By Mark Baber
May 29 – Manchester United have denied being linked to Traffic, the sports management form central to the corruption in South America and CONCACAF uncovered in recent days, whose academy they signed a deal with in 2008.
By Mark Baber
May 27 – The Football League has outlined its plans for title sponsorship of the League and League Cup, officially confirming Capital One will no longer be sponsoring the League Cup, whilst negotiations continue over title sponsorship of the Football League – with Sky Bet very much in the frame.
In a statement on its official web site the Football League confirmed Sky Bet will continue as title sponsor of the Sky Bet Championship,
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
May 26 – You know instinctively when battle lines start to be drawn for FIFA presidential elections. A raft of media organisations camp outside the various confederation hotels keen to pick up any gossip in terms of how the ballot is likely to play out and any late tactical changes of allegiance.
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
May 27 – Before his dramatic and surprise detention at the hands of Swiss law enforcement officers early this morning, it was business as usual for CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb, and high on the agenda was World Cup representation and the number of nations qualifying for the finals. Webb, who has consistently campaigned for more World Cup representation for his Continent, says increasing the finals from its present 32-team format is not the best way to go about it.
By Mark Baber
May 26 – Two first half goals within three minutes, scored by Cameron Jerome and Nathan Redmond, ensured that Norwich City beat Middlesbrough in the “£120 million” Wembley Championship play-off final – just a year after suffering the shock of relegation.
May 22 – Russia is warming to its World Cup 2018 task and preparing to welcome FIFA’s 208 federations to St Petersburg for the Preliminary World Cup Draw on July 25, the first major world event in the country running up to the finals.
May 21 – Russia’s build for the 2018 World Cup is having a knock-on effect for other sports with Samara being the latest to announce that as well as the new Kosmos Arena, the region is proposing a number of other new sports facilities.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 19 – Qatari authorities, under fresh pressure to improve their human rights record ahead of the 2022 World Cup, have hit back at BBC claims that a reporting team was arrested and detained for trying to film conditions at migrant workers’ housing despite being on an officially sanctioned visit to the country.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 18 – Amid reports that a BBC correspondent has become the latest western journalist to be detained in Qatar despite being invited as part of an official tour, fresh calls were made in London today for FIFA’s World Cup sponsors to use their commercial clout to radically improve conditions for thousands of migrant workers employed on construction sites.
May 18 – Russian stadium construction for 2018 is ahead of schedule and the stadia will be delivered in advance of deadlines, according to officials in Nizhniy Novgorod and Kaliningrad. The two cities are both building new stadiums for the World Cup.
May 8 – The Russian investment in building infrastructure and facilities for the 2018 World Cup appears to be having a positive knock-on effect for sports facilities generally in the country with 12 new sports centres expected to be opened in Moscow in 2015.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 6 – Qatar’s labour minister has pledged to abolish the country’s controversial ‘kafala’ employment system, which has become a major focus of criticism since the Gulf state was awarded the 2022 World Cup, before the end of this year.
May 6 – Having missed out painfully on the 2022 World Cup, Australia are to bid for the women’s version the following year as part of a 20-year vision to boost the sport in a country dominated by rival football codes.
May 6 – The political and financial chaos within the Russian Football Union (RFU) has triggered a no-confidence in current president Nikolay Tolstykh at a meeting of the RFU’s executive committee. Already there are calls for Russia’s sports minister Vitaly Mutko, to take over the reins.
May 4 – The Uralmash stadium in Yekaterinberg, scheduled to be a training base for the 2018 World Cup is, according to local reports, 80% complete and once landscaping is complete will open this summer.