By Paul Nicholson
June 12 – Pick the best 30 players in the world and play them off against each other – Europe vs Rest of the World – is something that could generally only happens in a computer game. Having football fans globally pick the top 30 players makes it slightly more unlikely. Or is it?
By Gareth Messenger
June 12 – Spanish Primera side Malaga are out of next season’s Europa League following The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejection of their appeal against the UEFA ban imposed last December.
By Mark Baber
June 11 – Iya Mohamed, the president of Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot) and CEO of the Cameroon Cotton Development Corporation (Sodecoton), a state owned company, was arrested by the police on Monday on his return home from Togo where he attended Sunday’s Cameroon’s World Cup qualifier.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 11 – Prince Ali, head of the Jordanian FA, has had an increasingly influential and vocal role as a member of the FIFA executive committee and successfully championed the lifting of the ban on the hijab in women’s football.
By Mark Baber
June 11 – SAP, the leading business software provider, has extended its long-standing partnership with TSG Hoffenheim, becoming the new main and kit sponsor, in an initial three year deal.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 11 – The match-fixing scandal that rocked Turkish football two seasons ago has been rekindled after UEFA announced it was investigating the activities of Beşiktaş and Fenerbahçe, two of the country’s biggest clubs.
June 9 – The English Football League has voted to restrict the number of overseas loans that can be used after Championship club Watford exploited the system – and came within one match of gaining promotion to the lucrative Premier League.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 9 – The Australian government has apologised to Jordan for its Iraqi national team coach, Adnan Hamad, being detained for more than four hours when the squad flew into Melbourne last week ahead of tomorrow’s (Tuesday) crunch World Cup qualifier.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 9 – UEFA have stepped in to help the Football Association of Ireland meet its debt repayments for the Aviva stadium in Dublin.
June 9 – UEFA have been left embarrassed after a local DJ played a song ahead of last weekend’s European under-21 fixture between England and Norway that contained racially offensive lyrics – just as an anti-racism appeal was made.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 9 – The UEFA hierarchy has once again caused a potential stir with Europe’s major leagues by endorsing the idea of winter World Cups – and not just in Qatar.
By David Owen
June 9 – The frontrunner in the race for the most powerful post in world sport has backed FIFA’s reform process, saying world football’s governing body is “on the right track”. Thomas Bach, a German ex-fencer and Olympic gold medallist, is one of six candidates vying to succeed Jacques Rogge, as President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the organisation behind the Olympic Games.
By Mark Baber
June 7 – Zamalek have written to the Egyptian FA, encouraging them to file a complaint to FIFA in a bid to bring pressure to overturn new regulations imposed by sports minister El-Amri Farouq. Zamalek maintain the new rules constitute unacceptable government interference in the sport.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
June 7 – Plans by Barcelona to stage a symbolic exhibition match against a joint Israeli-Palestinian team to try and heal the wounds between the two sides and promote Middle East peace have been ditched after no agreement could be reached between the various parties.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 7 – The latest round of match-fixing allegations in Italian football has implicated 33 players and officials associated with Bari in 2008 and 2009.