Inside World Football - Page 1676 of 2242 - For the Business of Football

David Owen: Enough is enough: but can football leaders unearth a credible challenger

Enough, as disco queen and noted football authority Donna Summer observed sagely in the 1970s, is enough.

With the Garcia report fiasco now piled on top of the 2022 World Cup timing fiasco, right-thinking football leaders have a responsibility to come together and get behind a challenger strong enough to unseat long-term incumbent Joseph “Sepp” Blatter in next year’s FIFA Presidential election.

FIFA’s mono-dimensional World Cup-based economy has been going gangbusters enough in recent times for the seemingly endless stream of corruption allegations against football officials to be no more than a superficial irritant,

Archive

Anti-doping body gets much-needed budget increase

WADA

By David Owen
November 16 – The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is to receive a much-needed 3% budget increase in 2015. The Montreal-based organisation, which is funded broadly 50% by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and 50% by Governments, has had to make do with little extra money in recent times while public authorities in much of the industrialised world have been struggling to cope with the consequences of high debt and sluggish economic growth.

Africa

Equatorial Guinea step up to save the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations

AFCON trophy

By Mark Baber
November 14 – Equatorial Guinea has stepped in to save the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, following a meeting between Issa Hayatou, President of the African Football Confederation (CAF) and Equatorial Guinea’s President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.

John Yan

John Yan: Platini’s style breaks down the Chinese walls 普拉蒂尼：中国足球必须依靠政府

china 2

On the eve of November 11, the so called ‘Singles Day’ in Chinese internet language, two tired French gentlemen, dragging their luggage, took the shuttle bus from terminal 2 to terminal 3 in Beijing International Airport. Some passengers recognised that one of them was Michel Platini, and were astonished, others retorted that “How could the President of UEFA be getting on a shuttle bus in Beijing?”

Archive

Eckert surprised by Garcia statement, as more detail of complaint awaited

Hans-Joachim Eckert

By Andrew Warshaw
November 14 – FIFA’s ethics judge Hans Joachim Eckert says he is “surprised” by public criticism from Michael Garcia’s over the way he summarised Garcia’s report into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Africa

Nigeria: Appeals Committee winds up whilst Senate passes new bill

By Mark Baber
November 14 – There were major developments in the Nigerian football governance crisis on Thursday as the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Appeals Committee completed its hearings into the validity of the September 30 Executive Committee elections whilst the Nigerian government passed the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Bill 2014 in an apparent attempt to bring sanity to football administration in the country.

Andrew Warshaw: When closure opens a new can of worms

It was supposed to be all about closure for FIFA. Done and dusted. No more subterfuge. No more finger pointing. Time to move on. After all, there’s a presidential election next year.

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Chelsea deliver £18m profit and sets sights on new sponsor cash

Chelsea FC

November 14 – Chelsea FC have announced a profit of £18.4 million on a record turnover of £319.8 million for the year ended 30 June 2014. This is the econd and largest profit the largest profit the club has made since Roman Abramovich became owner of the club in 2003. Two years ago the profit was £1.4 million.

Archive

Match’s Whelan in UK but will return to Brazil for court dates

Ray Whelan 2

By Paul Nicholson
November 14 – Ray Whelan, the British director of FIFA’s World Cup marketing affiliate Match who was arrested at the World Cup in July, has in the last few days returned to the UK. Whelan was bailed in August from Brazil’s notorious Bangu prison but has only just received his passport.

Archive

Closure or calamity? Reactions to the Eckert bidding report summary

fifa3

By Andrew Warshaw
November 14 – Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organisers insist they were right to be exonerated from any corruption allegations as reaction continues to pour in, most of it negative, following the controversial summary of Michael Garcia’s report into the entire bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.

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AFC makes Vienamese match-fixing bans regional

Dong Nai players

November 14 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has extended the domestic ban on six Vietnamese players from Dong Nai FC to confederation level for their role in the country’s match-fixing scandal.

Africa

South Africa opens probe into tenders for 2010 construction contracts

South Africa 2010

November 14 – More than four years after staging the 2010 World Cup, several of South Africa’s top construction firms have been accused of colluding over tenders in the run-up to the tournament.

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Garcia re-ignites ethics debate after claim he will appeal Eckert summary

Michael J Garcia

By Andrew Warshaw
November 13 – If FIFA had hoped that today’s publication of the summary of Michael Garcia’s report into possible corruption surrounding the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid process would bring some closure, the whole investigation was immediately plunged back into confusion and intrigue when Garcia himself incredibly claimed his evidence had been misrepresented and that he was not happy with the findings.

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Racism row over Roma team in Czech Republic

FC Decin racism poster

By Mark Baber
November 13 – The issue of a Roma football club based in Decin in the Czech Republic, whom five league opponents have refused to play, has highlighted the racism and discrimination faced by the Roma communities in Eastern Europe and illustrates the obstacles football administrators need to overcome to ensure equal access and opportunities for all.

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Jordan signs up for two years of Soccerex conference

Soccerex in Jordan

November 13 – The Asian Football Development Project (AFDP), one of whose main goals is to use football as a tool for social change and improvement across the region, has agreed to host the Soccerex Asian Forum in Jordan for another two years.