April 2 – More than one in four professional footballers suffer depression and anxiety according to a new mental health study released today by the world footballers’ association FIFPro. That figure rises to a massive 39% amongst retired footballers.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 2 – Uruguayan football is in chaos just two months before the World Cup after the entire board of its national association resigned over increasing fan violence. FIFA has yet to comment on the crisis which could potentially threaten Uruguay’s World Cup participation if there is no leadership in place to take the country to Brazil.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 2 – Dutch football authorities are launching an investigation into Chelsea’s links with one of their top-flight clubs, Vitesse Arnhem, following sensational – some might say fanciful – allegations in the Dutch press. Chelsea have been using Vitesse as a training club for their emerging players in recent seasons, with four of their younger players currently on loan there.
By Richard van Poortvliet
April 2 – Former Russia head coach, Valery Gazzaev (pictured) has hit out at the lack of Russian football fans passing through the turnstiles to watch domestic Premier League games.
April 2 – Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has warned that if he doesn’t get his way in negotiations over the acquisition and redevelopment of the club’s Stadio Sao Paolo he will take the players and his manager, Rafa Benitez, and buy a club in England.
Michel D’Hooghe, the long standing FIFA executive member, should have every reason to feel happy. The man who chaired the Belgian football federation for many years, and led the country’s joint bid with the Netherlands for the 2018 World Cup, will travel to Brazil confident that this is the best Belgium side for more than a quarter of a century. “We have,” he tells me “the best generation after the generation of 86,” the one whose deeds in Mexico are still talked about in his country.
April 1 – A group of influential Russian players has put forward a proposal to limit the number of non-Russians in club football to six per club by the start of the 2018 World Cup.
April 1 – After a long fight by campaigners, fresh inquests into the deaths of 96 football fans killed in the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster finally got under way today and could take a year to resolve.
By Paul Nicholson
April 1 – Manchester City have quickly followed up the build of their new £200 million academy and training complex with the appointment of engineering company Laing O’Rourke to start work on the expansion of the Etihad Stadium from 47,670 capacity to 62,170.
April 1 – Brazil’s World Cup preparations have suffered yet another setback with the death of a third worker at the Sao Paulo stadium that is being rushed to readiness to host the opening match on June 12.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 1 – Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, German head of the European Club Association, admits he is disappointed by the decision to reject goalline technology in his country’s top two divisions.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 1 – In an unexpected twist to the debate over the 2022 World Cup, Japan has declared it would be ready to stage the tournament if FIFA strips Qatar of hosting rights – even though there is no indication that is likely to happen.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 1 – French football authorities are upholding a ban on female players wearing headscarves for religious purposes in defiance of the game’s lawmakers.
By Matt Scott
April 1 – Internazionale risks becoming embroiled in a share wrangle over disputed allegations one of the club’s new owners misappropriated $170 million from a listed company.
“Plus tard, je serai président du PSG!” Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy became France’s most unpopular president in history at the end of his tenure but his nose for a political wind remains pretty keen. It was inevitable that, with French joblessness at record levels, the incumbent Socialists would lose out to his UMP party in municipal elections on Saturday. Cue a clamour for his return to the Elysée palace,