By Paul Nicholson
February 22 – While Jordan’s Prince Ali enters the final week of his second quest to conquer the top table of world football and become FIFA president, one of his billionaire subjects has shown a much more humble ambition by buying a 92% stake in fourth tier English club Bristol Rovers.
February 22 – While Europe’s football elite will be strutting their way round France in five-star accommodation and with plenty of cash to flash, another group of footballers will be taking far more significant and humble personal journey to Glasgow. The Scottish city will host the 2016 Homeless World Cup from July 10-16, the 14th edition of the event and the second time it has been hosted in Scotland.
By Matt Scott
February 21 – FIFA’s presidential election will feature two swing voters who in an increasingly bitter struggle for support among candidates could play a decisive role in its outcome.
February 19 – Manchester United overtook Arsenal today to become the English Premier League club with the most Twitter followers. Having overtaken them, they soared to a lead of more than 500 followers within hours.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 19 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has scrapped its regional summit scheduled for the eve of next week’s FIFA presidential election in Zurich, fuelling the ever intriguing rumour mill and conspiracy theories over whether some kind of last-minute unexpected move is in the offing.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 19 – Outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter insists he has no preferred candidate to take his place but says he has spoken with four of the five contenders in the build-up to next week’s election.
By Mark Baber
February 19 – Nike has won plaudits for ending its relationship with Manny Pacquiao, but its ongoing sponsorship of Nigerian football shows its apparently principled stand against homophobia is little more than a marketing device.
February 19 – To ensure that no last-minute skullduggery takes place and the ballot remains secret, mobile phones and cameras will be banned from polling booths at next week’s FIFA presidential election.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 19 – FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali bin al-Hussein has revealed more details of the independent “oversight” body from outside football he will introduce if elected, with former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan (pictured centre) planned to head up the group whose mission will be to help FIFA out of its quagmire of scandal and corruption.
February 19 – A Russian footballer who removed his shirt to provocatively reveal a picture of Vladimir Putin at a Europa League fixture in Turkey is to be punished by his club which in turn is to be sanctioned by UEFA.
By Paul Nicholson
February 19 – Football corruption at federation level may be grabbing the headlines and attention of the media but a recent audit of one of the world’s leading match-fixing fraud monitoring systems is a brutal reminder that betting related match manipulation by organised crime syndicates is a far bigger threat to the integrity of the game.
February 19 – FIFPro have unveiled their first ever Women’s World XI. While women have award parity with the men in terms of the Ballon d’Or World Player of the Year awards, until now (and unlike the men) a World XI selected by female players worldwide had never been attempted.
By Paul Nicholson
February 18 – Meetings of Asian Football Confederation (AFC) member associations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to discuss the FIFA reform proposals led to reiterated support for Shaikh Salman in his bid for the FIFA presidency, and speculation from observers as UEFA’s candidate Gianni Infantino enterprisingly turned up to lobby federations.
February 18 – FIFA’s ethics investigators have requested life bans for two senior South American officials who have already pleaded guilty as part of the FBI probe into widespread bribery and corruption.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 18 – Whilst much of the focus in Asia is on next week’s FIFA presidential election, internal regional spats within the giant and diverse confederation continue to rumble on.