By Mark Baber
October 15 – Plans by Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development to slash the costs of the construction budget for the 2018 World Cup have been criticised by the influential State Duma Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Katrenko, as short-sighted.
By Mark Baber
October 11 – The first round of World Cup ticket applications closed yesterday with 6,164,682 ticket requests, 70.86% of them from Brazil. As demand is greatly exceeding supply, FIFA has said it will organise a lottery for various matches. Applications from elderly persons, students and members of the “Bolsa Familia” will go into a special lottery for 300,000 tickets.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 11-FIFA has confirmed that German company GoalControl will be the goal-line technology (GLT) provider for next year’s World Cup. The company was selected for this year’s Confederations Cup where there were no incidents of whether the ball had crossed the line and FIFA has decided to stick with them.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 11 – BT Sport, the new pay-tv competitor for Sky, is determined to acquire even more sports rights but is happy to “co-exist” with Sky in the market place, according to BT chief executive Gavin Patterson. Patterson has not ruled out acquiring Champions League games for his new channels in the future even though that could mean the competition no longer being shown on terrestrial television.
By David Owen
October 9 – The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has hinted there may yet be time for the Rio de Janeiro doping control laboratory to win back its accreditation in time for it to handle samples collected at next year’s FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 8 – FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke, charged with sorting out the Qatar 2022 World Cup debacle, has more pressing matters on his hands having returned to Brazil amid uncertainty about whether next year’s hosts will be able to deliver the final six stadiums by the December deadline.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 3 – Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organisers have re-iterated their pledge that they are prepared to host the tournament any time FIFA requires and remain committed to their revolutionary air-cooling technology.
September 27 – Qatar has joined forces with the US to develop new food and water security solutions off the back of the technology and infrastructure developed for the 2022 World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 27 – Qatar authorities say they are “appalled” by reports of severe mistreatment of migrant workers that have heaped further pressure on organisers of the 2022 World Cup. The Qatari government has opened an immediate inquiry into the reports.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 26 – The International Trade Union Confederation, which claims to represent 175 million workers worldwide, says the safety of those involved in building Qatar’s infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup is “vastly more serious” than the global emphasis on whether to stage the tournament in summer or winter. Concerns for the welfare of players and spectators have led to FIFA considering moving 2022 from the heat of the Gulf summer,
By Andrew Warshaw
September 20 – The FIFA-appointed expert who first cautioned about the dangers of taking the 2022 World Cup to Qatar has come up with a timetable he says would allow for a winter tournament in January – and would satisfy most stakeholders.
By David Owen
September 4 – The Rio de Janeiro doping control laboratory whose accreditation was revoked last month by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in a hugely embarrassing blow for Brazilian authorities, failed a “blind” quality assessment test, Insideworldfootball understands.
By Andrew Warshaw, in Monaco
August 30 – Michel Platini is again insisting on the Qatar 2022 World Cup being switched to winter – in line with a number of other stakeholders.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 16 – Premier League chief Richard Scudamore is back on the offensive over the 2022 World Cup, this time suggesting it should be moved from Qatar rather than be staged in winter. The Premier League are gradually losing the argument of sticking with a June-July tournament even though switching to winter would break with tradition and should have been thought through properly two and half years ago when the vote took place,
By Mark Baber
August 15 – As Brazil suffered a shock defeat to Switzerland on Wednesday, the country has also been hit with off-pitch woes as the Confederacao Brasileira de Futebol (CBF) has reportedly suffered losses in a bank collapse. At the same time the Brazilian Sports Minister has said work on the World Cup stadiums needs to speed up and it is has been revealed hotel costs for World Cup fans will be double those of Johannesburg in 2010.