By Andrew Warshaw
May 12 – Amidst political tension between its two most influential officials, Asian football attempts to redress the balance this week as figures from across the Continent and beyond converge on the eastern shores of the Dead Sea for two days of discussions aimed at promoting the positive side of developing the game on and off the field.
May 12 – The boss of England’s Premier League has been forced to apologise over alleged sexist comments but has nevertheless been condemned by women’s groups and politicians.
May 12 – Having spent months tirelessly trying to get Brazil’s preparations up to speed, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke says with future World Cups he should perhaps take more of a back seat after having to deal with so much pressure.
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.