February 21 – FIFA sponsor Budweiser has launched its 2014 World Cup marketing campaign, Rise As One, aimed at celebrating the moments that unite and captivate fans and nations. The official beer sponsor’s global ad campaign will run on TV and outdoor in the run-up to the summer tournament and launches March 5.with a series of online teasers with a full launch being March 24.
February 21 – UEFA has opened an investigation into Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini’s comments about the referee following Tuesday’s 2-0 Champions League loss to Barcelona. Pellegrini was uncharacteristically critical of Swedish referee Jonas Eriksson, claiming he was “not impartial to both teams”.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
February 20 – Ruch Chorzow has signed an innovative sponsorship deal with Germany’s Fuchs Oil. Under the first long-term deal of this kind in Poland, the new sponsor will pay the club a fee each time it scores a goal.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 20 – Two controversial Champions League sendings-off this week have re-focussed attention on the so-called ‘triple punishment’ – penalty, sending off and subsequent suspension – that continues to so cause so must consternation throughout the game.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 20 – Kosovan football authorities are celebrating another significant step forward after the head of their federation, Fadil Vokrri, held potential breakthrough talks with UEFA President Michel Platini in the Albanian capital of Tirana.
By Paul Nicholson
February 20 – A FIFA delegation today starts an 11-day inspection visit of India in preparation for the 2017 FIFA Under-17 World Cup. The tournament will be the first major FIFA competition hosted by India, a member of the Asia Football Confederation (AFC).
February 20 – Zambia’s football association has been fined SFr50,000 ($56,000) by FIFA for breaching international transfer rules in the latest effort by football’s world governing body to crack down on the irregular movement of players.
February 20 – UEFA have been forced to switch Dynamo Kiev’s Europa League first-leg last-32 tie with Spain’s Valencia tonight to neutral ground in Cyprus because of the violence and political unrest in Ukraine’s capital city that has tragically caused at least 26 deaths.
By David Owen
February 20 – Manchester United’s teenage prodigy, Adnan Januzaj, has been made an honorary ambassador of the republic of Kosovo. Januzaj was the first of four footballers awarded the title this week by Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga for contributions to “affirmation of the interests of the Republic of Kosovo”.
Well over 50 international football matches will be played on Wednesday, March 5.
They include some 2015 Asian Nations Cup games, Spain versus Italy and Portugal v Cameroon. They provide one of the last opportunities for experimentation for many of the qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
And yet the most significant fixture to be played that night pits the world’s 79th -ranked team against a side that does not yet have any ranking.
“Inflation is unjust and deflation is inexpedient. Of the two perhaps deflation is, if we rule out exaggerated inflations such as that of Germany, the worse; because it is worse, in an impoverished world, to provoke unemployment than to disappoint the rentier,” John Maynard Keynes, Essays on Persuasion
Whether or not you have heard of John Maynard Keynes, and whatever you might think of the orthodoxies (libertarians mostly consider him a false prophet of the dismal science,
By Andrew Warshaw
February 19 – UEFA are continuing their crackdown on racism by ordering CSKA Moscow to play their next European home game behind closed doors. Apollon Limassol of Cyprus and the Serbian Under-21 team, the latter previously embroiled in racism accusations following a game against England in 2012, have also been handed partial stadium closures because of monkey chanting by supporters.
By Jamie Styles
February 19 – Barcelona’s three official Twitter profiles were hacked on Tuesday, just hours after their 2-0 win over Manchester City in the Champions League.
February 19 – Sandro Rosell, who dramatically quit as Barcelona president partly over an investigation into last year’s signing of star Brazilian forward Neymar, is reportedly no longer facing unconnected allegations that he benefitted illegally from a friendly match involving the Brazilian national team.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 19 – Brazil’s World Cup organisers are breathing a sigh of relief after FIFA gave the host venue of Curitiba a deadline-day reprieve by announcing that local authorities had done just about enough to warrant retaining its status.