By Jaroslaw Adamowski
February 18 – Petr Safarcik has become the majority shareholder of FC Banik Ostrava, the Czech football club said in a statement. With the acquisition of shares from local businessman Libor Adamek, Safarcik controls a combined 95% of the shares in Banik through his company PAM Market and as a private investor. The amount of the deal was not disclosed by the two businessmen.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 18 – Kosovan footballing authorities are hoping to persuade Manchester United’s rising teenage star Adnan Januzaj to play in their symbolic first ever meaningful international friendly.
February 18 – Representatives of Brazil’s Cuiaba World Cup stadium have been quick to downplay suggestions that the venue is facing a race against time because of fire damage last October.
February 18 – Bulgaria has again been hit by match-fixing, with police launching an investigation into claims that fixers attempted to rig the result of a domestic league match earlier this season.
By Paul Nicholson
February 18 – The tensions and distrust between the Israelis and the Palestinians regarding the negotiation of freedom of movement for Palestinian footballers, have been sharpened with the news that the two young Palestinian footballers shot by Israeli security forces in the West Bank are unlikely to play again.
February 9, 2014 is a day to remember in many more ways than one.
It is not an earthquake that hit something somewhere. It is not a flood that engulfed English villages (although that happened too) and it is not some major lottery win that would have astounded folks around Europe (although that also happened).
February 9, 2014, is a day of shame (for 49.7% of the voting public) or indeed a day of glorious victory (for the slim majority of the voters,
February 17 – Manchester City’s status as one of the new elite of European football has been further enhanced by plans to increase the capacity of their Etihad stadium from 48,000 to over 62,000.
By Paul Nicholson
February 17 – The US men’s national team may face the ‘group of death’ in Brazil at the World Cup finals – Germany, Portugal and Ghana are their opponents – but it is very much alive and kicking as preparations for the Finals start to take shape with one eye also firmly fixed on the future.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 17 – Twenty-four hours before the FIFA-imposed deadline for Curitiba’s World Cup stadium to meet completion requirements, tension is growing as to what, if any, contingency plans are in place for ditching the venue which is due to stage four group games.
By Alexander Krassimirov
February 17 – Levski Sofia owner Todor Batkov (pictured) says that the Russian energy giant Gazprom is still an option for the main sponsorship of the club. The Russian company has frequently been named in connection with the Bulgarian cub for almost for two years, but there has been no firm developments to date.
February 17 – The controversial “triple punishment” of penalty, sending-off and suspension for offences that prevent a goalscoring opportunity could be eased if referees used more intuition and sensitivity, according to FIFA president Sepp Blatter.
February 17 – A Moldovan sports official has been banned for life for trying to bribe the coach of the country’s women’s under-17 team to fix an international match.
On the face of it a winter Games should hold no lessons for a summer football World cup. Yet Sochi 2014 does have lessons for Brazil 2014 and it would be unwise of the Brazilians to ignore what is taking place along the Black Sea.
Brazil it must be said starts with an advantage that Sochi could never have had. For anyone interested in football Brazil is the home of football. England may have invented the game and framed the rules but Brazil,
