November 18 – Croatian football authorities, seemingly at the end of their patience over the hooligan reputation of their fans, have called on the country’s entire society to help eradicate the problem following last weekend’s flare-throwing incident that caused a Euro 2016 qualifier in Italy to be briefly suspended.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 17 – As the fallout from the much-criticised summary of Michael Garcia’s 2018 and 2022 World Cup investigation report shows no sign of abating, the president of the German Football League (DFL) has entered the debate by suggesting UEFA could leave FIFA unless Garcia’s entire file is published in full.
By Mark Baber
November 17 – A number of foreign footballers signing up to play for Somali sides before the start of the new championship which kicks off on December 19 is being hailed as a significant indicator of the game’s progress in the war-torn country.
November 17 – New MLS franchise New York City FC, which joins the league in 2015, has announced Etihad Airways as its shirt sponsor. The club has also announced a kit deal with Adidas and will play in the same light blue colour – with the same sponsor – as sister club Manchester City.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 17 – Already thrown out of the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations for refusing to host the event because of fears over the threat of the Ebola virus, Morocco face an even heavier punishment by being expelled from the subsequent tournament as well.
November 17 – UEFA seem certain to take action after the latest incident of crowd trouble to mar a major game on the European stage. Riot police fought with fans at the high-profile Euro 2016 qualifier between Italy and Croatia that ended 1-1 as a flood of flares were hurled down the from stands, enveloping the pitch at the San Siro in thick smoke.
Enough, as disco queen and noted football authority Donna Summer observed sagely in the 1970s, is enough.
With the Garcia report fiasco now piled on top of the 2022 World Cup timing fiasco, right-thinking football leaders have a responsibility to come together and get behind a challenger strong enough to unseat long-term incumbent Joseph “Sepp” Blatter in next year’s FIFA Presidential election.
FIFA’s mono-dimensional World Cup-based economy has been going gangbusters enough in recent times for the seemingly endless stream of corruption allegations against football officials to be no more than a superficial irritant,
By David Owen
November 16 – The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is to receive a much-needed 3% budget increase in 2015. The Montreal-based organisation, which is funded broadly 50% by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and 50% by Governments, has had to make do with little extra money in recent times while public authorities in much of the industrialised world have been struggling to cope with the consequences of high debt and sluggish economic growth.
By Mark Baber
November 14 – Equatorial Guinea has stepped in to save the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, following a meeting between Issa Hayatou, President of the African Football Confederation (CAF) and Equatorial Guinea’s President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
On the eve of November 11, the so called ‘Singles Day’ in Chinese internet language, two tired French gentlemen, dragging their luggage, took the shuttle bus from terminal 2 to terminal 3 in Beijing International Airport. Some passengers recognised that one of them was Michel Platini, and were astonished, others retorted that “How could the President of UEFA be getting on a shuttle bus in Beijing?”
By Andrew Warshaw
November 14 – FIFA’s ethics judge Hans Joachim Eckert says he is “surprised” by public criticism from Michael Garcia’s over the way he summarised Garcia’s report into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
By Mark Baber
November 14 – There were major developments in the Nigerian football governance crisis on Thursday as the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Appeals Committee completed its hearings into the validity of the September 30 Executive Committee elections whilst the Nigerian government passed the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Bill 2014 in an apparent attempt to bring sanity to football administration in the country.
It was supposed to be all about closure for FIFA. Done and dusted. No more subterfuge. No more finger pointing. Time to move on. After all, there’s a presidential election next year.
November 14 – Chelsea FC have announced a profit of £18.4 million on a record turnover of £319.8 million for the year ended 30 June 2014. This is the econd and largest profit the largest profit the club has made since Roman Abramovich became owner of the club in 2003. Two years ago the profit was £1.4 million.
By Paul Nicholson
November 14 – Ray Whelan, the British director of FIFA’s World Cup marketing affiliate Match who was arrested at the World Cup in July, has in the last few days returned to the UK. Whelan was bailed in August from Brazil’s notorious Bangu prison but has only just received his passport.