By Jaroslaw Adamowski
June 21 – The Lodz Municipal authorities have awarded the contract to build a new stadium for Widzew Lodz to Polish construction company PRM Mosty Lodz. The project is worth PLN 120 million (€29 million) and is scheduled to be completed within 28 months.
By Mark Baber
June 20- Swansea City has agreed a two-year extension with Hong Kong-based Goldenway Global Group as the club’s main sponsor. The deal means Goldenway’s GWFX brand logo will remain on player shirts, following the success of the initial one year partnership.
By David Owen
June 19 – Anyone with an eye for such things might have noticed, as much-fancied Belgium laboured to get the better of Algeria in Belo Horizonte on Tuesday, that the kit worn by world football’s other Red Devils bore an unfamiliar logo.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 19 – Lionel Messi’s excellent start to the World Cup has been given a further boost off the field with reports that charges of tax evasion against the Argentine skipper are being dropped.
By Mark Baber
June 18 – Recent western media reports suggesting that Russia is “not giving up on a Football Super League” in the post-Soviet space turns out to be somewhat spurious with the current state of relations between Moscow and Kiev making it even less likely than was previously the case.
June 18 – The Birmingham Crown Court match fixing trial has convicted one player from England’s Conference South and two Singaporeans of involvement in a conspiracy targeting lower league clubs. A further player was cleared while verdict is still awaited on another.
By Mark Baber
June 17 – Portugal Telecom (PT) chose the day of the Portugal’s World Cup opener against Germany to announce it has renewed, for four more years, the sponsorship of the national football teams, maintaining until 2018 support for the A, B, Olympic, under-21 and under-16 teams.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
June 17 – Rapid Vienna has unveiled the design of its new stadium. The cost of development is estimated to be about €53 million, and will see the club change the stadium name from the Gerhard Hannapi to the Allianz stadium.
June 18 – The CIES Football Observatory has published an analysis of club and national contributions to 2014 World Cup players’ development. The ranking system illuminates which clubs have done the most in creating the talent on show in Brazil.
By Paul Nicholson
June 16 – Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer, a world cup legend having won the trophy as a player, a manager and then, as bid leader, winning the hosting rights for his country for the 2006 tournament, has said that he will now answer the questions of FIFA investigators.
By Alexander Krassimirov
June 16 – Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia players have refused to train in the past three days in protest against broken promises by the club’s owners that April’s wages would be settled.
June 13 – Roman Abramovich is reportedly situating himself to take a 55% controlling stake in RCD Mallorca. Mallorca currently plays in the Spanish Segunda División, narrowly avoiding relegation at the end of the 2013/2014 season. The club had dropped for the top division the year before.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
June 12 – Otelul Galati has announced plans to find a new investor who can put the Romanian club’s finances into order. But with its owner Dan Adamescu, who is said to be the second-richest Romanian, recently arrested over charges of bribery, the club could have difficulties in finding a suitable partner.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 13 – UEFA have been forced to backtrack over their home-grown player demands following pressure from the international players’ union, FIFpro.
By Andrew Warshaw in Sao Paulo
June 13 – UEFA chief Michel Platini may not yet have made up his mind whether to take on Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency next year but even if he doesn’t, he will certainly not support the 78-year-old Swiss. Blatter made it clear at this week’s FIFA congress that he intends to stand for a fifth term but if he goes ahead, he won’t be able to count on Platini’s backing.