Spanish tax police close in on Barca over Neymar tax scam
March 16 – Barcelona may be holding on to their lead in La Liga but off the field the club have become ever more deeply embroiled in the Neymar tax fraud case.
Rooney home video proves a 2.34m knock-out on Youtube
By Mark Baber
March 16 – The release of a video clip by The Sun newspaper, showing England and Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney apparently knocked out whilst engaged in a boxing match with former team-mate Phil Bardsley, is largely being treated as a private matter and a hook for various one-liners.
Parma punished on and off the pitch with a 5-point losing weekend
March 16 – Italian crisis club Parma, thumped again 4-1 at the weekend, have had two more points deducted by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) for failing to pay their players’ salaries.
Royal confusion as Prince Ali seeks top down pressure for votes
By Andrew Warshaw
March 16 – Brunei’s football federation has sought to play down reports that it will be supporting Jordan’s Prince Ali bin Al Hussein against Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency.
Blatter pushes on Qatar workers’ rights as 2022 date announcement nears
March 16 – In a week when FIFA is due to announce the dates for the first ever winter World Cup in 2022, Sepp Blatter is keeping up the pressure on hosts Qatar to improve conditions for migrant workers.
Twitter rankings: Man Utd spank their City neighbours, Chelsea remain chirpy
By Paul Nicholson
March 16 – Manchester United continued their dominance of the Premier League Twitter chart for the fourth consecutive week, putting on more than 44,000 new followers, more than 7,000 more than nearest rivals Chelsea and Arsenal.
FIFA steps up its game as Russia’s racist record comes under painful scrutiny
By Paul Nicholson
March 16 – The problem of racism in Russian football is getting the full attention of FIFA with CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb (pictured), who heads FIFA’s anti-racism and discrimination task force, saying that the problem needs to be tackled from the “dressing room out”.
Kenyan crisis: KPL officials walk free from court as FIFA exposes federation’s lies
By Mark Baber
March 13 – Kenyan Premier League officials have walked free from court after being cleared of the contempt of court charges brought against them by the Kenyan Football Federation and its President Sam Nyamweya. The ruling comes in spite of a remarkable letter being sent to the FKL by FIFA Deputy Secretary General Markus Kattner in which he explicitly scotched reports that FIFA had requested the withdrawal of the case.
UEFA complain lawmaker’s ‘triple’ bypass takes heart out the game
March 13 – UEFA have re-ignited their attack on football’s lawmakers for making what they say is entirely the wrong call over how to solve the triple punishment rule.
Belarusian crisis pushes Dinamo Brest players to plead for government help
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
March 13 – Desperate players at Belarus’ FC Dinamo Brest have taken the unusual step of writing to state authorities pleading for them to pay their unpaid wages. Belarus’ top clubs are struggling to stay afloat financially and for the Dinamo Brest player, the crisis has reached breaking point.
Germans at war: Niersbach victory as he is cleared of Zwanziger complaint
March 13 – Theo Zwanziger’s imminent departure from the high echelons of FIFA is getting messier still. The former head of German football, who is stepping down from FIFA’s executive committee in May, has been using every opportunity to denounce the award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar as well as having a go at Wolfgang Niersbach, his successor at the German FA and soon at FIFA too.
Paper pushers take over Brasilia’s Garrincha stadium; Romario complains
By Samindra Kunti
March 13 – The Brazilian government has announced that three government secretariats will take office at the Mane Garrincha stadium. Once more, Senator Romario criticized the high costs for the renovation of the stadium.
Gambian league fuelled by renewable energy sponsor
By Mark Baber
March 13 -The Gambia Football Federation (GFF) and renewable energy company, First Eco Partners, held a ceremony the Football House in Kanifing to celebrate the signing of three-year sponsorship deal for the GFF first division league, reportedly worth D3m (£47,000) which was first announced in January.
Bhutan and East Timor take giant killing strides in World Cup qualifiers
March 13 – Bhutan, the world’s worst international team according to FIFA rankings, defied their lowly status by securing a shock 1-0 win over Sri Lanka in their World Cup qualifying debut as the Asian zone kicked off for places in Russia in 2018.
Andrew Warshaw: Crash and burn (theatrically), the new English way
He couldn’t resist. He just couldn’t resist. Just when it seemed Jose Mourinho had answered his critics by showing he could lose with good grace – we weren’t good enough, the better team won, congratulations to them etc etc – so, as the television analysts pointed out, he went and spoiled it all.