Inside World Football - Page 1569 of 2017 - For the Business of Football

Lee Wellings: How far have Manchester City come?

Not many games whet the appetite quite as much as Barcelona vs Manchester City, in the Champions League this month.

This column recently outlined why an important era is approaching for the Catalan club as their dominant decade gives way to uncertainty. Can they remain at the very top when clubs fuelled by petrodollars are starting to accelerate?

Barcelona got past Paris St Germain last season but the French club with the Qatari funding weren’t yet up to full speed.

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David Owen: Why it would make sense to introduce a Winter Olympic futsal competition

“Just arrived in Sochi,” Joseph Blatter tweeted on Tuesday. “Looking forward to meeting my friends and colleagues from the Olympic community before Sochi 2014.”

The FIFA President is an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member. So he will attend the IOC Session that precedes the Winter Olympics, the first to be chaired by Thomas Bach, the recently-elected IOC President.

There will no doubt also be opportunities to catch up with Russian officials,

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No change to Brazil 2014 line-up as CAS rejects Cape Verde appeal

By Andrew Warshaw
February 5 – FIFA and World Cup organisers will be breathing a lot more easily after Cape Verde lost their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over being expelled from World Cup qualifying – in the process avoiding potential chaos next summer.

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No-one spared: Malaysians sanction whole team for matchfixing

By Andrew Warshaw
February 5 – In another alarming example of how matchfixing is blighting Asian football, Malaysian authorities have found an entire lower league team guilty of manipulating games.

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Hertha welcomes new US investor and €61m of ‘long-term’ cash

By David Owen
February 5 – Yet more US investment is flowing into European football, with the announcement that Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) has forged a strategic partnership with Hertha BSC of the German Bundesliga.

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No Plan B for Curitiba venue as FIFA accept April completion date

February 5 – FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke says all Brazil’s World Cup stadia, most notably Curitiba, will be completed by April even though that is only two months before the start of the tournament.

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Rummenigge insists FFP must be enforced and points finger at PSG

By Andrew Warshaw
February 5 – Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who heads the European Club Association representing the interests of more than 200 clubs across the Continent, has urged UEFA to crack down on any big spenders who breach financial fair play regulations.

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Šuker jets into Caribbean bringing gifts, expertise and stardust

Davor Suker President of the Croatian Football Federation

February 5 – Croatian playing legend and now president of the Croatian Football Association, Davor Šuker, is in the Caribbean visiting the Turks and Caicos Islands this weekend. The trip follows an initial approach from the Croatians to the Turks and Caicos Islands last December offering assistance and seeking to build a stronger relationship with the federation.

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FIFA keep pressure on to resolve the Palestine/Israel football stand-off

February 4 – FIFA believe they are making progress in an effort to break the footballing impasse between Israel and Palestine and improve the long-term problem of access for officials, competitors and equipment to and from the latter.

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Skrill drops Football Conference title sponsorship

February 4 – The Football Conference, which organises the fifth and sixth tiers of English football across three divisions, is looking for a title sponsor following the decision by current sponsor Skrill, to finish its relationship with the league at the end of the year.

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Play it again ref; video replay makes it on to IFAB rules agenda

By Andrew Warshaw
February 4 – Football’s law-makers are to study the idea of video replays, a controversial topic the FIFA hierarchy has long pledged will not be introduced as an addition to goal-line technology.

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French comic barred UK entry but Anelka plays on

By Andrew Warshaw
February 4 – The comedian who invented the infamous Nazi-style gesture that led to former French international Nicolas Anelka being charged by English football authorities has been barred from entering Britain.

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UNCAF federations head north to US for Copa Centroamericana

February 4 – The Union of Central American Football (UNCAF) has said that it will play its next championship for national teams, the UNCAF Copa Centroamericana, in the US, most likely 1-13 September 2014, in the FIFA window for international fixtures.

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New joint bid for Leeds as sale progressing but owners insist no change

By Andrew Warshaw
February 4 – The Leeds United ownership saga shows no sign of being resolved as the club prepares for fresh talks while re-instated manager Brian McDermott says he is going nowhere – for the moment anyway.

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Less is more as CFR Cluj owner offers stake in Romanian club

By Jaroslaw Adamowski
February 3 – Arpad Paszkany (pictured), owner of CFR Cluj, has confirmed plans to find a new investor for the Romanian club which currently plays in Liga 1, the top tier of the country’s professional football league.