USA 1 Saudi Arabia 0
June 19 – American comedian Rodney Dangerfield used to say, “I don’t get no respect.” The same could be said for the United States Men’s Soccer Team as barely 10,000 fans showed up for a supporter friendly 8.15 pm kickoff versus Concacaf Gold Cup, Group D opponents, Saudi Arabia in a 1-0 win that again raised more questions than answers.
July 10 – English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur has renewed its exclusive ticket resale partnership for a further two seasons with StubHub. With the club in the early stages of building a new 61,000 capacity stadium and a deal announced to stage NFL matches, StubHub will be looking to position itself for Spurs’ new era of larger crowds and more stadium events.
July 10 – New research from KPMG’s Sport practice into attendances in the big five European football markets has found that the top two divisions in each territory attracted more than 77 million spectators at an average of 19,500 spectators per match.
July 9 – Another interview by Sepp Blatter. Another passionate defence of his record and that of FIFA. This time, the embattled Swiss has blamed FIFA’s individual confederations for the corruption scandal that has rocked his organisation and led to him deciding to step down.
By Mark Baber
July 9 – US mobile phone brand Yezz has extended its deal with Ligue 1’s Girondins de Bordeaux for another two years in a deal negotiated with the support of Infront Sports & Media, it was announced on Wednesday.
It was a nasty video, the link been posted on my weibo (Chinese version of twitter, but under governance for sure) account for several hours, and with quite a few football supporters impatiently asking me to take a look.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 9 – The reputation of former FIFA and CONCACAF powerbroker Chuck Blazer reached an all-time low today when he was banned for life by FIFA for widespread corruption, bringing to end the career of one of the most colourful and controversial figures in football politics.
By Alexander Krassimirov
July 9 – Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia may have been dropped to the amateur divisions of the country’s football structure, but the club is still in demand. Four Bulgarian broadcasters are fighting over TV rights for the club’s matches in the amateur V league.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 9 – An investment company supporting Third Party Ownership will challenge FIFA’s global ban on the practise at what could be a ground-breaking hearing in Brussels next week.
By Paul Nicholson
July 9 – Sonia Bien-Amie has broken new ground for women’s representation at FIFA becoming the first woman to hold a non-female designated post on the governing body’s executive committee, the top table of world football.
July 9 – Croatia’s prime minister has issued a strongly worded personal plea to UEFA president Michel Platini urging Europe’s governing body not to expel the national team after a swastika was scrawled on the pitch during last month’s European Championship qualifier against Italy.
“Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.” Albert Einstein
When Einstein wrote the most famous equation in physics, he identified his inputs very clearly as energy, mass and the speed of light: E=mc2. But then the relationship between energy and mass is itself intrinsic, a fact represented in the paradox about what counts and can be counted.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 8 – In the latest groundbreaking deal between English football and American gridiron, Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur have announced a 10-year partnership with the NFL that will see the north London club host at least two NFL games a year at its new stadium due to open in 2018.
When FIFA’s new chief ethics investigator Cornel Borbely took over back in March, he insisted he would not be influenced or sidetracked by anyone within the heirarchy of football’s world governing body when it came to making independent decisions.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
July 8 – Stomil Olsztyn and the city authorities in Olsztyn have launched a competition to select the design of its new stadium. The Polish side aims to fit its planned sports facility with a capacity of 12,000, according to the released technical requirements.
By Mark Baber
July 8 – Russian Sports Minister and YouTube sensation Vitaly Mutko has been nominated to stand as a candidate in September’s election for a new president of the Russian Football Union (RFS).