By Mark Baber
July 1 – In a major blow to Doncaster Belles and their supporters, the club has lost its appeal to retain its place in the re-structured English Women’s Super League. The FA has re-assigned clubs to leagues according to various license criteria, rather than performance on the sporting field.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
July 1 – FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke has accused UEFA of “opportunism and irresponsibility” after Europe’s governing body denounced FIFA for asking World Cup hosts to fork out a fortune on infrastructure to the detriment of more important social needs.
July 1 – Between nine and 15 people have been killed in a bomb blast while watching and playing football in Baghdad, the latest in a series of attacks targeting Iraqis either competing or watching and prompting a plea by Asian football authorities to beef up security in the region.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 1 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter insists the Confederations Cup, which concluded on Sunday with Brazil’s resounding 3-0 win over Spain, rose above the mass street protests that co-incided with the tournament.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 1 – Fifteen CSKA fans have been detained after an attack on the headquarters of the Bulgarian FA in protest at the debt-ridden club facing the prospect of being plunged into obscurity. CSKA will play in the amateur championship next season if they fail to merge with another first division club in time for the start of the Bulgarian league on July 20.
By David Owen
June 29 – Further evidence of the Barclays Premier League’s remarkable international pulling power has emerged with a new shirt sponsorship deal announced by Swansea City. The South Wales club, whose rapid advance from the lower reaches of the professional game in Britain was underlined last season by victory in the Capital One Cup final at Wembley, has agreed a £2 million deal with a Hong Kong-based financial services provider called Goldenway.
Spain’s Confederations Cup semi-final win on penalties over Italy in Fortaleza was marred by more protests as 5,000 protestors clashed with police who responded with tear gas prior to the game.
Inside the stadium a 58,000 capacity crowd watched Spain break the world record by marching to 29 consecutive competitive matches unbeaten. A match that to the world’s TV audience had drama and celebration of the positive football kind – in abundance.
The vast majority of colour in the stadium was the yellow of Brazil and TV pictures couldn’t resist the image of the parents feeding their baby at half time.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 28 – Players who are approached to fix matches or who suspect games are being rigged will be able to push a ‘panic button’ on their mobile phones to report their suspicions. The plan has been devised with European funding so that footballers across the continent can download an anti-match-fixing app to their phones and will be given a password to blow the whistle on fellow professionals via a red button.
By Mark Baber
June 28 – Shares in Perform, a leader in the distribution and commercialisation of sports content across digital platforms, have fallen by over 10% after a warning that spending on acquisitions and content would slow profit growth this year.
By Mark Baber
June 28 – China’s Huawei, a global provider of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), has signed with the Spanish Football League (LFP) as its exclusive Technology Partner for Smartphones.
Brazil. World Cup hosts. Olympic hosts. 2014-2016. What an opportunity, what an honour, what a privilege and a pleasure.
But during a fraught fortnight off the pitch at the Confederations Cup the Brazilians – and FIFA – have been reminded that hosting is a double edged sword. Underestimating the power of the public can have major consequences, whether or not their ire is deserved, whether or not the event is actually the cause of the trouble.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 28 – Turkish Cypriot football officials believe their landmark talks with the Greek side aimed at unifying football on the politically divided island should move a vital step forward by the end of August. That’s when both bodies hope to have secured enough common ground to finally request FIFA to meet them after months of tortuous negotiations over a draft agreement.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 28 – A new dawn has finally broken for Scottish football after the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League finally agreed to merge – but it took 16 hours of painstaking last-ditch talks bring about a deal.
By Paul Nicholson
June 28 – Stefano Borgonovo died yesterday in Florence, Italy, aged 49. Borgonovo had fought ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), a rare disease which kills nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain in the latter years of his life. His life will be remembered for his humility and grace in his battle against ALS, as well as for his style and potency on the football pitch.
