December 13 – Speaking at the International Football Arena (IFA) Roundtable in Tokyo, FIFA general secretary, Jerôme Valcke said that the future of football lies in the development of grassroots activities, “which must be dominated by a strong infrastructure that is centered around club football anywhere in the world.”
By Tom Degun
December 13 – Brazilian icon Pelé (pictured left), who is widely considered the greatest football player ever, has been unveiled as a new ambassador for P&G by no less than Switzerland’s Roger Federer (pictured right), arguably the greatest tennis player ever.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 12 – European football’s governing body is clamping down hard on third party ownership – by which footballers are partly controlled by outside parties when it comes to access and transfer rights.
By Tom Degun
December 12 – The Indonesian Government has formed a football task force in a last-ditch attempt to avoid a FIFA suspension following a major row between two rival soccer factions in the country.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve ran the line at a weekend youth football game for my son and his friends during the many programmes that we run in the Caribbean and for strangers that are a man short and in need of a man in black.
It’s hard for me to imagine kids in those games turning on me for making a questionable decision. But that’s exactly what seems to have happened to Richard Nieuwenhuizen on Sunday,
By Duncan Mackay
December 12 – Issa Hayatou is set to extend his 25-year reign as head of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) unopposed after Jacques Anouma’s challenge to be President was thrown out.
By Andrew Warshaw at the Doha Goals conference in Qatar
December 11 – Britain’s Sports Minister Hugh Robertson met for the first time today with organisers of the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup and pronounced planned facilities as “mind-blowing”.
By Andrew Warshaw at the Doha Goals conference in Doha
December 11 – Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy added his voice to the growing calls to switch the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup to the winter when he made his first public speaking appearance since May today by addressing the conference here.
By Emily Goddard
December 11 – Christine Sinclair, who led Canada’s women’s football team to a bronze medal at the London 2012 Olympics – the team’s first podium finish since 1936 – has been named the winner of the 2012 Lou Marsh Award.
By Tom Degun
December 11 – Architecture firm Populous, who created the London 2012 Olympic Stadium in Stratford, has won the contract to design the Rostov-on-Don Stadium in Russia, which is one of twelve venues that will be used at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
By Tom Degun
December 11 – Attorney General Dominic Grieve has made an application to quash the original Hillsborough inquest verdicts.
By Andrew Warshaw in Doha
December 11 – Senior officials from the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee (Q22) – organisers of the World Cup in 10 years’ time – have met with FIFA to update football’s world governing body on strategy and infrastructure plans.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 11 – UEFA President Michel Platini is sticking to his firm stance against goal-line technology – exactly at the time it is currently being used for the first time in official competition.
By Tom Degun
December 10 – UEFA has announced the launch of a new under-19 club competition for the 2013-2014 season which will have close ties to the Champions League.
By Tom Degun
December 10 – The magnificent new 60,000 capacity Arena Grêmio has opened in Porto Alegre in Brazil despite the fact that it was controversially overlooked for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.