Swiss climb puts them at the summit of World Cup seeding
October 17 – Switzerland’s meteoric rise in football’s world rankings has been rewarded with the central European country being seeded for next year’s World Cup finals.
UAE U17 World Cup kicks off…and there are no issues
By Andrew Warshaw
17 October – Amidst all the hullaballoo over the 2022 Qatar World Cup, a younger version of football’s biggest global jamboree was set to begin in the Gulf today (Thursday), almost unnoticed outside the region itself. The under-17 World Cup is being staged in six venues by one of Qatar’s neighbours, the United Arab Emirates, with little controversy and hardly any hot air – metaphorically speaking.
Sexwale to open landmark CONCACAF summit
October 16 – The landmark CONCACAF summit in the Cayman Islands next week (October 21-22) will kick off with an address by South African freedom fighter and football supporter Tokyo Sexwale (pictured) at a dinner hosted by president Jeffrey Webb.
Lee Wellings: World Cup Qualification, a drama you live through over and over again
Apologies to those whose national football teams face a nerve wracking World Cup play-off.
And to those who dreams of reaching Brazil 2014 are already over.
For I’d like to talk about qualification. As in achieving it, sealing the deal.
As an Al Jazeera Correspondent I must be neutral, yet all around me in England there has been the agony, the pain, then the relief at securing a place in the finals.
Bernabeu to get a facelift as Real Madrid put naming rights on sale
By Mark Baber
October 16 – Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has revealed that a decision will be made on which project gets the go ahead for the planned refurbishment of the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu by the end of October, with the club now looking to find a sponsor to add their name to the stadium.
Manchester United to tour Premier League trophy worldwide
By Mark Baber
October 16 – Manchester United, and their official logistics partner DHL, are to tour the Premier League Trophy to 31 destinations in 24 cities worldwide in the coming months to celebrate last season’s Premier League triumph.
WC Qualifying drama as Bosnia go through and Mexico squeeze a play offs
By Andrew Warshaw
October 16 – The World Cup qualifying programme in Europe reached a nail-biting conclusion Tuesday night as Bosnia-Herzegovina celebrated reaching their first finals as an independent nation, beating Lithuania 1-0 to finish top of their group.
New owners at Inter as Moratti brings in Indonesian money
By Andrew Warshaw
October 16 – Inter Milan, winners of 18 Italian league titles, have become the latest iconic European club to be taken over by foreign investors. A trio of Indonesian businessmen led by media tycoon Erick Thohir have bought a 70% stake in the Serie A giants.
Zambia protest to FIFA after Congolese club refuses to release players
By Andrew Warshaw
Ocotber 16 – Zambian football has been plunged into a bizarre footballing dispute after three international players refused to travel with the national squad ahead of a 2-0 friendly defeat by Brazil in neutral China.
Murdoch in five-year deal to take Bundesliga to the world
By Mark Baber
October 16 – The DFL (German League Association) and Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox have agreed a new broadcast deal which will take the Bundesliga to more than 80 TV markets including Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, all of North and Latin America and much of Asia from the start of the 2015/16 season.
Crowdfunding comes to Kettering’s rescue
By David Owen
October 16 – A 141-year-old English football club may have been saved from closure thanks in part to the generosity of fans from as far afield as Iceland and Vietnam.
IFA: Is there a future for mega events?
By Paul Nicholson
October 15 – The second day of the IFA conference in Zurich, October 29, has picked a topic that goes to the very heart of questioning the existence of major world championship sporting events in their current form. Titled ‘Is there a future for Mega sports events?’ a panel will discuss the demands major events put on host nations and whether the model is broken or not.
Townsend scores on Twitter after big England performance
By Tom Parsons
October 15 – One week ago Andros Townsend was on the receiving end of 3-0 home defeat to West Ham. A week later, Townsend is being hailed as a national hero after his heroic performance for England against Montenegro last Friday.
Russians slash World Cup stadium budget by £389m, but cuts are criticised
By Mark Baber
October 15 – Plans by Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development to slash the costs of the construction budget for the 2018 World Cup have been criticised by the influential State Duma Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Katrenko, as short-sighted.
Chaos in Addis Ababa as Nigerians sack officials and team attacked
By Mark Baber
October 15 – Shortly before the first leg of their World Cup play-off against Ethiopia the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) banned former secretary general, Taiwo Ogunjobi, and the immediate past chairman of the Nigeria Premier League (NPL), Victor Rumson Baribote, for 10 and 15 years respectively from any football related activity.