Inside World Football - Page 1828 of 2248 - For the Business of Football

Qataris unveil first new stadium design and promise delivery…and safety

AL WAKRAH Aerial View

By Andrew Warshaw in Doha
November 16 – Their World Cup bid campaign message, still seen emblazoned across parts of the capital even though it is now almost three years after the vote, was ‘Expect Amazing’. Having achieved their goal of being awarded the event, Qatar’s 2022 organisers have come up with a new, updated logo, ‘Expect Delivery’. Nine years out from hosting the tournament, officials today unveiled their first stadium design and promised to make sure the workers who construct it will be safe from injury.

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Exclusive: Six years on, London’s Olympic stadium shambles over Premiership football bites deep into UK taxpayers

Olympic stadium

By Mihir Bose
November 15 – The decision to lease the Olympic stadium to West Ham still generates huge controversy with Barry Hearn owner of Leyton Orient vowing to fight it all the way to Europe. Hearn is awaiting a report on Olympic Legacy by a select committee of the House of Lord’s due on Monday.

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Tears and fears for Euro giants Bayern and Man Utd over financial results

euros

By Paul Nicholson
November 15 – It was a mixed bag of emotions amongst Europe’s elite clubs this week as both Bayern Munich and Manchester United announced club record financial results.

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Bulgaria puts its hard football face aside to embrace blind fan

Dobri 2

By Alexander Krassimirov
November 15 – Not all Bulgarian football stories are about owners at war, death threats to referees and violent fans forcing coaches to quit. The love of football by one Bulgarian fan has touched the hearts of the nation and his favourite club CSKA Sofia.

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UN scrutineer urges Qatar to use 2022 to end ‘Kafala’ and migrant abuse

Qatar construction 2

By Andrew Warshaw
November 15 – A leading United Nations official has called on Qatar 2022 World Cup organisers to use the tournament to improve the conditions of migrant workers. Qatar has the highest ratio of migrants to citizens in the world: nearly 88% of the total population are foreign workers, employed largely in construction, services and domestic work.

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CFU combines with MLS to open professional door for young talent

Caribbean football

By Paul Nicholson
15 November – The Caribbean Football Union (CFU) and Major League Soccer (MLS) have signed a partnership agreement in Antigua that will showcase young Caribbean football talent to the MLS and give the players the opportunity to progress towards professional football in the US. “This provides an opportunity to get our best young players on to the professional ladder. It is the start of an initiative to develop the standard of football across the region,”

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Hamm is first woman inductee into Pachuca World Football Hall of Fame

Mia-Hamm-Hall of fame

November 15 – Former US national team player Mia Hamm became the first woman to be inducted into the World Football Hall of Fame in Pachuca, Mexico. Hamm played 275 times for the US over a 17-year career, scoring 158 goals – more than any other international players, male or female.

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Derby’s Pride Park renames to iPro Stadium in £7m deal

Derby County

November 15 – English Championship club Derby County are to rename Pride Park the iPro Stadium in a 10-year sponsorship deal worth £7 million. A deal that the club maintain is the highest ‘independent’ deal (ie not involving ‘soft’ ownership sponsorship) outside the Premier League.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Racism is not the only problem in football, let us not forget sexism

There is no question we should raise questions about how the football authorities are dealing with or, more accurately, failing to tackle the issue of race. But let us not forget that while skin colour remains a huge problem being a woman in the game is no easy task as Ebru Koksal, Board member of Galatasaray, knows all too well.

She was on the panel I chaired at the recent International Football Arena in Zurich,

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Aeroflot snaps high flying United as part of sponsorship roll-out

MUaerial2

November 14 – Manchester United’s latest major sponsor partner, Russian airline Aeroflot, have released a series of new aerial images of Old Trafford. The sponsor, who recently signed a 5-year deal taking them up to the World Cup in Russia in 2018, is gathering aerial film and photography content of fans and the stadium as part of its sponsorship activation.

Lee Wellings

Lee Wellings: Thursday’s club is full of woe

What is the link between La Liga bottom club Real Betis, French strugglers Lyon, English FA Cup winners Wigan Athletic, now mid-table in the English Championship, and Eintracht Frankfurt, fourth from bottom in the Bundesliga?

Thursday nights. The Europa League.

The ugly little brother of the Champions league gets such bad press one sometimes feels reluctant to criticise it.

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Scala’s Swiss comments on Qatar 2022 investigation were ‘off-piste’

domenico scala2

By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
November 14 – FIFA are distancing themselves from a suggestion by their leading financial scrutineer that Qatar could be stripped as 2022 World Cup hosts by the world governing body’s independent ethics committee if the Gulf state is found to have broken any bidding rules.

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FIFPro calls for action in Qatar as Belounis hits rock-bottom and talks of suicide

Zahir Belounis

By Andrew Warshaw
November 14 – FIFA have been urged by football’s main players’ union FIFPro to come to the aid of a French-Algerian midfielder involved in a contract dispute in Qatar.

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Widzew Lodz secure much-needed shirt sponsor and look to future

Widzew Lodz fans

By Jaroslaw Adamowski
November 14 – Poland’s Widzew Lodz has signed a sponsorship deal with local pharmaceutical company Aflofarm Farmacja. The logo of one of the drugs manufactured by the company, Braveran, will appear on its squad shirts.

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Austria hit by match-fixing scandal as police arrest three

Grodig fans

By Andrew Warshaw
November 14 – Austria is the latest European country to be hit by the global match-fixing scourge with a former international reportedly detained after apparently attempting to blackmail SV Grodig defender Dominique Taboga into manipulating one of the country’s top-flight games.