By Richard van Poortvliet
March 20 – Legally or illegally, the biggest country in the world has just got a little bigger, with Crimea set to become part of the Russian Federation. While a lot has been made of the political ramifications, spare a thought for two football clubs from the peninsula, who ply their trade in the Ukrainian Premier League.
March 20 – FIFA is being urged by Amnesty International not to downplay the mistreatment of construction workers’ on Qatar’s 2022 World Cup sites when football’s world governing body hears an update on the issue at its executive committee meeting today and tomorrow.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 20 – The international players’ union FIFPro has again called on FIFA to reform the international transfer system which, it says, is failing the game and badly need to be addressed.
March 20 – Australian-born Croatian international Josip Simunic will definitely miss the World Cup after losing his appeal against a 10-match ban imposed by FIFA for discriminatory behaviour.
March 19 – The takeover of iconic English club Leeds United by controversial Italian entrepreneur Massimo Cellino has still not been approved with fans now braced for a period of uncertainty.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 19 – A key meeting of FIFA’s executive committee (exco) opens on Thursday with the latest on Brazil’s troubled World Cup preparations high on the agenda along with the thorny issues of Israeli-Palestine relations and workers’ rights in Qatar.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
March 19 – With Widzew Lodz eyeing a new stadium, the municipal authorities of Lodz have launched a tender to build a new sports facility which is designed to revamp the troubled Polish football club and boost match attendance.
March 19 – Two English players have had life bans extended worldwide by FIFA for fixing matches in Australia’s second-tier Victorian Premier League.
What began as a peaceful protest against one deeply corrupt President’s reign – no, I don’t mean some weird country in tropical climes, but rather Ukraine’s Yanukovich – rapidly degenerated into snipers murdering friend and foe alike and paid thugs creating havoc on Kiev’s Maidan Square. What followed were scenes that are reminiscent of a revolution, and subsequently bore the hallmark of a well orchestrated coup d’état.
The phone conversation between one Victoria Nuland,
By Andrew Warshaw and Paul Nicholson
March 19 – Disgraced former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has dismissed the latest corruption allegations against him as “foolishness” and says there is a “witch hunt” against 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar.
You may think, if you live in England, enough has been said about Sol Campbell’s extraordinary claim that had he been white he would been an automatic choice as England captain. Despite all those who have rubbished his claims he remains adamant, as he told me, that the colour of his face, as opposed to that of Michael Owen, just did not fit with the FA. All Campbell will budge on was that he did not mean to say he would have led the national side for ten years as originally reported but for a long time during the ten year period he played for his country.
March 18 – The ownership of English Premier League Hull City has been plunged into doubt after the Football Association announced it had been advised to reject plans to change the club’s name to Hull Tigers.
“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters,” Albert Einstein
Football, to paraphrase the former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly, is a very important matter. Most would agree that paying your debts should be at the forefront of everyone’s minds too, but for years some of those involved in the game have played it fast and loose with their obligations to the tax authorities.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 18 – Qatar’s winning 2022 World Cup bid has been plunged into renewed controversy – just when FIFA are about to be given an update about the treatment of migrant workers employed on its stadium projects.
