By Mark Baber
July 26 – With English Premier League clubs in Hong Kong for its pre-season Asia Cup, Hong Kong Football Association chairman Brian Leung Hung-tak appealed to local authorities to relax betting rules to allow more top-quality matches into the market and boost the game in the country.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 26 – Kenya are the latest African country to come under the spotlight for alleged footballing corruption over allegations that several hundred thousand dollars, part of it a donation from FIFA, have gone missing. The country’s Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has received information about the alleged misappropriation of up to $410,000 by the Kenyan FA (FKA), according to the EACC’s public relation chief Yasin Ayila.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 26 – FIFA vice-president Worawi Makudi, embroiled in an internal dispute in his native Thailand, was forced to miss last week’s Asian Football Confederation summit in Bahrain citing unexplained other commitments, Insideworldfootball has learned.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 26 – Senegalese striker Papiss Cisse has patched up his differences with Newcastle United and has now agreed to wear the club’s Wonga logo despite his religious beliefs.
When Lord Palmerston, the 19th century British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, made the oft-quoted comment that there are no “permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests”, in the cold-blooded pursuit of agendas, he certainly wasn’t thinking about the South African Football Association (SAFA).
But he jolly well could have been.
With barely eight weeks to the election of SAFA’s president and executive committee on September 28, the impending polls have reawakened old enmities,
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
July 25 – Growing calls for switching the Qatar World Cup to winter – now led by FIFA president Sepp Blatter – have taken a dramatic new twist with Germany’s top FIFA official declaring it was a “blatant mistake” to award to the 2022 tournament to the Gulf state in the first place.
By David Owen
July 25 – The origins of one of football’s most emotive and universal concepts are to be celebrated in a small town in north Derbyshire, not far from Sheffield, on Saturday.
Who’s going to win the Champions League this year?
Bayern? Barca? One of the newly rich clubs – a PSG or Manchester City?
Maybe an EPL club – Chelsea? Manchester United?
Or what about one of the teams who came through the second round this week.
By Mark Baber
July 25 – Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia and the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) have agreed a S$1.8 million ($1.4 million) sponsorship deal, including the cost of flights for the under-21, under-23 and senior national teams, as well as the National Football Academy’s age-group teams and women’s teams.
By Mark Baber
July 25 – South African Football Association (SAFA) vice-president and respected anti-apartheid activist Dr Danny Jordaan has been appointed to serve as advisor to Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Issa Hayatou.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 25 – Six months after Kevin Prince Boateng famously walked off the pitch during a winter break friendly because of racist abuse that led directly to strict new anti-discrimination measures by football’s two main authorities, another AC Milan player has followed suit.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 25 – Egypt’s volatile political situation briefly gave way to football on Wednesday as Al Ahli drew 1-1 with arch-rivals Zamalek in the African Champions League. Domestic Egyptian football is currently suspended.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 25 – Italian giants Lazio could start next season with a six-point deduction and be without their captain Stefano Mauri for more than four years following the start of their match-fixing trial.
By Alexander Krassimirov
July 25 – Troubled Bulgarian club CSKA Sofia, who are under new ownership, have announced that there will be a salary cap for players and staff, reducing salaries to below last season’s levels. Alexander Tomov (pictured), said that the highest wages of the top players will be about 15,000 leva (€7,500) per month. He said he will be talking to new head coach Stoycho Mladenov in the next few days.
By Mark Baber
July 23 – A week after an emergency meeting between the Nigerian Minister of Sports, Bolaji Abdullahi (pictured) and board members of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), the League Management Company (LMC) and Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL), doubts are being expressed about the feasibility of the measures promised by the Sports Minister, which included paying players the money they are owed and instituting a minimum wage.