May 20 – Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organisers have announced the second phase of construction at Al Wakrah, the first of the proposed venues to stage the finals. Last week the Qataris announced sweeping changes to their own labour laws though there was still criticism from pressure groups that they hadn’t gone far enough.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 19- United States soccer chief Sunil Gulati admits the game has some way to go at professional level to reach the levels of established domestic sports like American football and baseball – and, for that matter, to match the interest in football overseas.
By David Owen
May 19 – German giants Bayern Munich are the club providing most players to the provisional 2014 World Cup squad lists circulated by FIFA last week. The Bundesliga champions have 18 players on FIFA’s release list, two more than Manchester United, who were comfortably the most heavily-represented Premier League club, despite their difficult 2013-14 season.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 16- Just a month before the start of the World Cup, some of the most co-ordinated street protests of recent months have swept through Brazilian cities, once again targeting the huge cost of the tournament.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 14 – Qatar authorities have made the most forceful pledge to date that they will scrap part of the country’s medieval kafala employment system that has caused so much outrage directed at the 2022 World Cup hosts – but stopped short of abolishing it completely.
By David Owen
May 13 – World Cup tourist spending in Brazil in June and July may exceed $3 billion, the Brazilian Government has forecast. In the latest of a series of announcements that appear designed, in part, to convince ordinary Brazilians that staging sports mega-events is a good investment for South America’s biggest country, the Ministry of Tourism unveiled research findings suggesting that foreign tourists would spend nearly $2,500 each, excluding airfares,
By Andrew Warshaw in Jordan
May 13 – Qatari authorities are set to make a landmark announcement on the contentious issue of workers rights within the next few days, possibly as early as Wednesday, as pressure continues to build on the 2022 World Cup hosts over the treatment of migrant employees.
By David Owen
May 12 – With just a month to go before the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the Brazilian Government has launched its largest mobilisation of armed forces, using 30,000 military personnel to patrol its entire 17,000-kilometre national border, one of the world’s longest.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 9- Radical proposals to halt the decline of English football at national level have been met with a mixed reaction but must be implemented to prevent a bleak future, according to English FA chairman Greg Dyke.
On Thursday proposals were unveiled to change the lower-division structure to enhance opportunities for England-registered players, reduce the number of foreign imports and boost the chances of national team success.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 9- Yet another World Cup construction worker has lost his life – just over a month before the start of the finals. This time, the tragedy took place in Cuiaba, one of the most delayed venues, when an electrical accident temporarily halted work on the stadium.
May 8 – Brazil’s attempt to win the World Cup on home soil will be handed to those who have given the country back its pride under coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. In other words, no big surprises.
By Paul Nicholson
May 5 – Depending on which part of the world you ask the questions, you will get different reactions and emotions regarding the Qatar 2022 World Cup. Doha-based Agency 222 conducted a survey that found local feeling was that the World Cup was defining and shaping an emerging nation.
May 1 – Thousands of fans could struggle to use the internet at half of the stadiums during this summer’s World Cup, a top government official has admitted, the latest headache in a sea of worry as Brazil readies for the world’s biggest sporting event.
By David Owen
April 29 – FIFA will run up $250,000 in extra costs as a result of having to send samples from this summer’s World Cup across the Atlantic for analysis, the chairman of the body’s Medical Committee has acknowledged, as he set out plans for the most extensive anti-doping controls ever at international football’s flagship tournament.
April 25 – Sepp Blatter is downplaying security concerns at the World Cup despite more street protests in Rio de Janeiro and, earlier this month, a surge in violent crime in Salvador.