By Andrew Warshaw
July 3 – England could be invited to play a friendly in Brazil to mark the opening of the new Mineirão 2014 World Cup stadium in Belo Horizonte, insideworldfootball has learned.
The announcement of Britain’s Olympic football squad has made front page news, not least because of who was left out. Back in 1956, the side for the Melbourne Games was named in instalments and they had already been knocked out of the tournament once.
For the first time, a home and away system of qualification had been introduced.
In those days British international teams were chosen by a panel of selectors.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 2 – UEFA will vote on selecting the host nation for the 2020 European Championship in May 2014, several months later than originally announced, another decision which seems to help Istanbul’s campaign to stage the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics.
By Andrew Warshaw at Wembley Stadium in London
July 2 – Team GB coach Stuart Pearce suffered the anticipated bombardment here today over the shock omission of David Beckham from his London 2012 squad – and steadfastly insisted the decision was taken for purely footballing reasons.
By David Gold
July 2 – Laurent Blanc has left his role as head coach of the French national team following its quarter-final exit in the 2012 UEFA European Championship – with World Cup-winning captain Didier Deschamps primed to succeed him.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 2 – Around 580 clubs will benefit from payments handed out by UEFA to cover players who were involved in both the qualification phase for the 2012 European Championship and the finals in Poland and Ukraine.
By David Gold at Wembley Stadium in London
July 2 – Ryan Giggs and Craig Bellamy, as expected, defied the wishes of the Football Association of Wales (FAW) when they were confirmed by Team GB men’s football coach Stuart Pearce as part of his 18-man squad for the London 2012 Olympics here today.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 2 – Former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson is the latest figure to express surprise at David Beckham being omitted from Team GB as one of the three over-age players at the London 2012 Olympics.
By David Gold
July 2 – Fenerbahçe chairman Aziz Yıldırım has been handed a six-year, three-month jail sentence after he was convicted for his role in the Turkish match-fixing scandal by a court in Çağlayan.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 2 – UEFA is doing its best to prevent football’s lawmakers, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), from finally giving the green light this week to goal-line technology.
Fabio Capello’s dig at Wayne Rooney that the England star striker only understands “Scottish” has raised a few hackles. It was in response to comments by Rooney that under Roy Hodgson there are no language problems in the English team.
This has generated much debate about whether a team can perform well unless players and managers share a common language. The Italian (pictured below, second from right), who has been criticised for not learning English,
By David Gold
July 1 – Russia 2018 chief executive Alexey Sorokin has revealed to insideworldfootball that FIFA will make a decision on the host cities of the World Cup at the end of September.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 30 – UEFA President Michel Platini says the 2020 European Championships could be staged across the continent instead of by one or two host nations.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 30 – Team GB’s chances of picking up a men’s medal at London 2012 have suffered a major blow with the news that Wales and Tottenham Hotspur star Gareth Bale will be unavailable due to injury.
By David Gold
June 30 – Bert van Marwijk, coach of the Netherlands, has left his post after the country’s poor UEFA European Championship 2012 campaign.