Europe Archives - Page 406 of 520 - Inside World Football

Platini dismisses reports linking him to Qatar 2022 vote buying allegations

Screen Shot 2014-06-04 at 12.12.39

By Andrew Warshaw
June 4 – UEFA president Michel Platini has hit back forcefully at reports linking him to corruption allegations over Qatar’s victorious 2022 World Cup bid. Hours after INSIDEworldfootball exclusively quoted a source close to Platini that discussions the Frenchman held with disgraced former Qatari powerbroker Mohamed bin Hammam were solely about bin Hamman’s efforts to secure a rival to Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency and nothing to do with 2022,

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Barcelona back in Spanish court over Neymar tax evasion case

Neymar

June 4 – Spanish tax authorities have re-opened the Neymar tax case by claiming Barcelona have evaded a payment of €9.2 million in the signing of Brazilian World Cup superstar.

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Czech league swaps beer brand Gambrinus for betting brand Synot as title sponsor

By Jaroslaw Adamowski
June 4 – Czech football association FACR has signed a sponsorship deal with betting operator Synot which will replace the Gambrinus beer brand as the title sponsor of the country’s top tier league.

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It worked for Stade, now Real Madrid pick a pink away strip

Real Madrid 14-15 Away Kit

By David Owen
June 3 – Real Madrid appear to have taken a leaf out of French rugby club Stade Français’s marketing handbook, introducing a pink change strip for the 2014-15 season.

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Hoeness starts his jail sentence for tax evasion

Uli Hoeness

By Andrew Warshaw
June 3 – Former Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness, whose fall from grace as one of European club football’s most influential administrators has been well chronicled, has begun serving his three years and six months jail sentence for tax evasion.

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Bulgarian industrialist saves CSKA Sofia from the brink of bankruptcy

Petar Mandjukov

By Alexander Krassimirov
June 3 – After its failed attempt at becoming a publicly-owned company on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, CSKA Sofia looks to have dragged itself away from the possibility of bankruptcy with the appointment of one of Bulgaria’s biggest businessmen, Petar Mandjukov (pictured), to the board.

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Belgium’s Zulte-Waregem preps for Euro competition with stadium refurb

regenboogstadion15550

By Jaroslaw Adamowski
May 30 – Zulte-Waregem has launched a construction project to modernise and expand its Regenboogs stadium in the Belgian city of Waregem. Zule-Waregem finished the Jupiler League in fourth place, beaten by RSC Anderlecht, Standard Liege and FC Bruges.

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Age is just a number, but Lazio’s Minala is 17, judge rules

Joseph Minala

May 30 – Disagreements concerning over-age players is nothing new but to suggest a player is 25 years older than he actually is is surely unprecedented.

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Swiss propose tighter laws against money laundering for sports officials

money

By Mark Baber
May 29 – The Legal Affairs Commission of the lower house of the Swiss parliament has proposed a draft law which, if passed by the legislature, will impose stricter rules against money laundering.

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Italians revamp player co-ownership and scrap 50% rule

Giancarlo Abete

By Andrew Warshaw
May 29 – In what is being flagged up as the end of an era, Italy is set to outlaw co-ownership of players from next season, falling into line with the rest of Europe. Italy is the last main footballing nation in Europe under which two teams can effectively share half a particular player’s contract and economic rights.

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Joma signs first national team deal, replacing Kappa in Bulgaria

By Alexander Krassimirov
May 29 – The Bulgarian Football Union has signed a new multi-year contract with the Spanish sports appareil firm Joma. The company will kit out all of Bulgaria’s national teams and replaces Italian sportswear brand Kappa, whose contract was terminated terminated by mutual consent.

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CAS cuts Sammut match-fixing ban from life to 10 years

Kevin Sammut

By Andrew Warshaw
May 29 – Almost two years after the original sanction, former Malta midfielder Kevin Sammut has had his life ban reduced to 10 years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) but his career is still effectively over.

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Good Practice Guide takes step towards attacking match-fixing from the inside

matchfixing

By Ben Nicholson
May 29 – International footballers’ association FIFPro and UEFA and Birkbeck, University of London, have combined to produce a ‘Good Practice Guide’ which will be presented at the closing conference of Don’t Fix it in Slovenia next week.

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UEFA fined in Croatian court for false match-fixing allegation

Bruno Maric1

May 28 – UEFA’s relentless crackdown on match manipulation has seemingly gone one step too far after the organisation itself was sanctioned for wrongly accusing a Croatian referee. But whether Europe’s governing body rules the punishment binding and pays up is a different matter.

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Adidas puts its stripes on the line with World Cup social media blast

adidas all in or nothing

By Tom Parsons
May 28 – Adidas has launched its World Cup marketing and social media campaign, and in a breakaway from the traditional approach by brands to social media, the sportswear giant is allowing people to make the decision to be “all in” or “nothing” with Adidas during the world’s biggest football tournament.