By Mark Baber
October 2 – Comparatively poor results by English clubs in the Champions League last season and a disappointing opening to the Champions League groups stage have led to a spate of suggestions England may lose their fourth Champions League place to Italy. However analysis suggests this is unlikely and English club performances in European club football over the past five seasons have been second only to the Spanish.
By Paul Nicholson
October 1 – Premier League attendances for Round 7 topped last week’s figures with the 10 home matches averaging 96.5% stadium capacity, the second highest since the opening day of the season. Stoke City had just one seat unfilled at the Britannia Stadium.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 1 – Michel Platini may have his mind very much on the FIFA presidential election and whether he will actually still eligible as a result of the already notorious and still not fully explained SFr2 million payment he received whilst working for Sepp Blatter several years ago.
By Ben Nicholson
October 1 – The NWSL has extended its partnership with Nike through 2019, thus meaning that Nike will remain as the league’s official club kit, apparel and equipment, supplier of the league balls, and provider for all NWSL teams present and future.
By Ben Nicholson
October 1 – The rivalry between Mexico and the US national teams has reached levels worthy of cinematic production. The upcoming one-off CONCACAF playoff between the pair, which will decide who will go to the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia, is slated for the big screen in 200 locations across the US.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 1 – England’s Football Association says it will continue to back Michel Platini’s bid to become FIFA president despite the Frenchman being drawn into the FIFA corruption scandal with last week’s revelation that he received SFr 2million for carrying out work on behalf of Sepp Blatter at the time he was his special adviser.
October 1 – If ever proof were needed that all is not quite right at the top of FIFA and UEFA, tomorrow’s annual friendly game between the staff of both organisations has suddenly been postponed – relieving respective presidents Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini of coming face to face.
By Paul Nicholson
October 1 – Brazilian Jose Maria Marin (pictured) and Costa Rican Eduardo Li are the fifth and sixth of the seven FIFA executives arrested in the dawn raids in Switzerland in May to have the next stages of their extradition processes to the US unveiled.
By Mark Baber
September 30 – With Football Kenya Federation elections looming, football in Kenya continues to be overshadowed by the claims of intrigue, corruption and manipulation. Notwithstanding the commercial and administrative mess and infighting he has created within Kenyan football, President Sam Nyamweya (pictured) hangs on and remains in the race for another four year term, whilst FIFA’s role, especially the apparent lack of action of its Ethics Committee, appears increasingly indefensible.
September 30 – Sepp Blatter is remaining calm and relaxed and has not been fazed by the furore over criminal proceedings being opened against him, according to his former public relations adviser Klaus Stoehlker.
September 30 – FIFA’s Russian powerbroker Vitaly Mutko has been forced to backtrack after an apparent gaffe about being afraid of becoming the latest high-profile football figure to be arrested.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 30 – Palestinian football authorities have stepped up their campaign to overturn an order by FIFA to play a crucial World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia on neutral ground.
September 30 – Barcelona’s Argentine international Javier Mascherano has been charged with two counts of tax evasion in the latest fraud case to hit Spanish-based players.
By Mark Baber
September 30 – Manchester City FC have announced a multi-year drinking and mineral water partnership with Thailand-based Singha Corporation Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of Boon Rawd Brewery, for Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar.
“Si monumentum requiris circumspice [If you seek his monument, look around]” Christopher Wren, epitaph on Wren’s tomb
Ever since the Great Fire of London devastated its capital, Great Britain and its inhabitants have had an obsession with architecture. It is a nation that has spawned many Great Builders, such that naming only Wren, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Sir Joseph Bazalgette or Sir George Gilbert Scott is to commit a gross injustice to the others who came before and after them.