By Osasu Obayiuwana, at the CAF Congress in Marrakech
March 9 – The 35th Ordinary General Assembly of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), to be spread over two days, began on Saturday at the Palais De Congrais in Marrakech, Morocco.
By Osasu Obayiuwana, at the CAF congress in Marrakech, Morocco
March 9 – Backslaps, embraces and hearty chat are always on offer, when the great, the good and the miscreants in African football politics congregate, at least in public.
By Mark Baber
March 8 – UNICEF have written to FC Barcelona following a report by insideworldfootball that Barcelona may have breached FIFA regulations on the transfer of young players from abroad.
By Mark Baber
March 8 – In the wake of the Chair of the Nigerian Women’s Professional League reportedly banning lesbians from playing football, FIFA has now written to the Nigerian Football Fedearation requesting clarification.
By Andrew Warshaw, Chief Correspondent
March 8 – When football’s lawmakers rubber-stamped the long-overdue introduction of goalline technology last week, it hardly made global sporting headlines.
By Osasu Obayiuwana at the CAF Congress in Marrakech
March 8 – Slim Jdidi, the Tunisian referee at the centre of the controversial 2013 Africa Cup of Nations semi-final between Ghana and Burkina Faso is unlikely to receive further sanctions from the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the continent’s governing body.
March 8 – Bloomberg Sports has launched an update to its match prediction software that will update its projections in-play and every minute across five major European football leagues.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 8 – One of the candidates bidding to become the next Asian football chief has described as “crazy” Michel Platini’s idea that Qatar share the 2022 World Cup with its neighbours.
March 8 – On International Women’s Day (Friday March 8) FIFA.com has published interviews with the four candidates who at the FIFA Congress in Mauritius in May will stand for election to the FIFA Executive Committee.
Exclusive – By Andrew Warshaw, Chief Correspondent
March 7 – Exclusive: At least one of the three west Asian candidates bidding to replace Mohamed bin Hammam as head of Asian football looks set to drop out of the race in the next month to reduce the chances of handing the Continent’s power base to Thailand’s controversial Makudi Worawi.
By Paul Nicholson
March 7 – Sunil Gulati (pictured), president of the US Soccer Federation, has his sights set on international committee work and giving the US a bigger voice at confederation and FIFA level.
By Mark Baber
March 7 – The Hungarian Football Federation (MLSZ) has filed a lawsuit at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to appeal against the decision by FIFA that the 2014 World Cup qualifier against Romania on 22 March be played without spectators.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 7 – UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against Manchester United following their highly contentious Champions League defeat by Real Madrid on Tuesday.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 7 – Football’s use of the London 2012 Olympic stadium has been plunged into uncertainty once again – just when it seemed on the verge of being resolved.
The darkest hour comes before the dawn. It’s difficult to think of a club whose prospects look brighter than Bayern Munich.
May 20 last year; Munich airport. Hundreds of supporters, most but not all German, packed into the club shop. Bayern shirts everywhere, in bags and on backs. Not what i was expecting after events of May 19. But hiding or sulking doesn’t seem to be in the DNA here.
Bayern somehow threw away their chances to win their home Champions league final,