By Andrew Warshaw
March 22 – Pressure is mounting on Danny Jordaan, the public face of the 2010 South Africa World Cup and head of his country’s FA, to explain how much he knew about FIFA’s belief that bribes were paid to secure the tournament.
March 22 – Manchester City have signed a regional partnership with Chinese firm SoccerWorld to provide better access to facilities and coaches for young Chinese footballers. The agreement is part of the City Football Group’s (CFG) wider ambition to expand its business in China.
March 22 – Scandal-hit Volkswagen has agreed to extend its sponsorship of the German national cup for six years until 2022.
March 22 – Organisers of the 2022 Qatar World Cup are considering the option of housing fans under the stars in Bedouin-style super-tents.
March 22 – FIFA has extended four-year bans to apply worldwide for two Algerian players who tested positive for cocaine. And a third player who was found to have taken the stimulant methylhexaneamine has also had his four-year ban extended globally.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 21 – Of all the upcoming fixtures in this week’s international programme, few will have the same resonance as Sierra Leone ‘s symbolic friendly with Malawi, the first on home soil since the west African country was officially declared free of Ebola.
By Samindra Kunti
March 21 – Brazil and Barcelona player Neymar has been convicted of tax fraud and ordered to pay €45.9 million in fines and back-taxes.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 21 – FIFA and UEFA have joined forces to warn Greece to reinstate the national cup competition, scrapped by the government earlier this month because of crowd trouble, or risk being thrown out of international football.
March 21 – While Barcelona teammate Neymar is contemplating his €45.9 million fine for tax evasion in Brazil, Lionel Messi – no stranger to multiple tax fraud allegations himself – was signing on another sponsorship deal, this time with Chinese telecoms firm Huawei.
March 21 – The most dangerous league in Europe to be a manager – in terms of job security in the Big 5 leagues – is Italy’s Serie A. Managers last on average just 9 months, compared to 14.5 months in England’s Premier League.
March 21 – German discount supermarket chain Lidl, which last November announced three-year sponsorship deals with the English, Scottish and Welsh Football Associations, has begun activation of that sponsorship in Scotland with an event at lesser Hampden in Glasgow.
March 21 – One of European football’s most bitterly contested derbies was called off Sunday when Turkish authorities cancelled the Galatasaray-Fenerbahçe clash in Istanbul about two hours before kickoff citing an unspecified threat.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 18 – With symbolic timing in order to send out a clear message of intent, FIFA announced its first major sponsor in the post-Sepp Blatter era today as the Wanda Group became the first Chinese company to sign up as a top-tier World Cup partner.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 18 – A month after being handed a 12-year ban from football, former FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke has now joined his former boss Sepp Blatter under criminal investigation in Switzerland.
By David Owen
March 18 – The full scale of the financial damage wreaked by FIFA’s year of turmoil is now becoming apparent. Revenue from marketing rights to the World Cup – sponsorship to you and me – is down over $100 million, or 29%, in 2015 from the equivalent figure in 2011, the corresponding point in the previous four-year commercial cycle.