Summit or lynch-mob? Brussels meeting adds more lobbyists
January 15 – Next week’s inaugural summit at the European Parliament by the so-called New Fifa Now campaign has added new speakers to the line-up.
Gold Cup 2025
Costa Rica stun Suriname with added time penalty in a Gold Cup classic
Costa Rica 4 Suriname 3
June 15 – With the baking sun of a sweltering San Diego day in Southern California giving way to a cool evening, Costa Rica went from red hot to freezing cold as they threw away their lead and had to battle back to win with 10 men and a penalty more than 10 minutes into added time.
Turkish football rocked by loss of major sponsor, blaming drop in brand value
By Mark Baber
January 15 – Murat Ülker, the chairman of Yıldız Holding, the major sponsor of the Turkish national team, Galatasaray and Fenerbahce has written to the Turkish Football Federation saying his company, which has ploughed $215 million into football in the last nine years, will no longer be supporting Turkish football.
Serie A is latest big league to add goalline technology
January 15 – Italian football is to introduce goalline technology from next season in Serie A after a task force appointed by the Italian Football Association (FIGC) ratified plans for its implementation.
AFC defends dope test disaster, but Hayel unlikely to return to play
By Andrew Warshaw
January 15 – Rocked by embarrassing allegations of negligence at the most prestigious event in its calendar, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has hit back at claims by Jordan that they botched a doping test on striker Ahmad Hayel during the Asian Cup in Australia.
Lee Wellings: Let’s Enjoy the Saints’ ‘Miracle’ While We Can
It’s just not the way the Premier League is expected to work is it? What on earth are Southampton doing up in the Champions League qualifying places?
Huth trips over tweets and lands up with a misconduct charge
January 15 – The pitfalls of professional footballers using social media for the wrong purposes have again been underlined after an English Premier League defender was charged with “aggravated misconduct”.
Prosecutors stung as English spot-fixing case dropped due to lack of evidence
January 15 – Widely publicised allegations of spot-fixing involving 13 English-based footballers has been dropped due to “insufficient evidence”.
NSCAA opens world’s largest coaches convention in Philadelphia
By Sam Nicholson in Philadelphia
January 15 – The world’s largest coaches association is holding the world’s largest convention for coaches in Philadelphia, USA. The five-day National Soccer Coaches of America Association (NSCAA) opened yesterday with more than 4,000 coaches and 10,000 attendees from around the country expected to attend.
Cypriot ref faces police questions over match-fixing
January 14 – Police in Cyprus have reportedly detained the head of the country’s referees association Michalis Argyrou (pictured) over allegations that he tried to influence the outcome of a first-division match two years ago.
CIES report finds link between club squad instability and performance
By Mark Baber
January 14 – The International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) Football Observatory has published its first monthly report aimed at illuminating the reasons for and consequences of club instability at European level.
Who has the cash? More Messi doubts as he speaks of uncertain future
January 14 – Intrigue over Lionel Messi’s future has been fuelled by the Barcelona maestro admitting he does not know where he will be playing next year.
Poland’s Polsat secures TV rights for Poland’s second tier
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
January 14 – Poland’s I Liga, the second tier of the country’s professional football league, has signed a new broadcasting rights deal for the 2015/2016 season with Polsat, the country’s leading privately-owned broadcaster.
FIFA legal advice finds no smoking gun in Russia or Qatar in Garcia report
January 14 – Expert legal opinion commissioned by FIFA to review Michael Garcia’s report into the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 world Cup, with specific reference to Russia and Qatar, has cleared both countries of any wrongdoing but warns of lawsuits.
Blast from the past – original World Cup trophy base found
January 14 – The stone base of the original Jules Rimet World Cup trophy has been miraculously discovered in a basement storage unit at FIFA headquarters in Zurich.
Botched dope test leaves Jordanian striker ill at AFC Cup
By Andrew Warshaw
January 14 – The Asian Cup has burst into controversy after Jordan lodged a formal protest with organisers claiming a random dope test that went badly wrong resulted in one their players falling seriously ill.