By David Owen
April 1 – The all too brief experiment with fielding men’s and women’s Great Britain Olympic football teams is over. Barely a few weeks after signalling its desire to continue sending teams to the Olympics, the Football Association (FA) has been obliged to backtrack and to formally withdraw its proposal.
March 26 – Ahead of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada, details of the Hyundai Young Player Award were revealed on Wednesday at the Vancouver International Auto Show.
By David Owen
March 17 – FIFA has backed down over the inclusion of the Amazonian city of Manaus on the list of venues for the Rio 2016 Olympic football tournaments.
March 9 – Abby Wambach, the United States’ best-known women’s player who led the ultimately unsuccessful bid to play next year’s women’s World Cup on natural grass, says FIFA and its national federations should do more to help female players become self-sufficient.
By David Owen
February 17 – Trend Micro, a security software company, has become a sponsor of the Women’s World Cup, joining Bell Canada and Labatt Breweries as the tournament’s third National Supporter.
February 16 – The US will host the 2016 Olympic qualifying competition for the CONCACAF region this October 1-13. Eight teams will battle for two automatic qualification spots and a play-off against Colombia for a further entry to the Rio 2016 games.
By David Owen
February 12 – FIFA and the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Organising Committee are at odds over whether the Amazonian city of Manaus would make a suitable venue for next year’s Olympic football tournament.
February 2 – The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Governing Board has given the boot to the seven-a-side football discipline for the 2022 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, but five-a-side football is staying in.
By David Owen
January 28 – Brazil’s brightest current football star Neymar has said he hopes to help his country win its first men’s Olympic football gold medal at South America’s first Olympic Games next year in Rio de Janeiro.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 22 – After months of fractious and sometimes ferocious protest, the turf war is over with a group of elite players dropping their bid to sue FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association over the use of artificial pitches at the Women’s World Cup which kicks off on June 6.
December 11 – The elite group of players campaigning against the use of artificial turf at next year’s Women’s World Cup in Canada appear to have won a partial victory after the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario cleared the way for them to amend their case to include allegations of reprisal threats against some of them.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 9 – Both sides in the ongoing spat over the use of artificial turf at next year’s women’s World Cup have received good and bad news in the last 24 hours.
By David Owen in Monte Carlo
December 9 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter on Monday went along with the Agenda 2020 recommendation that will force him to retire from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the end of 2016, telling Insideworldfootball he was a “team player”.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 8 – The artificial turf war may be partially overshadowing next year’s women’s World Cup but the participants cannot complain about discrimination when it comes to goal-line technology.
By Paul Nicholson and Andrew Warshaw
December 5 – With the final preparations taking place for the draw for Women’s World Cup Canada 2015, to be held in Ottawa tomorrow, the lawyer representing the group of players campaigning for matches to be switched from artificial turf to natural grass has accused FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke of reneging on a pledge to discuss the issue with the players.