By Alexander Krassimirov
September 18 – The head coach of Bulgarian CSKA Sofia Stoycho Mladenov (pictured) said he is expecting a murder at the Bulgarska armia stadium. Mladenov was speaking after CSKA’s 6-2 win over FC Haskovo in the Bulgarian Cup.
By Panos Bletsos
Septeber 17 – Greece’s biggest club, Olympiakos Pirea, has pulled out of its sponsorship deal with OPAP SA. The club made the decision soon after OPAP, the exclusive operator of lottery and sports betting in Greece, changed ownership.
September 17 – Football is not always highlighted for humanitarian gestures between professionals, hence the interest generated by the relevation from Monaco captain Eric Abidal that his former Barcelona teammate Dani Alves offered to donate part of his liver when the French international needed a transplant last year.
The FFA – Australia’s Fabulous Football Association – have started to shout. Sometimes, one gets the feeling that people think the louder they scream, the more their argument rings true. Not so. Content still rules over tactics and style. And Australia’s most recent style is unique, to say the least.
There goes a sore loser. Nearly three years after having secured just a single vote (where two were promised “for sure”, and another 10 at least confirmed with hugs between old men,
September 18 – Inter Milan have been ordered to close the north end of the San Siro for their next home game against Fiorentina.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 18 – As the Champions League group stage got into full flow this week, one of Europe’s most prominent football administrators says something has to be done to stop the tournament being thrown into chaos by last-minute disruptive appeal decisions.
By Mark Baber
September 17 – An imaginative new campaign to tackle homophobia in football, devised by bookmaker PaddyPower in association with gay rights charity Stonewall, kicked off on Monday . The campaign includes the distribution of rainbow football laces to every professional player in the UK, who have been asked to wear them for the upcoming weekend fixtures (September 21 and 22).
By Mark Baber
September 17 – The Spanish football federation (RFEF) is to forego a state subsidy for the third year in a row in 2014, according to the Spanish Sports Council.
“We are financial products. A football club is like a factory, and we are its outputs. You have to be realistic.”
It is not often you hear a human being reduce himself to the status of a balance-sheet item. But with these words that is exactly what Eliaquim Mangala, a France-international defender at the Portuguese champions, FC Porto, has done. Mangala’s words were in response to being confronted with the fact he is not merely an intangible fixed asset belonging to his club but also to two offshore funds whose investors’
By Andrew Warshaw
September 17 – One of football’s more bizarre episodes is still gripping the Italian public and media after a coach from Genoa was caught “spying” on local rivals Sampdoria dressed in Rambo-style camouflage ahead of their derby clash last Sunday.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 17 – Six people have been charged in relation to Australia’s biggest match-fixing scandal, prompting FIFA’s former anti-corruption specialist to call for greater global co-operation.
By Andrew Warshaw and Paul Nicholson
September 17 – The head of Australia’s failed 2022 World Cup bid says FIFA should pay compensation to his federation – and to the other losing candidates – if the tournament in Qatar is switched to the northern hemisphere winter. Football Federation Australia (FFA) chairman Frank Lowy says FIFA risks making a bad situation worse if it decides too hastily to move the tournament.
How difficult can it really be for the officials of a football association to keep accurate statistics, as well as master the eligibility rules, of players entitled to feature for their countries in crucial international matches?
One would assume it does not take the genius of Albert Einstein to carry out basic record-keeping duties.
But the recurring drama of administrative ineptitude, leading to the cancellation of several World Cup qualifying results across Africa,
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
September 17 – UEFA president Michel Platini says it would be “heartbreaking” to leave the organisation and has put off any decision to run for the FIFA presidency until next year’s World Cup in Brazil at the earliest.
By Paul Nicholson
September 16 – A report by Socialbakers for August shows the Premier League as the world’s fastest growing sports Facebook site over the month, with 1.2 million new fans. Second is the UEFA Champions League with the UEFA Europa League coming in third with just over 500,000 new fans.