between Chelsea and the Sauber Formula One team, the club’s chief executive Ron Gourlay revealed today.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 7 – Given recent sensitive and unsavoury episodes in English football, Alistair Kirkwood’s address to the forthcoming International Football Arena (IFA) in Zurich on how the round-ball game can learn from American football could not have been better planned.
Last Sunday Marcel Schmid was at Wembley to watch the New England Patriots play the St Louis Rams. Nothing remarkable in that you may think, some 84,000 others were also there as NFL made its annual foray outside its homeland in an effort to reach a worldwide audience.
But for Schmid, chairman of the International Football Arena (IFA), it provided renewed focus for one of the themes that will dominate this year’s conference in Zurich on November 12-13.
By Andrew Warshaw at the Leaders in Football conference at Stamford Bridge in London
October 12 – The head of FIFA’s Referees Committee says he is completely against goal-line technology – in direct opposition to FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s stance.
By David Gold at Russia.Park in Kensington Gardens
July 27 – Vitaly Mutko, the Russian Sports Minister, has ruled himself out of contention to become the new President of the Russian Football Union (RFU).
By Mike Rowbottom
July 6 – Steve Williams, the double Olympic rowing gold medallist, will be helping to improve the fitness of Ipswich Town players next season as they push for a place in the English Premier League.
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
July 5 – Muslim women were given a “100 per cent guarantee” by the game’s lawmakers today that they are now free to wear the hijab at senior competitive level.
By Duncan Mackay
April 10 – Former FIFA President Joao Havelange is back in intensive care suffering from heart and breathing problems, with doctors describing his condition as “serious”.
By Duncan Mackay
March 20 – Former FIFA President João Havelange is seriously ill while undergoing treatment for an infection, a Brazilian hospital has announced.
By David Gold
March 5 – Premier League rivals Arsenal and Manchester City will play a high profile friendly in China’s Olympic Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing on July 27, the day of the start of the Olympic Games in London.
By Andrew Warshaw in Baghsot
March 3 – The ultra-conservative International Football Association Board (IFAB), comprising FIFA and the four British Home Associations, rarely if ever reverses its decisions but made an exception by unanimously agreeing to lift the ban on the Islamic headscarf being worn by female footballers, pending health and safety checks.
By Andrew Warshaw in Bagshot
March 3 – After years of foot-dragging, goalline technology moved a vital step forward today, with FIFA even suggesting it could be introduced before the end of this year.
By David Gold
February 25 – Sports management moguls IMG will no longer represent professional footballers, including Manchester City and Argentinian striker Sergio Agüero (pictured), after deciding the business does not represent value for money.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 16 – Funds donated for the Haiti earthquake fund, but which never arrived, were paid into a bank account controlled by former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner (pictured), according to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF).