Inside World Football - Page 1741 of 2240 - For the Business of Football

Matt Scott: Words are just words, money will do the talking

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“Trade has all the fascination of gambling without its moral guilt.” Sir Walter Scott, Rob Roy

When five of FIFA’s six commercial partners spoke out against the most recent corruption allegations surrounding FIFA, people across the world held their breath. Could the sponsors withdraw their financial support for FIFA? Could this effect revolutionary change at football’s world governing body?

Well, what does history tell us? Three years ago almost to the day,

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Israel saved from calls for suspension, but FIFA pressure builds for a Palestine deal

Israel and Palestine flags

By Andrew Warshaw in Sao Paulo
June 12 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s attempts to forge a lasting agreement between Palestine and Israel, one of his most pressing priorities, had to be put on the backburner today when there was insufficient goodwill to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that would have sent out a strong message that progress had been made.

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Blatter opens Congress with call for leadership and change

FIFA Congress

By Andrew Warshaw in Sao Paulo
June 11 – Sepp Blatter opened the formal part of the FIFA Congress today by tellingly pledging the organisation would continue to “lead by example” despite persistent allegations of corruption that came to head 24 hours earlier when he was asked to step down by European members.

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Sporting Lisbon claim €31m from Bulgaria’s Levski Sofia

Boj signs Levski

By Alexander Krassimirov
June 11 – Portugal’s Sporting Lisbon is poised to file a legal claim against Bulgaria’s Levski Sofia for the amount of €31 million. The dispute centres around the Portuguese claim that Levski have illegally signed Bulgarian striker Valeri Bojinov.

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Racial tensions bubble amongst fans over the LA ‘SuperClasico’

Galaxy vs Chivas

June 11 – Allegations have been made by supporters of Chivas USA that they were subjected to racist abuse by LA Galaxy fans during their MLS game last week.

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Last minute Thai court ruling in favour of pay tv for World Cup broadcasts

World Cup TV

By Mark Baber
June 11 – Thailand’s Supreme Administrative Court, this morning, ruled in favour of RS Plc, a pay tv broadcast rights holder for the tournament, in a legal dispute with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC).

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EPFL launches web-based transfer deadline day tracker

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June 11 – The European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) website has launched a live transfer-window countdown for all of its member leagues. Each league has its own countdown bar, detailing the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the window ceremoniously slams shut.

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Webb tells CONCACAF congress solid foundations are now in place to build on

Jeff Webb at Concacaf congress

By Andrew Warshaw in Sao Paulo
June 11 – CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb pledged to never to return to the confederation’s corruption-tainted past. In a dignified yet passionate address to the region’s 41 member nations at the CONCACAF congress here, Webb told delegates there would be no letup in maintaining the transparency showed in his two years in charge.

Andrew Warshaw: The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men

When Sepp Blatter took to the stage during the gala opening of FIFA’s Congress in Sao Paolo and strutted his stuff with one of Brazil’s most glamourous models, it rounded off an eventful day for the 78-year-old FIFA president.

But not one that went entirely his way.

After a tub-thumping round of self-promotional speeches to his loyal followers among five of FIFA’s six regional confederations, and hearing gushing messages of support come flying back,

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After a triumphant march, Blatter stumbles on a Europe in rare union

Platini and Blatter

By Andrew Warshaw in Sao Paulo
June 11 – Sepp Blatter’s declared intention to run for FIFA president for the fifth time crashed against a rock of European hostility and indignation today as UEFA took a united stand by telling the 78-year-old Swiss to his face it was time to step down as a result of the organisation’s tarnished image.

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Facebook claims football’s ‘largest stadium’ in social media battlespace

Twitter vs Facebook

By Mark Baber
June 10 – With just days to the start of the World Cup in Brazil, Twitter and YouTube and Facebook are challenging for the largest slice of the quickly growing social media pie, with Facebook laying claim to providing the “biggest stadium” of football fans.

Osasu Obayiuwana

Osasu Obayiuwana: Cash, Bin Hammam and Africa

So, the world is surprised and shocked by what informed followers of the African game and its politics have known, through the grapevine, for ages – that Mohamed bin Hammam, the former president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), spent significant sums of money to create a sphere of political influence amongst the continent’s federation presidents.

The spread sheet and emails published by the Sunday Times of London, revealing the sums spent on lavish Qatari and Malaysian vacations for several FA chiefs,

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FIFA 15 to further blur the boundaries between the real and virtual worlds

FIFA 15 cover

By Mark Baber
June 10 – EA Sports has announced FIFA 15 is now available for pre-order. The new version of the game is touted to further blur the boundaries between the real and virtual worlds and comes as CONCACAF issue an official press release announcing the winner of the CONCACAF Interactive 2014 championship who has won a trip to Brazil.

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Exclusive: Ex FIFA GenSec points to serious ethics violation by bidder

Michel Zen Ruffinen (right)

By Paul Nicholson
June 10 – Former FIFA general secretary Michel Zen Ruffinen (right) who was caught in a newspaper sting in 2010 talking about rumours of vote collusion between the Spain/Portugal, Russia and Qatar world cup bids, now believes that the rumours circulating were fabricated, most probably by a rival bidding committee.

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Czech top tier to split from national football association

Gambrinus Liga

By Jaroslaw Adamowski
June 10 – The Czech football association (FACR) is considering a plan to transfer oversight of the top tier to a new entity, according to Miroslav Pelta, chief executive of FACR.