By Mark Baber
January 21 – A new survey shows the percentage of players in European leagues imported from abroad is now at a record high. In the top 31 division leagues of UEFA, 36.1% of all squad members grew up in a different national association to that of their employer club.
By Mark Baber
January 21 – UAE’s 2-1 win over Iraq in extra-time of the final of the Gulf Cup on Saturday has triggering a staggering Dh137 million ($37.3million) of money and gifts for the players and technical staff from the Emirates’ rulers as extra reward for their achievement.
By Mark Baber
January 21 – Ajax fans displayed banners, including an ‘Against Modern Football” banner with a cartoon of a sheikh handing over a bag of money with a dollar sign on it, on a light blue background with a red line through it, during a Champions League match in October against Manchester City.
By Andrew Warshaw, Chief Correspondent
January 21 – The idea of a creating a new Soviet-style league consisting of clubs from Russia and its neighbouring states has been dismissed out of hand by FIFA president Sepp Blatter.
By Andrew Warshaw, Chief Correspondent
January 21 – The FIFA intermediary who helped broker last week’s breakthrough re-unification talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriot football officials believes there is enough goodwill on both sides to bring about an historic deal.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 21 – Tributes have been pouring in for Paris St Germain performance director Nick Broad who was killed in a car accident at the age of 38 last week.
I can’t tell you exactly why Pep Guardiola, the hottest property in football management, decided this week to hitch his wagon to Germany’s Bundesliga.
But I don’t think it would have happened had it not been for a choice made by an obscure New Zealand football administrator in Zurich on 7 July 2000.
By Mark Baber
January 18 – The 2013 Africa Cup of Nations kicks off tomorrow with hosts South Africa playing Cape Verde at the National Stadium in Johannesburg and the South African organisers are ready to go.
By Mark Baber
January 18 – Napoli have had the two-point penalty imposed for match fixing overturned and Paolo Cannavaro and Gianluca Grava have both had their six month bans revoked on appeal.
By Mark Baber
January 18 – Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia, Sergei Ivanov, has stated that nobody will stop the construction of the Zenit football stadium in St Petersburg and it will be ready for the World Cup in 2018.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 18 – UEFA president Michel Platini has met with French politicians to discuss his organisation’s financial fair play rules designed to prevent clubs spending more than they earn.
By Andrew Warshaw, Chief Correspondent
January 18 – Although match fixing has become arguably the greatest scourge in the game, FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke is confident that elite matches in competitions like the Champions League and World Cup matches are immune from any illegal activity. But he says there needs to be a co-ordinated approach.
When Greek and Turkish Cypriot football officials staged their landmark re-unification talks this week, among the keen observers waiting in the winter sunshine for the eagerly anticipated arrival of the respective federation leaders was 81-year-old Sevim Ebeoglu.
Sevim, perhaps more than anyone else, epitomises what it would mean for the Turkish side of the divided island to be re-integrated with its once friendly neighbour.
By Mark Baber
January 18 – Host nation South Africa kick off their African Cup of Nations campaign on Saturday against Cape Verde with the players refusing to accept any bonuses for their Group A matches unless they qualify.
January 18 – China’s most successful football club, Dalian Shide FC, is in danger of going out of business after a proposed merger with local rivals Dalian Aerbin FC was blocked by the Chinese Football Association (CFA).