March 24 – Mexico is the new name on the Concacaf Nations League trophy after beating a battling Panama 2-1 in the SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles, with two more goals from striker Raul Jimenez.
March 24 – Former United States International Eric Wynalda played for his country 106 times. He also played in three World Cups, becoming the first American to be sent off in 1990, and becoming the first American to score a World Cup goal on American soil against Switzerland in 1994.
After witnessing a weak, timid performances from his national team against Panama and Canada in the Concacaf Nations League, he had plenty to say about the current state of US Soccer to Nick Webster.
March 23 – Canada hustled and bustled an at times indifferent USA to take third place in the Nations League with a 2-1 win.
May 12 – The rapidly growing strength of women’s football has been underlined with FIFA’s announcement that five countries have put forward bids to stage the 2019 World Cup. France and England from Europe, South Korea from Asia, New Zealand and South Africa have all declared an interest in hosting the tournament.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 12 – Despite increasingly tough penalties in their own competitions from both FIFA and UEFA, at domestic level instances of racism in Europe appear to show no sign of decreasing as, for the third week in a row, a major league has been blighted by discrimination.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 12 – African football has been rocked by disaster when at least 15 people were killed and more than 20 injured in a stampede at a match in the Democratic Republic of Congo capital of Kinshasa. The tragedy reportedly occurred after police fired tear gas, provoking a stampede during the playoff match between ASV Club and the Tout Puissant Mazembe on Sunday evening.
Next season is going to be extremely interesting for second division French side Clermont Foot.
Appointing Helena Costa, a 36-year-old Portuguese woman, as its new manager, the club has certainly crossed a gender frontier.
The first female to be put in charge of a male football club in France – and any first or second division side in Europe, for that matter – Costa is certain to receive a level of global media scrutiny that even she might be surprised with.
By David Owen
May 12 – FIFA appears to have opted for a tentative approach in its long-running efforts to reform the agent system. An official circular recently sent to FIFA members preparing for next month’s Congress in Sao Paulo seems to indicate that a possible 3% cap on remuneration payable to “intermediaries” would be by recommendation only.
By David Owen
May 12 – With just a month to go before the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the Brazilian Government has launched its largest mobilisation of armed forces, using 30,000 military personnel to patrol its entire 17,000-kilometre national border, one of the world’s longest.
By Richard van Poortvliet
May 12 – Zenit St. Petersburg are in yet more trouble with the Russian Football Union after one of their supporters punched Dynamo Moscow defender Vladimir Granat in the head, towards the end of their Russian Premier League tie.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
May 12 – Municipal authorities in Katowice have bought shares worth PLN 1.1 million (€280,000) in their local football club GKS. The deal follows two other acquisitions of shares made earlier this year making a total of PLN 2 million (€510,000) invested to date.
May 9- Europe’s leading professional leagues have come out in opposition to switching the Qatar World Cup in 2022 from summer to winter, seemingly putting themselves on a collision course with Fifa which most observers believe is edging nearer and nearer to formally adopting a change of timing.
By Mark Baber
May 9- Sparked by the recent massacre in Odessa, the Ukrainian Football Federation (FFU) has ruled that the next round of league games, as well as the cup final, will be held behind closed doors, whilst no matches will be held in the troubled Donetsk, Luhansk, Odessa and Kharkiv regions.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 9- Radical proposals to halt the decline of English football at national level have been met with a mixed reaction but must be implemented to prevent a bleak future, according to English FA chairman Greg Dyke.
On Thursday proposals were unveiled to change the lower-division structure to enhance opportunities for England-registered players, reduce the number of foreign imports and boost the chances of national team success.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 9- Yet another World Cup construction worker has lost his life – just over a month before the start of the finals. This time, the tragedy took place in Cuiaba, one of the most delayed venues, when an electrical accident temporarily halted work on the stadium.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 9- Fifa president Sepp Blatter has made up his mind to stand for a fifth term, according to Swiss reports.
Blatter used a meeting of specially invited Swiss business and sports executives in Zurich to finally confirm that he intends to carry on running world football’s governing body at the age of 78.
May 9 –Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund has forged strong links to the ex-patriate Polish community in its local area. So much so that the club has a significant Polish player contingent and even a major Polish sponsor. In an exclusive interview with leading Polish sports businesss website www.temporada.pl, Dortmund’s head of business development Benedikt Scholz (pictured) explains the club’s strategy approach to maximising its Polish connections.
By Mark Baber
May 9 – Spain’s Secretary of State for Sport Miguel Cardenal (pictured) revealed Thursday that professional clubs in the county’s First and Second Division have accumulated debts of €3.573 billion, according to data from the Sports Council.