July 2 – Having looked like a team that were struggling to find any cohesion or common purpose after four straight losses, including a miserable performance in March at the Concacaf Nations League final, suddenly the USA look as though, if not the real deal, they are certainly worth a reappraisal.
July 2 – Elite football in the form of major tournament returns to Switzerland for the first time since 2008, with Euro 2025 and the quest for continental glory set to take over the Alpine nation this July with more than 600,000 tickets sold and increased prize money on offer for the 16 finalists.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 20 – Israeli officials headed to Switzerland today to fight their corner with UEFA and FIFA in order to stave off a potential “day of judgement” with regard to their very existence as a footballing nation.
That English football sold its soul to television many years ago is hardly a contentious subject any more. And partly because the small screen has enabled to us to consume and enjoy more of the game from across the globe than we could ever have imagined possible. But with football and TV ever more reliant on each other, is there really a need for football to have humiliated itself for television in the way it did for the FA Cup semi-finals?
By David Owen
April 20 – Infront Sports & Media, the Swiss-based sports marketing company recently acquired by Chinese businessman Wang Jianlin’s Dalian Wanda Group, has unveiled new deals with three Asian football associations.
By David Owen
April 20 – Rising staff costs helped to prevent Premier League club Newcastle United from reporting even stronger financial results for the year to 30 June 2014. Financial statements for the club currently lying 14th in the league table, now available from Companies House, show that overall staff costs climbed 27% year-on-year to £78.3 million, with wages and salaries rising more than 28% to £69.3 million.
April 17 – The Irish Football Association has been advised to demolish a damaged stand at the national stadium following a preliminary structural report.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 17 – The Greek authorities are on a collision with FIFA and EUFA over plans to tackle violence in domestic sport, with the two bodies warning the country could be thrown out of international football because of government interference.
April 17 – As the scourge of global match-fixing shows little sign of diminishing, fresh calls have been made for governments to introduce legislation that recognises it as a global crime.
By Mark Baber
April 17 – A-League club Perth Glory have given up their fight against Football Federation Australia (FFA) sanctions, admitting their guilt in breaching the salary cap regulations and accepting a $269,000 fine and relegation to seventh spot in the home-and-away season – losing their place in the A-League finals.
By Paul Nicholson in the Bahamas
April 16 – If there was any lingering confusion as to where the CONCACAF federation votes were heading, in bulk, at the May election for FIFA president, no-one was left in any doubt after an extraordinary show of support from the floor for Sepp Blatter at the confederation’s congress in the Bahamas today.
By Paul Nicholson in the Bahamas
April 16 – CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb used his opening remarks at the confederation’s congress in the Bahamas to acknowledge the progress they have made as a group but to reset their goals for the next stages of reform and building.
By Paul Nicholson in the Bahamas
April 16 – Speaking at the opening of the CONCACAF Congress in the Bahamas today (Thursday) FIFA president Sepp Blatter told his audience of national federations their confederation should have four automatic places at the FIFA World Cup.
By Samindra Kunti
April 17 – Next season the women’s Super League will replace the BeNe League in Belgium. Eight teams will compete in the newly designed league format with the champions crowned after play-offs.
April 17 – Marco Polo Del Nero has officially succeeded Jose Maria Marin as the president of the CBF, the Brazilian Football Confederation.
By Mark Baber
April 17 – The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) is the latest football governing body to see vicious infighting, with allegations of corruption, attempts to disqualify potential electoral opponents, threats of legal action and attempts by the incumbent to lever FIFA’s power against potential rivals, prior to this Friday’s Punjabi Football Association (PFA) elections.
The politics of football have long been rife with allegations of corruption, hypotheses, behind-the-scenes manoeuvring and a fair share of proven malpractise.