October 20 – With the current US attorney general having unleashed a storm in the world of football worldwide but particularly in the Americas, it is appropriate that a former US attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., will give a keynote address at the Securing Sport 2015 conference in New York, November 3-4, with the aim of giving perspective on the challenges facing sport from a legal and policy standpoint.
October 20 – Marco Polo del Nero, the Brazilian FA president who famously made a quick getaway just as seven other football officials, including his predecessor, were detained as part of the US corruption probe on that dramatic May morning in Zurich, has denied he has been forced out of the FIFA executive committee.
By Ben Nicholson
October 20 – CONMEBOL has cut its links with Argentine sports marketing company Datisa, ending agreements that gave sponsorship and broadcast rights to Datisa for the Copa America tournaments, and in particular the Copa America Centenario scheduled to take place in the US next year, the first time the world’s oldest football tournament had been played outside the South American continent.
October 19 – FIFA has removed the entire executive committee of Thailand’s football association (FAT) after its controversial president Worawi Makudi was suspended pending a full ethics investigation.
By Samindra Kunti
October 19 – São Paulo may have found English money to abate their current debt crisis with a €33.7 million cash injection into the club looking likely, though the identity of the English group has not been named.
October 19 – Kuwait, home to Asia’s most influential sports power broker Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, has been banned from international football because of government interference in the running of the sport domestically.
By Samindra Kunti
October 19 – Flamengo’s chairman Eduardo de Mello wants the club to take management control of Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana stadium to maximise its revenue potential, but is facing opposition from within the sporting club.
By Ben Nicholson
October 19 – The MLS has joined up with other heavyweight sporting organisations in the US across multiple sporting disciplines to advance race relations. The MLS, NFL, NBA, NHL, to name a few, have joined the Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (RISE) to launch a nationwide campaign that uses the power of sport as vehicle to promote understanding, respect and equality.
By Mark Baber
October 16 – Three current and two former Nepal national team players have been arrested in Kathmandu Valley as part of an investigation into match-fixing involving bookies in Malaysia and Singapore.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
October 16 – Following Serbia’s unsuccessful campagin to qualify for the Euro 2016 finals in France, the country’s Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has announced that his government will allocate €150 million to the construction of a new national football stadium in Belgrade.
October 16 – Bayern Munich fans are planning a protest at their Champions League clash at Arsenal next week over how much they have been forced to fork out for tickets. The Bayern fans say they will not enter the Emirates stadium for the first five minutes because of the “excessive” £64 ticket price.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 16 – UEFA’s unconvincing attempt to speak with one voice in favour of Michel Platini’s bid for the FIFA presidency has been blown to bits by the English Football Association announcing it has put its support for the Frenchman on hold because of the unexplained payment that led to him being suspended by FIFA’s ethics committee.
By Paul Nicholson
October 16 – The fantasy sports scandal in the US where an employee of DraftKings won $350,000 on rival site FanDuel using insider information, has sparked a wave of calls for regulation of a business that is based on betting real money on imaginary sporting outcomes.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 16 – Julio Rocha – another of the un-magnificent Zurich Seven – will be extradited to the United States and not to his native Nicaragua as he had hoped, Switzerland’s Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) has announced.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 16 – European football’s governing has urgently called for the investigation into Michel Platini to be cleared up by mid-November so that he can still run for FIFA president – but left the door open for a backup candidate to stand instead in case the UEFA chief’s 90-day provisional suspension turns into a longer ban.