By David Owen
October 7 – FIFA President Joseph Blatter is aiming to join forces with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to urge the Brazilian Government to do its utmost to ensure the country’s new doping control facility is operational, and duly accredited, before next year’s World Cup, insideworldfootball has learnt.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent, in Zurich
October 4 – Sepp Blatter admitted today he “took responsibility” for the Qatar 2022 World Cup winter-summer debacle – but left open a key number of questions, not least the eventual rescheduling of the tournament. Announcing, as expected, that a commission involving all the game’s stakeholders would be set up to try and find a way through a myriad of complexities, the FIFA president was in typically canny mood.
By Mark Baber
October 4 – The Russian Foreign Ministry commented on Thursday evening on the possible entry into Russia of Michael Garcia, confirming that the head of the FIFA ethics committee was not welcome.
October 4 – With a week to go before the end of the first phase of ticket sales for the 2014 World Cup, over 4.5 million tickets have been requested for the 64 matches.
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
October 4 – No decision on switching the 2022 Qatar World Cup to winter will be made until next year’s World Cup finals in Brazil, at the earliest, Insideworldfootball has learnt. As FIFA’s eagerly awaited two-day executive meetings in Zurich wound up, as anticipated, an agreement was reached to set up a commission to examine the issues of moving the 2022 World Cup date away from the heat of the Qatar summer.
By Mark Baber
October 4 – Head of Iran’s Football Federation (IFF), Ali Kaffashian said on Thursday that the US football federation has welcomed the prospect of a friendly football match between Iranian and US national teams.
By Paul Nicholson
October 4 – Leyton Orient owner Barry Hearn (pictured)may have lost his £750,000 legal battle to allow the club to ground share London’s Olympic Stadium with Premier League club West Ham United, but he hasn’t given up hope and he could be handed a lifeline by the EC.
By Paul Nicholson
October 4 – FIFA has suspended sanctions against Ukraine and Peru for their upcoming World Cup Qualifying matches in October.
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
October 4 – With the hype of the Qatar ‘winter or summer’ debate reaching fever pitch amongst the world’s media, providing a feast of guesswork and mis-interpretation, Qatar 2022 chief Hassan Al Thawadi has re-iterated once again that his country’s intensive lobbying campaign to secure the tournament was totally above board and broke none of FIFA’s strict bidding rules.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 3 – Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organisers have re-iterated their pledge that they are prepared to host the tournament any time FIFA requires and remain committed to their revolutionary air-cooling technology.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
October 3 – Qatar is coming under subtle pressure to formally request switching the 2022 World Cup from the searing heat of the Gulf summer in order to save FIFA having to make the landmark one-off decision. Although the Qataris have long insisted they would never contemplate taking unilateral action and being the ones to ask for a change, InsideWorldFootball has learned that a deal could be struck to ensure the 2022 hosts are not unduly jeopardised by offering themselves to hold the tournament in winter.
By Mark Baber
October 3 – The challenge to UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations by Daniel Striani, is due in Brussels’ Court of First Instance today in what will be a short hearing to set a schedule for handling the complaint lodged in May.
By Mark Baber
October 3 – Manchester United has announced a three-year agreement with Fijian Holdings Limited (FHL)’s Fiji TV to bring MUTV to the South Pacific for the first time.
By Paul Nicholson
October 3 – The match fixing scandal surrounding non-league players in England has deepened with the revelation that three of the four players arrested in Australia were from AFC Hornchurch in England’s Conference South division.
Disenchantment with Europe is now so prevalent in Britain that it seems hard to find anyone who looks to Europe to help their cause. Yet Barry Hearn, who has got nowhere in his fight to share the Olympic stadium with West Ham, may find Brussels rather than Westminster is his best bet.
At the moment, having spent three quarters of a million pounds in legal fees over three years and got nowhere –