July 4 – On June 14 the city of Los Angeles in California was being swarmed by ICE agents, communities were being torn apart and families broken apart, daily protests had seen areas of the city closed, and US president Donald Trump had called in the National Guard and even US Marines from Camp Pendleton to strike fear into the heart of a state that he says is out of control.
Spain 5 Portugal 0
July 3 – With an imperious display, world champions Spain waltzed past neighbours Portugal at the Wankdorff Stadion in Bern, winning 5-0 to back up their status as tournament favourites.
By Mark Baber
January 26 – The sense that the deck might be stacked against Iran in international football received a boost over the weekend as they were knocked out of the Asian Cup by Iraq, after a quarter-final match in which one of their players was sent off in a bizarre decision by the Australian referee, and which featured an Iraqi player who had produced a sample which proved positive for the banned stimulant methylhexaneamine whilst playing for an Iranian club last year.
January 26 – A compromise between UEFA and Russian football authorities over the future status of clubs in annexed Crimea could be about to take shape.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 26 – Any doubts about the 2022 World Cup in Qatar being staged in winter look to have been swept away, with November-December now the clear favourite in a move that will break with decades of tradition.
January 26 – A row has broken out between former German FA president Theo Zwanziger and Bayern Munich, after a Bayern blog on its official website accused Zwanziger of double standards over his criticism of the club for its friendly against Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal.
By Paul Nicholson
January 26 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has launched his first serious rocket in the race for the leadership of the governing body and his fired it in the direction of Nyon and its grandees at UEFA, and what he sees as their behind the scenes manoeuvring.
January 25 – Just seven months after hosting four World Cup matches, Cuiaba’s Arena Pantanal stadium, is being closed for “emergency repairs”.
January 25 – Leeds United owner Massimo Cellino has officially stepped down from his club duties, being replaced by Andrew Umbers until at least April 10 when Cellino’s ban will have been served.
January 23 – FIFA second-tier sponsors Castrol, Continental and Johnson & Johnson have declined to renew sponsorship contracts for the 2018 World Cup, each was on a one World Cup cycle deal.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
January 23 – Poland’s Stomil Olsztyn is close to bringing on board a new investor with the aim of putting club’s finances into order and prevent the club going bankrupt.
By Mark Baber
January 23 – Billionaire fan of Hambrg SV, Klaus-Michael Kühne, has become an official investor in the Bundesliga club, converting his latest loan of €18.75 million ($21.8million) into a 7.5% stake and buying the naming rights for the club’s stadium which will revert to its old name of the ‘Volksparkstadion’ (People’s Park Stadium) in July 2015.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 23 – As the tension builds towards next week’s deadline for official nominations to run for FIFA president, one of the prospective candidates has given the strongest indication yet that he will pull out and instead support Prince Ali bin al-Hussein in the Jordanian’s bid to unseat Sepp Blatter.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 23 – The FIFA official overseeing the presidential election process says the names of the candidates for the May 29 ballot may not necessarily be announced until several days after next Thursday’s deadline for nominations.
By Paul Nicholson
January 23 – The pressure on Scottish club Rangers’ board to call an extraordinary general meeting is mounting, despite the board’s resistance to convene shareholders for a vote that would determine whether they maintained their positions or not.
By Mark Baber
January 23 – The Deloitte Money League for 2013/14 shows the richest clubs are getting richer – with the top 20 clubs seeing an increase in combined revenue of €6.2 billion in 2013/14, an increase of 14% on the previous year, but also indicates the advantages of a more equal distribution of wealth within a league. All 20 Premier League teams made the top 40 globally.
January 23 – A report titled The Odds of Match Fixing – Facts & figures on the integrity risks of certain sports bets by Professor Dr Ben Van Rompuy of the ASSER International Sports Law Centre draws a number of conclusions that blow away some of the myths around conventionally held thinking on match-fixing.