Call me old-fashioned but this has simply got to end. A year ago I wrote on this website about the FA Cup, football’s oldest – and greatest – domestic knockout competition being totally disrespected and devalued by top-flight clubs more interested in money than glory.
By Paul Nicholson
January 31 – U.S. Virgin Islands FA president Hillaren Frederick is fighting for survival as head of his federation after rejecting a suspension by his own executive committee, saying that they did not have the authority to suspend him. A delegation from FIFA and CONCACAF is expected in the islands this week to investigate the situation.
By Samindra Kunti
January 31 – Liverpool’s Sadio Mane missed the decisive spot kick as Cameroon beat Senegal 5-4 on penalties to reach the Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals. Seven-times winners Egypt also progressed to the last four with a narrow 1-0 win against rivals Morocco.
January 31 – As global condemnation of Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration intensifies, U.S. Soccer president and FIFA powerbroker Sunil Gulati says his country still hasn’t yet made up its mind whether to bid for the 2026 World Cup.
January 31- Premier League managers may have taken the opportunity to give key players a rest this week with the Fourth Round of FA Cup matches, but fans were in no mood to to take a week off. Five of the eight Premier League clubs with home matches sold out more than 95% of their capacities.
January 31 – Debate is raging in Australian football circles over an apparent refusal to implement FIFA reforms and make the national association (FFA) more democratic.
By Paul Nicholson
January 27 – The full text of the decision on the dismissal of the appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) by Albanian club Klubi Sportiv Skenderbeu to have their UEFA Champions League ban lifted has been published. It makes interesting reading and could become a landmark decision in the battle against match fixing.
It’s still early days of course but legitimate questions are starting to be asked about the effect Donald Trump’s US presidency might have on the landscape of world football and specifically two huge issues: the 2026 World Cup and the FifaGate scandal.
By Paul Nicholson
January 27 – The timing could not have been better. Just as Southampton were celebrating their EFL Cup semi-final win over Liverpool, so Chinese stadium constructors turned would-be club owners Lander Sports Development, were announcing to the financial markets that they had agreed a deal for the English south coast club.
January 27 – Eye-watering figures have been released by FIFA which show exactly why Chinese authorities have agreed to reign in spending, impose restrictions on foreign players and help local talent develop.
By Samindra Kunti
January 27 – Rio de Janeiro’s famous Maracana stadium, which hosted the 2014 World Cup final and the opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympics and is one of football’s spiritual homes, was plunged into darkness on Thursday after Light, the energy provider for the stadium, cut off the electricity supply due to unpaid bills that reach back to October last year.
January 27 – AFC Champions League holders Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors from South Korea have filed an urgent request for provisional measures at the Court for Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in a bid to overcome the ban from Champions League competition imposed on them by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for match-fixing.
Neil McGuinness works as a scout for Aspire in Qatar. Previously, he scouted many years for European elite clubs. The global scout, with Scottish roots, talks to Samindra Kunti about modern-day scouting, scouting in Britain and the rise of China in the global game.
January 27 – Man City made another big jump on Facebook again this week with 123,900 new Facebook likes compared to Manchester United’s 89,000. City have fallen into a pattern of huge rises on alternate weeks suggesting the club is undertaking a Facebook marketing campaign to boost its figures.
By David Owen
January 26 – Germany’s Bundesliga enjoyed a landmark year for business in 2015-16, with post-tax profits among the 18 top-tier clubs soaring to a record €206.2 million. All but two of the clubs in the competition were profitable. The outcome was described as “far and away the best result” in the league’s history.