Inside World Football - Page 1712 of 2075 - For the Business of Football

Jean Francois Tanda: Pieth cuts an unconvincing TV figure

Guido Tognoni is a former high ranked FIFA manager. Today, he is a leading critic of Sepp Blatter and FIFA’s Executive Committee. Mark Pieth called him a “former poodle” of Blatter and “a commodity trader” with no moral right to criticise him.

Canadian governance expert and lawyer, Alexandra Wrage, once was a member of FIFA’s Internal Governance Committee (IGC). She left the group, basically saying it was a waste of time to work for FIFA as the football governing body refused to implement serious steps for a change.

Africa

Aspire brings in Messi to combat malaria in Africa

mosquito crossing

By Andrew Warshaw
June 25 – Qatar’s state-of-the-art Aspire Academy, one of the world’s most sophisticated sports facilities and constantly being promoted by the Gulf state as a key part of its 2022 World Cup programme, is showing its humanitarian face by linking up with Argentine and Barcelona icon Lionel Messi in the fight against malaria.

Archive

Brazil wobbles but there is no Plan B for World Cup, says Valcke

Jerome valcke2

By Andrew Warshaw
June 25 – FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke insists there is no Plan B for next year’s World Cup and no chance of stripping Brazil of hosting rights as a result of the anti-government protests that have swept through the country for the past fortnight.

Archive

Thai FA keeps status, but confusion lies over who has leadership

By Andrew Warshaw
June 25 – Thailand have avoided being thrown out of world football after a tiny fourth-tier club agreed to withdrew a lawsuit that threatened to stop the Thai FA (FAT) from holding controversial elections.

Archive

Telecoms firm INEA picks up naming rights to Lech Poznan stadium

Poznan stadium

By Krzysztof Baranowski
June 25 – Polish telecommuncations company INEA have snapped up the naming rights to UEFA Euro 2012 stadium – Stadion Miejski in Poznan, Poland.

Archive

David Owen: Balancing a £1bn profit with reality

I don’t know about you, but I always thought that company accounts were supposed to reflect financial reality.

Not, it seems, when the value of professional footballers is concerned.

Over the five years between 2008 and 2012, clubs competing in England’s Premier League booked a cool £1 billion-plus in net profits from the sale of players.

This means, in effect, that those players were undervalued by the same amount in the clubs’

Africa

Egyptian violence erupts again as Al Ahli fans storm Cairo’s military stadium

Egyptian protests

By Mark Baber
June 24 – Al Ahli fans stormed Cairo’s military stadium this weekend against the backdrop of demonstrations held by Islamists in favour of president Mohammed Morsi and in a possible foretaste of anti-Morsi demonstrations planned for June 30 , the first anniversary of Morsi’s inauguration, which aim to force new elections.

Archive

Seagulls drop spectacular dirt-bomb on Poyet, live on TV

Gus Poyet

By Mark Baber
June 24 – Gus Poyet was sacked from his position as manager of Championship club Brighton and Hove Albion yesterday and, in a PR disaster for the club, apparently only heard of the sacking whilst in the BBC studios where he was acting as a pundit for the Confederations Cup coverage.

Archive

Rugby man upbeat about giving Hearts an investor lifeline

Hearts

By Andrew Warshaw
June 24 – Former Scottish Rugby Union chief executive Gordon McKie is emerging as a possible saviour for Heart of Midlothian, the stricken Scottish Premier League club that has been plunged into administration with debts of £25m. McKie, who was involved in an unsuccessful attempt to take over Rangers last summer, has met with Hearts administrators with a view to a consortium of five or six investors buying the Edinburgh club.

Archive

Bulgarian giants CSKA Sofia fold as Stoichkov handed full control

Hristo Stoichkov

By Andrew Warshaw
June 24 – Bulgaria’s most successful club, CSKA Sofia, has declared itself bankrupt and will try to merge with another club to carry on competing in a different guise next season – or end up in the amateur ranks. The 31-time national champions have been struggling financially in recent years, along with many Bulgarian clubs, and were barred from the Champions League in 2008-09 after failing to meet UEFA’s licensing criteria.

Archive

Thais face FIFA suspension unless club withdraws court action

makudi

By Andrew Warshaw
June 24 – Thailand are facing a ban from all FIFA competitions over an election row that could plunge lucrative pre-season tours by Barcelona, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea into jeopardy. FIFA has warned the Football Association of Thailand (FAT) – headed by controversial FIFA executive committee member Worawi Makudi – that it must resolve the dispute by the end of today (Monday) or face suspension.

Archive

U-20 World Cup refs draw the line at free kick encroachment

free kick line

By Andrew Warshaw
June 24 – For the first time in FIFA competitions, vanishing spray to prevent players encroaching at free kicks is being used at the under-20 World Cup in Turkey, the latest move to aid referees following the introduction of goalline technology at the Confederations Cup.

Archive

TV audiences build for Confederations Cup early rounds

June 24 – Worldwide television audiences for the Confederations Cup continue to grow despite the adverse publicity generated by the widespread protests in Brazil. In the second round of matches, markets including Japan, Spain, Germany and the UK – the last two of which don’t have a team in the competition – all witnessed increases in viewing figures.

Archive

Exclusive: Premier League clubs cash in with £1bn net profit from player sales

player values

By David Owen
June 24 – English Premier League clubs have racked up net profits on player sales of well over £1 billion during the last five seasons for which full figures are available. The figure suggests that club balance-sheets massively undervalue these assets – who also happen, in many cases, to be global stars.

Archive

Confederations Cup show will go on, says FIFA and LOC

Brazil protests 2

By Paul Nicholson and Andrew Warshaw
June 21 – FIFA and Confederations Cup organisers have said the tournament will still continue as protests across Brazil intensified yesterday. World football’s governing body has said in a statement that neither “FIFA nor the LOC (local organizing committee) have ever discussed any such possibility” of cancelling the tournament.