January 34 – Former Norwegian international striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, known in his playing days as the “baby-faced assassin”, has taken on the challenge of trying to manage Premier League newcomers Cardiff City following the controversial sacking of Malky Mackay by the club’s Malaysian owner Vincent Tan.
January 3 – The debate over which club is the biggest in the world and what actually constitutes the word “biggest” – success on the field, stadium size or fan base – is one that never ceases to prompt detailed analysis. Real Madrid? Manchester United? Barcelona?
January 3 – Violence between fans of Australia’s Melbourne Victory and Western Sydney Wanderers has triggered the Football Federation Australia (FFA) into action, with both clubs being charged with bringing the game into disrepute.
By Paul Nicholson
January 3 – Europe’s giant clubs aren’t heading for the alpine ski slopes for their winter break but to the warmer climate of the Middle East for preparation for the second half of their seasons. French champions and league leaders Paris St Germain are already in Doha, Qatar, and last night played a friendly against Spain’s Real Madrid (Madrid won 1-0) in front of a 45,000 capacity crowd at Aspire’s Khalfa Stadium. Bayern leave for Qatar at the weekend.
By Paul Nicholson
January 3 – The UAE Pro League Committee has renewed its sponsorship with the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank. ADIB will be its exclusive and official bank of the league and UAW Pro League’s other competitions.
By Paul Nicholson
January 3 – South Africa, hosts of the African Nations Championship (Chan) that kicks off January 11, face the embarrassment of not being able to get all their own first choice players on to the pitch for Bafana Bafana as leading club Kaiser Chiefs are refusing to release five players.
January 2 – Reports that David Beckham could receive a knighthood proved completely unfounded when the former England captain and global footballing icon was omitted from the traditional New Year royal awards list.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 2 – UEFA’s financial fair play rules have been brought into sharp focus with the news that Chelsea, one of the world’s most affluent foreign-owned clubs, made a loss of £49.4 million for the year ended 30 June 2013.
By Paul Nicholson
January 2 – Attendance for the three fixtures of the holiday period for the Premier League in England averaged over 95% of stadium capacity for the matches December 26, December 28-29 and 1 January 2014. Of a total of 1,147,696 available seats in stadia, just 30,802 seats were unfilled.
Brazil 2014 will be the first World Cup dominated by twitter.
Not the first World Cup of the twitter age, but the first since twitter became an unstoppable juggernaut thundering through every town and city on earth.
For those who despair of the idiocy and indiscretion that drag down the positive side of this social phenomenon, a World Cup consumed by twitter commentary could be a depressing thought. It could be yes,
By Andrew Warshaw
January 2 – The ‘quennelle’ Nazi sign made by former French international striker Nicolas Anelka has prompted fierce reaction in both sporting and political circles that is showing no sign of abating – even though the player has promised not to repeat it.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 2 – The joint use of the Liberty stadium in Swansea, built at a cost of £27 million, is the latest case being investigated by the European Commission as part of a widescale probe into state aid in sport. Officials have asked the local council to supply funding details of a deal which has enabled Swansea City and rugby club Ospreys to play there since 2005.
January 2 – Russian football has taken on former top FIFA official Valentin Ivanov to replace Italian Roberto Rosetti as head of its domestic refereeing department.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
January 2 – Russian billionaire Leonid Fedun has announced that the new stadium currently being built for Spartak Moscow will cost 14 billion rubles ($426 million). Fedun told local news agency ITAR-TASS that Spartak is already receiving funds for the investment from its sponsor, Russian bank Otkritie, under a naming rights deal signed in February 2013.
“History… is the lesson and the example of the future,” Alphonse de Lamartine, Antar.
As one year rolls into another there is only the fading memory of what came before and an anticipation of what might be. Football’s cycles work to a different calendar, but it is worth considering how the lessons of 2013 might provide examples for what the future will hold in the second half of the 2013-14 season and beyond.