By Paul Nicholson
May 11- Chelsea received a boost in new Twitter followers in the week they confirmed themselves as Premier League champions, putting on more than 5,000 new followers than their north London rivals Arsenal. Man Utd are maintaining their run at the top of the Twitter weekly rankings – they put on another whopping 49,294 followers, over 14,000 more than Chelsea.
May 11 – The Caribbean Football Union’s senior club competition will go into its final round games in Trinidad, May 22-24. Three of the four qualifying teams will go into the June 1 draw for the 2015/2016 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League.
It being general election week here in the United Kingdom, I thought it would be a good time to take a look at the FIFA Presidential election – via the medium of the four candidates’ Twitter feeds. Not because I judge this likely to offer great insights into the identity of the eventual winner: the football officials in whose hands the outcome lies are assuredly far too high-minded to be swayed by anything as trivial as social media.
May 9 – With the play-offs for promotion to the Scottish Premier League (SPL) beginning today, a row has broken out over ticket prices with both Rangers and Hibernian being disallowed from admitting season ticket holders without a fee.
By Alexander Krassimirov
May 8 – The largest shareholder in Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia Ivaylo Madzhukov (pictured) has admitted that the club is still threatened with bankruptcy. The new investors, however, have said they will do everything possible to prevent it. It is not yet clear whether the club will be granted a license for next season, because of the huge tax debt it owes the National Revenue Agency.
Back in his comfort zone on the banks of the Dead Sea in his native Jordan, the Prince who would be king charmed the pants off visiting delegates and dignatories with his trademark mixture of humility and hospitality.
May 8 – ‘Nice guys come last’, so the saying goes, but in UEFA’s world being a good corporate citizen wins your country an additional Europa League place.
By Mark Baber
May 8 – The crisis in Spanish football, which threatens to bring football to a halt in the country from May 16, has deepened with the player’s union (AFE) aligning itself with the federation (RFEF), calling for a strike to begin on May 16 – the Spanish league (LFP) has already declared strike action illegal.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 8 – Ray Whelan, the British director who was arrested and detained in Brazil after being wrongly accused of selling VIP World Cup tickets at inflated prices, is back working as a consultant for Match Services, FIFA’s official marketing partner, and is planning to write a book about the entire experience.
May 8 – The Russian investment in building infrastructure and facilities for the 2018 World Cup appears to be having a positive knock-on effect for sports facilities generally in the country with 12 new sports centres expected to be opened in Moscow in 2015.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 8 – Sepp Blatter reckons the upcoming women’s World Cup could be the biggest breakthrough yet for the sport and that more women should occupy positions of administrative power at FIFA.
May 8 – Honduras have stepped up to host the second regional championship in the country in a year, with the CONCACAF Under-20 Women’s Championship 2015 this December. The championship will decide the three teams to qualify for the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Papua New Guinea 2016.
May 8 – Zenit St Petersburg has signed a three-year deal with Japanese carmaker Nissan who becomes an official partner of the club. No value was announced for the agreement.
May 7 – Enfield Town, the tiny part-time club in the eighth tier of English football whose case against being docked three points for no other reason than being honest has made national headlines, will discover tomorrow whether they will be let off the sanction.
May 7 – The head of Israeli football has launched a pre-emptive strike, metaphorically speaking, to try and stop a Palestinian proposal to ban his federation from FIFA being supported at the FIFA Congress later this month.