ASEAN Super League plans unveiled

ASEAN logo

By Mark Baber
April 17 – The establishment of an ASEAN Super League took a step closer as senior figures within the Asean Football Federation (AFF) briefed the media on the project which was discussed at a separate AFF briefing on April 3. 

Read more …

Osasu Obayiuwana: Nigerian football? It’s a mad, mad world…

As just one of two men in the 56-year history of the Africa Cup of Nations to win the trophy as a player and a manager – the late Egyptian legend Mahmoud El-Gohary being the other – you would assume Nigeria’s Stephen Keshi has earned some well-deserved job security.

But, as mind-boggling as it may sound, the man who managed the Super Eagles to the trophy in Johannesburg might be forced, by a series of bizarre circumstances,

Read more …

NBC stakes its claim for the US football TV market

NBC sports

By Tom Parsons
April 17 – NBC sports group will air all 380 Barclays Premier League games during the 2013/14 season live on its networks. The US broadcaster will present the games across their platforms as well as streaming them live via NBC’s Sport live extra service on desktop, mobile and tablets.

Read more …

AFC frontrunner Salman accused of vote buying and human rights abuses

SHAIKH SALMAN

By Paul Nicholson and Mark Baber
April 16 – The leading candidate for the presidency of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, has been implicated in a series of human rights abuses in his home country of Bahrain where he is a member of the ruling Royal family. Insideworldfootball has also been provided with information allegedly linking him to a vote buying scandal orchestrated by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) in 2009 when he ran for AFC election to the FIFA executive committee against Mohamed Bin Hammam.

Read more …

Jean Francois Tanda: Brothers in Arms

While FIFA is trying to reform its own organisation, the Swiss government is considering changing the laws – changes that will impact on the (about) 60 international sports organisations that are headquartered in Switzerland. However, the non-governmental sports multinationals don’t have to fear too many new rules and laws as the Swiss administration is working closely with the Basel Institute on Governance – the University institute headed by Professor Mark Pieth, FIFA’s chief reformer. This actually means that FIFA has a direct influence on the decision as to whether Switzerland’s lawmakers will eventually put change into place.

Read more …