CONCACAF kicks off Interpol alliance with match-fixing workshop

By Paul Nicholson
May 15 – Just days after signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol), CONCACAF has hosted a three-day joint FIFA-Interpol Workshop in Miami. A second workshop will be hosted next week.
Liverpool and 188BET renew partnership for two more years

By Mark Baber
May 15 – Liverpool Football Club and the online sports betting and gaming provider 188BET, have announced a two-year extension to their partnership allowing 188BET to continue to use LFC platforms to promote its services until the end of the 2015/16 season.
New app gives fans a fast way to order their half time pies and drinks

By Mark Baber
May 15 – A new app, which has undergone field-testing at Burnley, Leyton Orient and Sheffield Wednesday, allows football fans to use their smartphones to order and pay for refreshments from the comfort of their seats, cutting down considerably on queuing times.
Panathinaikos to hike ticket prices to pay for stadium development

By Jaroslaw Adamowski
May 15 – Panathinaikos is planning to overhaul and expand its stadium, according to Giannis Alafouzos, the Greek football club’s chief executive. Construction works at the facility are scheduled to begin in December 2014, and are expected to take between three and four months.
FIFA and UEFA demand associations get tougher on racism sanctions

By Mark Baber
May 15 – FIFA and UEFA have reacted with dismay at the weak sanctions employed by national Football Associations in the recent cases of racist incidents, demanding the sanctions regime which they have put in place is applied.
Lee Wellings: England hopes, not expects in 2014
How important is it to you that your country succeeds on the football pitch?
And what would World Cup success mean to you?
The announcement of the England squad for the tournament raised this question for me.
Surrounded by English hype about the Ashley Cole-less 23 I was in a fortunate work position of being able to treat it as simply the latest of 32 squads. Interesting, without it being a major story.
Qatar unveils major labour reforms of kafala and working conditions

By Andrew Warshaw
May 14 – Qatar authorities have made the most forceful pledge to date that they will scrap part of the country’s medieval kafala employment system that has caused so much outrage directed at the 2022 World Cup hosts – but stopped short of abolishing it completely.
Protests will be aimed at politicians, says Brazilian legal official
By Andrew Warshaw in Jordan
May 14- The demonstrations and street protests that have marred Brazil’s reputation and increased safety fears in the buildup to the World Cup will be aimed more at politicians than football if they are repeated during the tournament.
That was the claim made today at Soccerex Asian Forum by Pitagoras Dytz, a legal adviser to the Brazilian Sports Ministry.
Matt Scott: FA’s stats analysis is as flawed as its development
“Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends.” Isabel Paterson, The God of the Machine
Since it first issued from its English womb on a centuries-long odyssey of global cultural conquest, the game of football has been like a scornful child towards its disdained parent.
Sierra Leone’s Alimu Bah loses appeal against corruption conviction

By Mark Baber
May 14 – The Court of Appeal of Sierra Leone has upheld the conviction of Alimu Bah, former Secretary General of the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA).
World Cup tourist spending forecast to top $3 billion

By David Owen
May 13 – World Cup tourist spending in Brazil in June and July may exceed $3 billion, the Brazilian Government has forecast. In the latest of a series of announcements that appear designed, in part, to convince ordinary Brazilians that staging sports mega-events is a good investment for South America’s biggest country, the Ministry of Tourism unveiled research findings suggesting that foreign tourists would spend nearly $2,500 each, excluding airfares,
FIFA’s Dodd critical of Scudamore’s insulting comments

By Andrew Warshaw in Jordan
May 14 – One of world football’s most influential female executives has joined the chorus of disapproval over English Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore’s already infamous sexist remarks.
Mihir Bose: Dyke’s cure for depression is in his own hands
Greg Dyke says Manchester City winning the Premiership is depressing, given how few English players they have. There is, of course, nothing he can do about how City chooses its team, let alone force the City manager to field more players so as to help Roy Hodgson when the England manager comes to select his squad.
Yet there is one way the chairman of the Football Association could get over his depression. That is by getting the FA to pass a sporting regulation similar to one that many countries have.
MLS secures bumper new eight-year TV deal

By David Owen
May 14 – Major League Soccer (MLS) has secured a big financial boost, agreeing a new eight-year television and media rights partnerships with a total of three US networks.