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.
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.
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.
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),
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.
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.
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.
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.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 11 – BT Sport, the new pay-tv competitor for Sky, is determined to acquire even more sports rights but is happy to “co-exist” with Sky in the market place, according to BT chief executive Gavin Patterson. Patterson has not ruled out acquiring Champions League games for his new channels in the future even though that could mean the competition no longer being shown on terrestrial television.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 10 – UEFA’s financial fair play rules risk being counter-productive by hitting smaller clubs harder rather than creating a level playing field, according to the American chairman of Chelsea, Champions League winners the season before last.
The autumn international break is a strange period isn’t it. Rightly or wrongly fans are pining for club action while the diet of World Cup qualifying ‘build-up’ is stretched to breaking point.
In England for example the comments of Jack Wilshere – plenty of potential though hardly a glittering star of the world game – on the subject of nationalism.
Everyone conveniently ignored the reality that this young footballer didn’t publish a manifesto,
By Matt Scott
11 October – Real Madrid, Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain are among “15 to 20” leading clubs actively plotting the introduction of a closed European super league. Those are the explosive claims of Galatasaray’s chairman, Ünal Aysal. He said that a wholesale restructure of the Champions League is a “reality” that’s five years away.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 10 – The head of the US Soccer Federation believes player eligibility rules need to be tightened up to stop promising young internationals having carte blanche to turn out for two different countries.
By Mark Baber
October 10 – Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi has become embroiled in a new row as he criticised the pitch at the refurbished National Stadium in Abuja, Nigeria, as bad for football, before rowing back on his comments yesterday.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 10 – Just when it is striving to enter a new era of unity and cohesion, Asian football has been rocked by a spat between Iraq and Saudi Arabia over the next Gulf Cup of Nations due to be held late next year or early in 2015. The competition, featuring the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), plus usually Iraq and Yemen, is little known outside the region but hotly contested whenever it takes place.