Exclusive: by Osasu Obayiuwana
March 13 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has told InsideWorldFootball, in an exclusive interview, that he was “surprised” by the decision of China’s Zhang Zilong, to withdraw from the race for the presidency of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
March 13 – Football at the top level is a rich man’s ownership game and attracts the richest men in the world. Business magazine Forbes has issued a list of the 11 richest football billionaires from the Forbes Rich List.
March 13 – Tanzania has again been warned by FIFA that it will be suspended if the government interferes in the administration of the sport.
By Mark Baber
March 13 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed the appeal against the spectator ban imposed on Hungary for its March 22 World Cup qualifier against Romania.
But for the incontrovertible geographical fact that Marrakech is in Morocco, I would have argued, to the death, that the just concluded Ordinary General Assembly of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), which I attended, took place in Kim Jong Il’s Pyongyang, North Korea.
Speech after speech at the Palais De Congres eulogised its president, Cameroonian Issa Hayatou, who enjoyed the anniversary of his 25th year in power on Sunday, by securing a record seventh four-year term in office.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 13 – Caribbean football, striving to enhance its image since the 2011 cash-for-votes scandal, at last has some good news, no doubt in part due to the efforts of Jeffrey Webb, president of CONCACAF which covers the region.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 13 – Just as his club were staging one of their greatest comebacks to take their customary place in the Champions League quarterfinals, Barcelona president Sandro Rosell (pictured) found himself at the centre of possible fraud charges in Brazil.
By Mark Baber
March 12 – The European Commission has opened a formal investigation into the financial affairs of Valencia, Hércules and Elche after their recent bail-outs from local government.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 12 – Local officials insist that Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Maracana stadium, still worrying FIFA more than any other venue in the run-up to the Confederations Cup in June, will be ready to stage a test event next month.
March 12 – The power of Brand Beckham was never more evident than in a Rich List just published by Goal.com, the football web site owned by Perform.
By Paul Nicholson
March 12 – Michael Garcia, the American lawyer charged with investigating corruption in football, has given a very clear message to administrators and officials throughout the game: if you have information and “you want to talk, come and talk to me now. I am under orders from no-one.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
March 12 – Former FIFA administrator Jerome Champagne has not ruled out running for President if, as expected, Sepp Blatter steps down in two years’ time. Since leaving FIFA under a cloud in 2010 after 11 years, the multi-lingual former French diplomat has been primarily working as an international football consultant in the field of development as he considers his next heavyweight move.
The island of Ireland is a place where history casts a particularly long shadow.
So perhaps I shouldn’t be as surprised as I am that so few people seem to know about a proud episode in the island’s footballing history that took place 99 years ago.
I first stumbled upon this years ago during one of my periodic trawls through the pages of an old Rothmans football yearbook.
With the centenary approaching,
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
March 11 – Another leading FIFA administrator was dramatically suspended today when Sri Lanka’s Vernon Manilal Fernando (pictured) was provisionally banned from any football activity for 90 days as part of an ongoing investigation by corruption busters.
