By Tom Parsons
May 13 – One of the greatest ever Premier League players has joined Twitter, and immediately gained nearly 250,000 followers in his first 24 hours on the social media platform. Thierry Henry, Arsenal’s all-time top scorer joined Twitter at 12:44pm on Monday and was immediately welcomed by fellow players, fans and celebrities.
May 13 – Italian authorities have taken swift action against Atalanta by fining the club €40,000 after a banana was thrown on to the pitch during Sunday’s 2-1 home win against AC Milan though many will question whether the fine is enough.
By Andrew Warshaw in Jordan.
May 13 – The head of Qatar’s 2022 world cup organising committee was forced to pull out of Asia’s first ever Soccerex forum today for unspecified reasons.
By Mark Baber
May 13 – Sony yesterday launched a social network site called “One Stadium Live” which brings together social network content from Twitter, Facebook and Google+ on a single platform. The initiative is part of Sony’s World Cup campaign. Sony is one FIFA’s six major sponsor partners.
By Mark Baber
May 13 – As of Monday morning, Pakistan’s football coach Bahraini Mohammed Shamlan was still waiting for a permit from Israel to allow him to join his team at the Al-Nakba International Football Tournament in Palestine.
By Paul Nicholson
May 13 – CONCACAF has taken another step forward in the battle against match-fixing, signing a memorandum of Understanding with International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL). The co-operation agreement will enable joint efforts in what CONCACAF calls “sports integrity initiatives”, particularly in the sharing of resources and experiences. The aim is to intensify on-going work to combat match-fixing.
May 13 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has rejected Josip’s Simunic’s appeal against a 10-match ban imposed by FIFA for discriminatory behaviour.
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.