Cairo club fined for having fans in stadium

egyptian football

By Andrew Warshaw
April 5 – Leading Egyptian club Zamalek have been fined for allowing fans into their stadium to watch a league game, defying security orders that all matches be played in empty stadiums, a stipulation put in place in order for football to resume following last year’s Port Said disaster. 

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Schenk shanks FIFA over progress of clean-up programme

sylvia schenk

By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
April 4 – FIFA’s reform process has been “haunted by the past”, according to Sylvia Schenk, senior advisor for sports for the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, which produced an eight-page report in 2011 that was used as basis for FIFA’s subsequent and ongoing clean-up campaign.

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UEFA caught between a rock and a hard place on Gibraltar

Gibraltar

By Mark Baber
April 4 – As the UEFA Congress vote in May on Gibraltar’s football status nears, the Spanish Government has declared that it will back the Spanish Football Federation in trying to block Gibraltar’s full membership. In answer to questions from Ezquerra Republicana de Cataluña (ERC) representative Alfred Bosch in the Madrid Cortes, a Spanish government spokesman said: “At this point in time, the Government does not consider the possible staging of official football matches between Spain and Gibraltar.

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Mihir Bose: Who is the most powerful man in football?

Why is it impossible to decide who is the Lionel Messi of football’s men in suits?

Forget the argument about whether Lionel Messi is the greatest player. That argument can never be resolved as it depends on a variety of factors, many of them intensely subjective.

For instance, people of my generation who were brought up on the greatness of Pele will continue to believe that while Messi is a wonderful player,

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Osasu Obayiuwana: Realpolitik is the cog in FIFA’s reform wheel

Anyone seeking revolutionary change to the way in which FIFA does its business would certainly be underwhelmed with the changes to be proposed at next month’s congress in Mauritius.

As the stone-cold reality continues to sink in, that key suggestions of the IGC, led by Professor Mark Pieth, are not going to be implemented in the way originally proposed – a roadmap which well-meaning people within the fraternity keenly support – it is time to acknowledge that the harsh,

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