By Mark Baber
January 7 – Ahead of the African Cup of Nations a sense of optimism prevails in Ghana as Ghana National Bank (GN Bank) confirms a new sponsorship deal with the Ghana Football Association, national team manager Avram Grant professes satisfaction with the squad’s preparations and the players insist rows over bonus payments are in the past, with the team “willing to die” for the cause.
By Mark Baber
January 5 – The request of Leo Iyke Igbokwe for an arbitration committee to be set up to examine the validity of the September 30 Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) elections is expected to be presented to the NFF Board on January 8, offering another chance for football in Nigeria to bring the current leadership crisis to an end, without the involvement of civil courts.
By Paul Nicholson
January 2 – The Ghana FA (GFA) has repeated that it will be able to pay the $3.1 million money borrowed from the government once an official request for the funds is made.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 23 – Morocco’s refusal to stage next month’s Africa Cup of Nations is understood to have been behind Africa’s most prominent FIFA officials embarrassingly snubbing last Saturday’s Club World Cup final in Marrakesh. Several African members of FIFA’s executive committee were conspicuous by their absence at FIFA’s showpiece climax between Real Madrid and San Lorenzo.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 23 – The president of Sierra Leone’s football association has come out fighting against those she says are unlawfully plotting to force her out of office with an attempted coup.
December 23 – For the first time since the Port Said massacre in February 2012, when 74 Al Ahly fans were killed at a league match, the gates to club stadiums will be opened again to supporters for the second part of the Egyptian Premier League.
By Mark Baber
December 18 – Barrister Leo Iyke Igbokwe, one of the aggrieved losing candidates in the disputed September 30 elections which saw Amaju Pinnick win the Presidency of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), told journalists Tuesday that if FIFA did not annul the elections within three days, he would take the matter to court.
December 18 – Equatorial Guinea’s former African women’s footballer of the year Genoveva Anonma has called for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations to be cancelled to avoid the Ebola virus spreading to her country.
By Paul Nicholson
December 16 – Somalian football took another major symbolic step forward this weekend with a Super Cup final that was packed with passion, historic significance, a penalty shootout, and hope for the future in front of a packed crowd at the recently refurbished Banadir Stadium in Mogadishu.
By Mark Baber
December 12 – The new Namibia Football Association (NFA) leadership including the new President Frans Mbidi (pictured left) elected last week have been congratulated by FIFA and Confederation of African Football (CAF) – although the manner in which the vote was held and a walk-out by the main rival candidate and his supporters may spell trouble ahead.
By Mark Baber
December 10 – FIFA, in an email signed by secretary general, Jerome Valcke, has come down on the side of the “majority” of the members of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Electoral Appeals’ Committee who rebelled against their chairman to uphold the disputed September 30 election of Amaju Pinnick (pictured).
By Mark Baber
December 8 – In the wake of Barrister Okey Ajunwa’s Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) Appeals Committee 80-page report which concluded the election of Amaju Pinnick was flawed and should be rerun, and the refusal of the NFF to accept that report, FIFA is now faced with a choice.
December 8 – About 2,000 fans stormed Cairo’s main stadium at the weekend ahead of a rare match that supporters were allowed to attend. Egyptian fans have been barred from attending domestic league matches for the past four seasons after political violence by organised fan groups have led to riots and deaths.
By Mark Baber
December 5 – The day after members of the Nigerian Football Federation Electoral Appeals Committee (NFF) broke ranks with their own chairmen to issue “decisions” purportedly upholding the legitimacy of the disputed September 30 elections which produced the current Amaju Pinnick-led (pictured) executive, the committee chairman, Okechukwu Ajunwa, has ruled that those same elections are nullified and Amaju Pinnick should cease to parade himself as NFF president.
By Mark Baber
December 4 – Hopes the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) Electoral Appeals’ Committee would return football in the country to at least a semblance of rational rule-based administration were dashed on Wednesday as members of the committee broke ranks with their Chairman, Barrister Okey Ajunwa, failing to publish a report but signing a press statement “deciding” to dismiss all appeals against the highly disputed elections of September 30 which brought the current leadership of the NFF to power.