By Andrew Warshaw
March 21 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter today sidestepped repeated attempts to force him to take a stand over whether Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 World Cup was in jeopardy following the publication of fresh corruption allegations.
March 21- Defending champions Bayern Munich were handed the perfect opportunity today to avenge their heartbreaking 1999 Champions League final defeat by Manchester United when the two were paired together in the quarterfinals in of this season’s competition.
March 21 – Jeffrey Webb, the chairman of the FIFA Anti-Racism and Discrimination Task Force, has sent a strongly worded message on the importance of embracing diversity and fighting discrimination. He also said that the Brazil 2014 World Cup is the perfect platform to make a powerful anti-discrimination statement and that the quarter finals will be dedicated to the fight against discrimination.
By Richard van Poortvliet
March 21 – The infamous Zenit St Petersburg fan group, Landscrona have made an official statement, saying the flag that was burnt during Zenit’s Champions League clash at Borussia Dortmund, was not the German national flag, but a banner from one of Borussia’s supporters groups.
You know for sure that the people’s game has become gentrified when luxury Swiss watch brands start sponsoring football clubs.
Now, five and a half years after Hublot set the ball rolling by sponsoring Manchester United, another landmark deal has been unveiled.
Maurice Lacroix has announced a three-year agreement with Barcelona that will see it become the Catalán club’s Official Watch Partner in a deal said to be worth somewhere in the seven figures of euros (ie upwards of €1 million).
When a World Cup host is found to have been involved in match-fixing, not just once (as if that’s not bad enough) but several times, any right-thinking person, concerned about the integrity of the game, would assume that confronting this heinous crime against our sport would be a priority matter.
As Jerome Valcke, FIFA’s secretary-general, repeatedly puts it “match-manipulation is the biggest threat to the game today.”
Unfortunately, the investigation into South African football –
By Andrew Warshaw
March 21 – Two years after defying the odds by surviving despite his heart stopping for 78 minutes during a match, Fabrice Muamba, whose miraculous case made worldwide headlines, has revealed that he has since had a couple more murmurs though on a far more minor scale.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 21 – Belo Horizonte officials say their stadium will be 100% ready for the World Cup this summer and have played down a recent leak in the roof just hours before a regional game.
By Alexander Krassimirov
March 21 – CSKA Sofia supporters were sent into a scrambling frenzy after the official release of the club on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. Fans bought more than 55,000 shares in less than an hour after they went on sale this morning.
March 21 – Adidas have agreed to supply the kit for debutants Bosnia and Herzegovina at this year’s World Cup finals, meaning it will sponsor nine of the 32 teams taking part.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 21 – The debate over staging the 2022 World Cup in Qatar has been stoked again by hard-hitting remarks in the United States from MLS Commissioner Don Garber who championed the ability of his own country to take the job on.
By Alexander Krassimirov
March 21 – Levski Sofia owner Todor Batkov (pictured) has stopped player wages until the end of the season. The lawyer was furious at the club’s elimination from the Cup of Bulgaria, which means that Levski will remain without any trophy in its jubilee season.
Do I think Qatar was awarded the World Cup fairly? I don’t know for sure. But nor do you.
If you happen not to have read any opinion on Qatar 2022 this week let me help you out with an example, from my country.
“It’s a scorchingly hot Islamic desert hellhole which routinely employs slave labour and has the kind of respect for human rights you might expect from, say, Darth Vader.”
By Mark Baber
March 20 – Pressure from politicians, who wish to use football as a political lever to punish Russia, is putting football authorities’ political independence to the test in the wake of the toppling of Ukraine’s President and government, and the accession of Crimea and Sevastopol to the Russian Federation.
By Alexander Krassimirov
March 20 – Bulgaria’s Levski Sofia, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, is switching its kit sponsor from Germanys Puma to Spain’s Joma for the start of its centenary season.