By Andrew Warshaw
November 14 – Uruguay and Mexico have all but booked their places in next year’s World Cup with thumping victories over rank outsiders Jordan and New Zealand respectively.
By Paul Nicholson
November 14 – German data giant SAP has increased its foothold in football and signalled an intention to grow its business in the sports area with an expansion of its relationship with the German Bundesliga football club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and the addition of German national team manager Oliver Bierhoff as a brand ambassador.
By Paul Nicholson
November 13 – The foundation stone for the €250 million Grande Stade de Lyon was laid yesterday. The new Lyon stadium. also known as the Stade des Lumières, will be one of France’s 10 UEFA Euro 2016 venues and the race is now on to make sure the stadium is finished in time for the championships.
November 13 – Australia are believed to be the first country to publicly raise concern about security at next year’s World Cup finals in Brazil because of all the recent civil unrest.
November 13 – Barcelona have agreed a two-year extension to its partnership with the United Nations Children’s fund, Unicef.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 13 – Carson Yeung, the Hong Kong businessman who owns English club Birmingham City, has lost a second appeal to have his money laundering trial thrown out. A district court judge said Yeung wasn’t prejudiced by new evidence submitted by the prosecution during the trial which has been going for almost two months.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 13 – What’s in a name? Quite a lot, it seems, when it comes to the history of football clubs. Not for the first time, fans of an English top-flight club are up in arms over plans by ambitious owners to do away with deep-rooted traditions for commercial reasons.
By Alexander Krassimirov
November 13 – Non-profit organisation CSKA Forever is raising funds via premium short text messages to be used in several ways. The bulk of the money raised will go towards the construction of several small football grounds which will be used by the club’s Academy. Currently young CSKA players train and play matches at different stadiums in Sofia and the surrounding area.
Over the years, I’ve been forced to develop a rather sceptical, hard-nosed attitude towards the achievements of particular African teams in FIFA’s Under-17 and Under-20 competitions, because some Cup ‘victories’ were certainly achieved by using over-aged players.
In an ‘off-the-record’ conversation I had with an ex-Nigerian player, who captained the ‘Golden Eaglets’ to one of their four Under-17 World Cup wins, he freely admitted to me – long after retiring from the game,
By David Owen
November 13 – Blood and urine samples from players competing at next year’s FIFA World Cup are to be analysed in Switzerland, in a move likely to cause new embarrassment to Brazilian authorities.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 12- German legend and Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness will not resign despite his upcoming trial for alleged tax evasion.
The second phase of ticket sales for next year’s World Cup sold out just seven hours after being made available on FIFA’s website on a first-come, first-served basis.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 12- On paper it’s an impossible task for the underdogs, the ultimate David versus Goliath showdown. Seemingly a foregone conclusion before a ball has even been kicked.
On one side, Uruguay, twice world champions and featuring the likes of Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani, two of the most fearsome players in world football.
November 12- Lionel Messi has been ruled out for the rest of the year with a torn hamstring muscle, with Barcelona’s world player of the year missing at least seven games for club and country.
“Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you,” Alexander Graham Bell, March 10, 1876
The first words ever spoken down a telephone line might be laced with a menacing undertone were Sky’s chief executive, Jeremy Darroch, to pick up a handset today and repeat them, this time to his counterpart at BT Vision, Marc Watson.
BT Vision is a subsidiary of the British former monopoly telecoms provider,