Inside World Football - Page 1828 of 2235 - For the Business of Football

Matt Scott: Spanish tuning in to collective bargaining

“Everything was interconnected… This created a blanket that allowed him to dive without fear into the unknown and conquer the challenges that lay before him.” From Together We’re Heavy, The Polyphonic Spree

Against Georgia tonight Spain will likely confirm their qualification to the 2014 World Cup as Group I winners. It will extend the world champions’ playing record over 30 international matches to W22 D7 L1.

As football lovers recognise,

Archive

Rosell trumpets record revenue and reduced debt at Barca

Camp Nou

By Gareth Messenger
October 14 – Barcelona president Sandro Rosell has praised his own financial management of the club after an annual general meeting predicted record revenues.

Archive

CONCACAF launches first referees symposium in Mexico

Concacaf ref Symposium

October 14 – CONCACAF held its first International Referee Symposium over the weekend in Mexico, aimed at improving the standard of professional football referring across the region. The symposium marks another step forward for the confederation, following on from its first series of coaches courses, in its drive to improve standards through education and support throughout its federations.

Africa

Namibia boosts MTC sponsorship, bringing stability to national game

Namibia football

By Mark Baber
October 14 – The Namibia Premier League (NPL) has agreed a new, more lucrative sponsorship deal with its long-time partner, telecoms operator MTC. The new deal will generate almost $2 million per season for the next three seasons giving a major boost to top flight football in the country.

Archive

AFC review offers hope of lifting Iraqi ban on home matches

Iraq fans

By Andrew Warshaw
October 14 – Iraq’s bid to overturn a FIFA ban on playing home internationals has won the conditional support of their confederation as the dispute over the country being stripped of hosting the Gulf Cup escalates.

Archive

Götze told to pull his socks up after second adidas/Nike sponsor spat

Mario Gotze

By Mark Baber
October 14 – Bayern Munich wunderkind Mario Götze has put his foot in it again, as he was snapped wearing Nike products, this time whilst on duty with the adidas-sponsored German national team.

Africa

Egypt home qualifier to go ahead but FIFA demand security guarantees

egyptian fans2

By Andrew Warshaw
October 14 – Egypt have been instructed by FIFA to provide security guarantees following Ghana’s request to move next month’s all-important and potentially volatile World Cup playoff in Cairo to neutral territory because of safety concerns.

Archive

AC Milan and adidas look to future, signing 10 year extension

AC Milan fans

By Mark Baber
October 14 – Four years prior to the expiry of their current deal, AC Milan and adidas have agreed to extend their partnership for ten years. The new contract means the club and brand, who first joined forces in 1998, will celebrate 25 years together.

Archive

David Owen: A route to a biennial World Cup?

UEFA’s drive to turn Euro 2020 into a multinational event, rather than a tournament put on by one or two host-countries, seems to have ushered in one of those periods when the structure of numerous elite football competitions is up for debate.

In recent weeks suggestions have surfaced for: non-European countries to be invited to the European championships; a super league of elite European clubs; and friendly internationals to be replaced by a European Nations League.

Archive

PAOK owner Savvidis builds his business in Thessaloniki

Ivan Savvidis

By Panos Bletsos
October 12 – The future for Greek side PAOK looks increasingly bright as its Greek-Russian entrepreneur, Ivan Savvidis, has made clear once again that he has come to stay in his land of origin, expanding his business interests in the region.

Archive

Exclusive: Prince Ali voices concern over political interference

Prince Ali

By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
October 10 – Asia’s FIFA vice-president Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein has questioned the decision to strip Iraq of host status for the next Gulf Cup, intensifying Asian football’s latest controversy especially over the issue of what does and doesn’t constitute political interference in sport. The competition, due to be held late next year or early in 2015, features the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC),

Archive

Levski chaos continues with row spilling over on to national TV

NaskoSirakov

By Alexander Krassimirov
October 11 – The day after the battle scenes and chaos at Bulgaria’s Levski Sofia club, emotions are still running hight. The former sports director Nasko Sirakov (pictured) attacked the club’s owner Todor Batkov in an interview on national television in Bulgaria. Just a few hours later, Batkov responded by saying he now accepts Sirakov’s resignation, handed in on Tuesday.

Archive

First Brazil 2014 ticket window closes with 6m applications

World-Cup-tickets-004

By Mark Baber
October 11 – The first round of World Cup ticket applications closed yesterday with 6,164,682 ticket requests, 70.86% of them from Brazil. As demand is greatly exceeding supply, FIFA has said it will organise a lottery for various matches. Applications from elderly persons, students and members of the “Bolsa Familia” will go into a special lottery for 300,000 tickets.

Archive

Juve chief Agnelli says Italy must drive harder to regain power

agnelli andrea juventus lp

By Andrew Warshaw
October 11 – Italy, rocked by an ongoing match-fixing scandal, no longer has the same standing in European football as it used to, according to Juventus president Andrea Agnelli. And unless there are improvements on and off the field, it will stay that way.

Archive

FIFA stick with GoalControl for Brazil 2014 GLT

Goal-Control

By Andrew Warshaw
October 11-FIFA has confirmed that German company GoalControl will be the goal-line technology (GLT) provider for next year’s World Cup. The company was selected for this year’s Confederations Cup where there were no incidents of whether the ball had crossed the line and FIFA has decided to stick with them.