By Andrew Warshaw
August 5 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter is a past master at wooing his audience depending on where his schedule takes him, so it was little surprise that he caught the imagination of the Canadian media on the eve of the under-20 women’s World Cup that is due to start today.
August 5 – With existing and emerging threats to sport on the increase, Securing Sport, the international conference organised by Qatar-based integrity watchdog the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) is being staged in London for the first time.
August 5 – The Ghanaian fans who were seeking asylum in Brazil after the world cup have been granted an initial one-year stay in the country.
By Ben Nicholson
August 5 – This past weekend saw a major breakthrough for soccer in the USA. Average attendance figures for the ten professional soccer matches of the weekend was higher than the average attendance figures for the 15 Major League Baseball games over the same period.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 5 – Corinne Diacre became the first woman to coach a men’s professional team in a competitive match in a major European country on Monday but ended up on the losing side as Clermont Foot narrowly went down 2-1 at Brest in the French second division.
By Ben Nicholson
August 5 – The bidding war for the final expansion team spots in the MLS has intensified further as the previously thought long shot Sacramento has raised eyebrows with a big money investor.
August 5 – Greece’s World Cup coach Fernando Santos has been handed an eight match international ban by FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee. The Portuguese was sent off after extra time in the World Cup knockout game against Costa Rica.
August 4 – UEFA has opened an investigation into the crowd trouble that marred last week’s Champions League qualifier between Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and Copenhagen in Ukraine.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 4 – Strict new betting rules previously announced by English football authorities to prevent players, managers, club employees and match officials from gambling on any football-related matter worldwide have now come into effect.
August 4 – Luis Suarez will learn later this week whether he can start training with his new club after the Court of Arbitration for Sport confirmed it will hear his appeal against his four-month ban for biting at the World Cup on Friday.
August 4 – Kenya’s 0-0 draw with Lesotho on Sunday which ended their Africa Cup of Nations qualification hopes also marked the end of Adel Amrouche’s tenure as head coach along with his backup team.
August 4 – Lens have won their fight to gain promotion to the French fop flight that begins this week but will be playing home games elsewhere.
August 4 – A regional club Futsal championship will make its debut in CONCACAF at the end of this month in Guatemala. The draw for the inaugural CONCACAF Futsal Club Championship was held last week with six clubs representing their member associations.
August 4 – Moscow’s regional governor Andrei Vorobyov has confirmed that 12 training sites will be upgraded for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 4 – In what will be regarded as, at best, an unfortunate turn or phrase and at worst another disgraceful gaffe, the Italian official at the centre of the latest racism storm in European football says he believes he has suffered more pressure than even former US president John F Kennedy’s assassin.