Inside World Football - Page 1613 of 2151 - For the Business of Football

FIFA to dip into solidarity fund to help Ebola-hit associations

Monrovia stadium

By David Owen
September 11 – FIFA plans to dip into its solidarity fund to help three impoverished West African nations – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – stricken by the deadly Ebola virus. The governing body said that at its next finance committee meeting in two weeks’ time on September 25 it would propose using solidarity fund resources to “support the member associations” of these three countries in the fight against the disease.

Matt Scott

Matt Scott: In football someone will always be miserable. What’s important is to make life fair

“C’est bien facile d’être bon, le malaisé c’est d’être juste.” Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

Financial Fair Play has posed football’s regulators with a quandary that Victor Hugo would no doubt quickly have recognised. When making the law it’s dead easy to be good; the hard part is being fair.

Africa

Nigeria: CAS rejects Giwa faction’s attempt to restrain FIFA

By Mark Baber
September 11 – An attempt by the Chris Giwa-faction in Nigeria’s Football Federation (NFF) to hang on to power by appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for a restraint order against FIFA fell at the first hurdle this week.

Archive

Prince Ali declares to run again in Asia for seat at FIFA’s top table

Prince Ali and Sepp Blatter

By Andrew Warshaw in Manchester
September 11 – Three months after discovering that he will lose his position as Asia’s FIFA vice-president, Prince Ali bin Hussein of Jordan has come out fighting by announcing that he will stand for election as a member of FIFA’s executive committee next year.

Archive

Swedish ‘Syrians’ under suspicion for match-fixing

Syrianska FC

By Mark Baber
September 11 – The Swedish Football Association (SvFF) announced has reported a case of “suspected bribery” to the police in relation to Jonkopings Sodra’s match against Syrianska on August 25 which Jonkoping won 4-0.

Archive

FIFA women’s chief Dodd backs Canada 2015 and artificial pitches

Moya Dodd 3

September 11 – The head of FIFA’s Task Force for Women is taking a diplomatic approach to the outcry over the use of synthetic pitches at the next year’s women’s World Cup in Canada.

Archive

Platini says UEFA has leading record on racism but harder rules needed

Platini and Respect banner

September 11 – UEFA president Michel Platini has taken a veiled swipe at FIFA’s zero tolerance approach towards racism at the World Cup.

Archive

UEFA reveals Euro 2020 bid city evaluations ahead of final vote

Euro trophy

By Andrew Warshaw
September 11 – Countries hoping to stage the pan-European Championship finals in 2020 have received mixed news from UEFA’s evaluation panel with the vote just a week away.

Archive

CFU qualifiers progress to second round in race for Jamaican finals

CFU Cup

September 11 – The race is hotting up in the Caribbean for qualifying places at the CFU Caribbean Cup finals in Jamaica this November. The finals will not only crown the Caribbean champions but will also provide the region’s qualifiers for the CONCACAF 2015 Gold Cup and the 2016 Copa America Centennario, both to be played in the US.

Archive

Zenit Arena contracts tendered for 2016 stadium completion

Zenit Arena

September 11 – St Petersburg city officials have launched a tender for the completion of the Zenit Arena, which is currently being built on Krestovskiy island for the 2018 World Cup. The 61,251-capacity stadium will cost about €934 million. The total value of the contracts that will complete the project is RUB 9.14 billion (€190 million).

Archive

ESSA and CONCACAF combine their integrity assault on match-fixers

ESSA and Concacaf

By Paul Nicholson
September 11 – Betting industry integrity body ESSA has signed an information sharing agreement with CONCACAF, the only hook-up for the online sportsbook organisation with a football confederation. ESSA already has agreements with FIFA and a number of national federations including the English FA and Germany’s DFB.

Archive

Big profit for Manchester United despite nightmare season

Man Utd piggy bank

By David Owen
September 10 – A substantial reduction in finance costs has enabled Manchester United, in danger of becoming the fallen giants of English football, to bounce back into profit in its latest financial year, in spite of a profoundly disappointing season on the field of play.

Archive

Indian footballers escape Shanghai and head to Incheon for Asian Games

By Mark Baber
September 10 – The men’s and women’s Indian national teams for the Asian Games have finally been given the go-ahead to participate in the tournament, bringing to an end a nail-biting few days as Indian officials decided which sports would be cut from India’s contingent.

Archive

Organised crime has spread match-fixing epidemic to 80 countries, say experts

matchfixing

By Andrew Warshaw in Manchester
September 10 – Between 60 and 80 countries have reported cases of football match-fixing per year over the last three years. That was one of many stark revelations at a hard-hitting session on the subject at the Soccerex Convention in Manchester today.

Archive

Czech’s FK Usti nad Labem overhauls stadium to meet top tier requirements

FK Usti nad Labem

By Jaroslaw Adamowski
September 10 – Czech football side FK Usti nad Labem has reopened its revampled stadium which was modernised at a cost of CZK 168 million (€6 million). As part of the redevelopment, a new stand was added with a seating capacity of 4,000.