By David Owen
November 19 – There was potentially good news for one senior FIFA figure in a strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement unveiled with a flourish in the Olympic capital of Lausanne on Tuesday. But not so, apparently, for another.
November 19 – The debate over how much English Premier League football should be televised live domestically is back on the agenda. UK broadcasting watchdog Ofcom has opened an investigation into how the Premier League sells media rights following a complaint from Virgin Media, which claims more matches should be available for live broadcast.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 19 – Scotland’s former World Cup referee Hugh Dallas (pictured) has stepped down as head of referees in Greece just days after matches were suspended indefinitely following an attack on one of his colleagues.
November 19 – Singapore’s high court has rejected an application by one of the world’s most notorious match-fixers to review a detention order that has allowed him to be held for more than a year without charge, according to his lawyer.
The row that has erupted over FIFA’s handling of the much trumpeted Michael Garcia report on the 2018 and 2022 World Cup means we are once again seeing a re-run of what is now sports oldest soap opera: how shall we reform FIFA? It is not often that bad movies get so many repeat showings, even on a dank, dull, evening in Bognor. But then this is FIFA – an organisation where the past is not a foreign country but one that is always being revisited.
By Andrew Warshaw and Paul Nicholson
November 18 – In another dramatic twist in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup investigation into possible corruption in the bidding process, FIFA has lodged a criminal complaint against a number of individuals (“persons”) with the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland in Berne.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 18 – Two whistleblowers who provided potentially incriminatory evidence to the FIFA World Cup anti-corruption probe are furious that their cover has been effectively blown and have both registered a formal complaint against FIFA ethics judge Hans Joachim Eckert.
By Mark Baber
November 18 – The Kenya Football Federation (FKF) is considering increasing the number of clubs in the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) from 16 to 18 and whether or not to move from the current February to November format to an August to May season.
By Paul Nicholson
November 18 – Russia’s first deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov has said that the construction spend on stadia for the 2018 World Cup will remain fixed at 300 billion roubles ($6.4 billion) – the same figure that was set in 2010. Shuvalov made his remarks on a visit to Moscow’s recently complete Okritie-Arena, one of two venues in the capital that will host matches in 2018.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 18 – The two FIFA ethics chiefs at the centre of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding investigation have agreed to meet face-to-face on Thursday to try and agree over what should and shouldn’t be published and resolve their untimely dispute that has heaped embarrassment on world football’s governing body.
“The negative tenor of the public debate around FIFA at the moment is neither good for football nor for FIFA and its partners.” Adidas statement, June 2014
Adidas has claimed that football is “the DNA of our company”. So when FIFA’s longest-serving commercial partner remarked publicly about the threat to football’s image presented by the many corruption allegations swirling around its governing body, Adidas revealed fears that its own reflection might become haggard.
November 18 – Countries don’t normally sack coaches in the middle of competitions but such is the element of pride in Asia that Bahrain are looking for a new coach for the second time in just over four months after Iraqi Adnan Hamad (pictured) was dismissed in the wake of the country’s poor start to the Gulf Cup.
November 18 – Croatian football authorities, seemingly at the end of their patience over the hooligan reputation of their fans, have called on the country’s entire society to help eradicate the problem following last weekend’s flare-throwing incident that caused a Euro 2016 qualifier in Italy to be briefly suspended.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 17 – As the fallout from the much-criticised summary of Michael Garcia’s 2018 and 2022 World Cup investigation report shows no sign of abating, the president of the German Football League (DFL) has entered the debate by suggesting UEFA could leave FIFA unless Garcia’s entire file is published in full.
By Mark Baber
November 17 – A number of foreign footballers signing up to play for Somali sides before the start of the new championship which kicks off on December 19 is being hailed as a significant indicator of the game’s progress in the war-torn country.