November 11 – So often fraught with controversy, Nigerian football is back in the spotlight for the right reasons after winning the world under-17 championship for a record fourth time, overpowering holders Mexico 3-0 in Abu Dhabi.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 11 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has ruled out the Qatar 2022 World Cup being moved to January and February because of a potential clash with the Winter Olympics, severely narrowing down the options to switch the tournament from summer. FIFA recently set up a working group to look into alternative dates for 2022 with all the stakeholders involved – medical experts, broadcasters, sponsors, leagues and clubs.
November 11 – The second ticketing sales window for the 2014 World Cup Brazil opened today at 12:00 CET / 9:00 Brasilia time. More than 220,000 tickets are available in this sales window for 57 matches and FIFA is warning that demand is expected to be high. Unlike the first sales window, the second window will allocate tickets on a first come first served basis.
By Alexander Krassimirov
November 11 – Police in the Bulgarian town of Shumen have launched an investigation after a series of threats were made against the Bulgarian international football referee Stanislav Todorov (pictured). The referee lodged a complaint at the police station following the threats. Todorov was interviewed for an hour, and also informed the newspaper ’24 hours’ Daily. The police in Shumen have confirmed Todorov’s report of the incident but declined to give further details.
On Thursday I went to one of the most uplifting sports events I have attended in a long time.
It took place in a small English town of perhaps 12,000 people with Roman origins. Its apogee came when the sport’s supreme champion of modern times, aged 39, set a benchmark for sustained excellence and endurance on a par with Australian cricketer Don Bradman’s 99.94 Test match batting average, or US swimmer Michael Phelps’s 22 Olympic medals,
By Andrew Warshaw
November 8 – South Korea’s women’s football league has been rocked by an unusual gender row that has led to the resignation of a team coach and prompted a major human rights dispute. Six of the seven K-League teams recently requested that star striker Park Eun-Seon, who plays for Seoul City Hall Amazones, undergo a gender test. They also asked Korea Women’s Football Federation (KWFF) to bar Park from playing until her gender is verified.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
November 8 – Poland’s Legia Warsaw has unveiled Central Europe’s leading betting operator Fortuna Entertainment Group as its new main sponsor. The deal will come into effect next year and last until end 2016.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 8 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has been urged not to return “empty-handed” from this weekend’s courtesy trip to Qatar which will take in the contentious issue of workers’ rights. Blatter is due to make a personal visit to the new emir of Qatar on Saturday to discuss the treatment of migrant workers following highly publicised reports of severe labour rights abuses that have caused widespread embarrassment to organisers of the 2022 World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 8 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has urged the Iranian authorities to end the ban on women attending men’s matches, a policy that has been in force since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Blatter, wrapping up a two-day visit to Tehran, said he had raised the issue with that Iran’s top female government official, Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar.
By Paul Nicholson
November 8 – FIFPro’s Expert Group on Transfer Matters has completed its latest round of meetings and has instructed its legal department to draft a series of ammendments to be proposed to FIFA to change Article 17 of its regulations. Article 17 of the FIFA Rules and Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP) deals partly with the aim of guaranteeing the Respect of Contract. FIFPro’s recommendations are designed to harden this clause for players’
On November 9, the second round of the Asian’s Champions League Final will take place in Guangzhou. It is widely reckoned to be the most valuable final ever held for a football competition in Asia. It may become a record that takes a long long time to break.
It is still hard to calculate what the TV ratings will be, because normally TV ratings research in mainland China is not trustworthy, with only a couple of research companies operating in the company currently.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
November 7 – A joint football league could be resurrected in Cyprus within two years as a result of this week’s historic deal between Greek and Turkish Cypriot officials and FIFA. That’s the view of Hasan Sertoglu (pictured), head of the unofficial Cyprus Turkish Football Association (CTFA) following the provisional arrangement signed by both sides to organise the sport on the divided Mediterreanan island.
By Paul Nicholson
November 7 – FIFA sponsor Adidas reported a third quarter drop in net profit by 8.1% to €316 million, with sales down 7% to €3.88 billion and operating profit down 6% to €463 million. But the sporting goods and appareil giant said that this was pretty much in line with expectations and analysts are expecting a bumper World Cup year in 2014.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 7 – Brazilian World Cup winner Ronaldo has never been afraid to speak his mind whether as a player or in his new role as a prominent member of the organising committee for next year’s World Cup. The former striker, who scored both goals in the 2002 final and starred in European club football with PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona, Internazionale, Real Madrid and Milan, was in London this week to promote Brazil 2014.
On the face of it seems very easy to find a solution for match fixing. Everyone agrees it is bad and if not controlled it will ruin sport – indeed in China it has all but destroyed Chinese domestic football. But having agreed how dreadful it is we run up against the problem that it is impossible to find a universal system to police it.
How difficult this can be was well illustrated when on Wednesday of this week a conference was held to discuss sport integrity.