Belgian match-fixing trial begins after 10-year wait, 31 face charges
February 6 – Burkina Faso coach Paul Put is among 31 defendants in a Belgian match-fixing trial that started this week.
Beckham trades boots for desk as MLS grants his Miami franchise
By Andrew Warshaw
February 6 – David Beckham’s dream of running his own club in the United States has become a reality after the global sporting superstar and former England captain announced that he has exercised his option to become the owner of a Major League Football team in Miami.
Cracovia Krakow swaps Nike for Italy’s Legea as new kit sponsor
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
February 5 – Cracovia Krakow has signed a new kit deal with Italian sportswear manufacturer Legea. The contract with Legea will come into force in July 2015, the Polish football club said. Legea will replace Nike which has been Cracovia’s kit supplier since 2012.
Bulgarian champions build for Europe with €10m revamp of Ludogorets Arena
By Alexander Krassimirov
February 6 – The state in Bulgaria has allocated 3 million leva (€1,5 million) for the reconstruction of the Ludogorets Arena Stadium in Razgrad. The project was approved by ministers yesterday, with the money being allocated from a fund for ‘Growth and sustainable development in the region’. The stadium is home of current league champions PFC Ludogorets.
Afghan football officials to visit Wembley
By David Owen
February 5 – A party from Afghanistan is to pay a knowledge-sharing visit to England, as part of a programme to foster the development of football in the war-torn country and aid the nation-building process that the west is keen to see take root.
Mihir Bose: Why FIFA cannot learn from the Olympics
The idea that football can learn from the Olympics has often been articulated not least after the London Games. Then the idea was even endorsed by Sepp Blatter. However, the question that was being talked about during London 2012, at least as far as Blatter was concerned, was how could football deal with what Blatter and others in the game call simulation but what most of us term as cheating. In other words the question of a player who dives in the hope he will get a free kick or a penalty,
Barca’s Faus calls for expanded CL and reduced home leagues
February 5 – Barcelona president Sandro Rosell may have departed but the club’s vice-president is continuing Rosell’s legacy of calling for changes to the structure of the game.
Yeung resigns from Birmingham City as money laundering trial continues
By Andrew Warshaw
February 5 – The unpredictable and often precarious nature of foreign ownership in club football has been starkly illustrated by Birmingham City owner Carson Yeung resigning as a director of both the club and its parent company Birmingham International Holdings Ltd (BIHL) as he awaits the verdict of a money laundering trial.
Qatari infrastructure spend to top $205bn by 2018
By Paul Nicholson
February 5 – The scale of the financial commitment the Qataris are making in providing in-country infrastructure as it builds towards the 2022 World Cup was made clear again yesterday with $205 billion to be spent in the period up to 2018, according to a senior figure at the state’s largest bank.
Colorado Rapids sign up for SitNearMe Facebook ticket sales app
By Paul Nicholson
February 5 – Israeli technology specialist Evento have signed a deal with Kroenke Sports Entertainment to launch its SitNearMe social media ticketing application for Kroenke’s sports francjsies including MLS team and the Colorado Rapids.
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.
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,
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.
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.
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.