By Andrew Warshaw
September 4 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has hailed initial talks aimed at easing travel restrictions for Palestinian footballers and breaking that country’s deep divisions with Israel as “historic” and hopes to find a permanent solution by the end of the year.
Gareth Bale did not have to stand on an 8m-high temporary platform for his unveiling as a €100 million signing to recognise he had swapped Tottenham Hotspur for a truly global stage at Real Madrid. The 24-year-old was already well aware of his commercial appeal.
In March he registered a stylised rendering of his ‘trademark’ goal celebration, which creates a heart shape from the contact of his index fingers and thumbs, as exactly that: a trademark with the UK government’s Intellectual Property Office.
By Paul Nicholson
September 3 – Barcelona president Sandro Rosell has reacted swiftly to accusations from Brazil that he has benefitted illegally from friendly matches involving the Brazilian national team. He has also confirmed that he “consulted” his friend Ricardo Teixeira on his move to Andorra, where Rosell has an agency.
By Mark Baber
September 3 – Moses Magogo has been elected unopposed as the new President of the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) for the next four years, taking over from Lawrence Mulindwa who declined to seek re-election after serving for eight years.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 3 – Kosovan football authorities have written to FIFA president Sepp Blatter condemning Russia’s refusal to grant a visa to a Swiss-based Kosovan player for a recent Europa League fixture.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 3 – Despite UEFA’s financial fair play regulations, English Premier League clubs spent a record £630 million in the summer transfer window that slammed shut on Monday, according to Deloitte’s Sports Business Group. The new tally easily beat the previous record of £500 million set back in 2008, with clubs able to take advantage of the Premier League’s massive television deal without which spending would have been far lower.
By Mark Baber
September 3 – There have been calls for UEFA to intervene as the ticket office of FCK København has been cancelling ticket purchases for its forthcoming Champions League games against Juventus, Real Madrid and Galatasaray made by people with ‘foreign-sounding’ names. The clubs it is acting on “security grounds”.
September 3 – A Swedish footballer who was watching his brother play was forced to have a police escort from the ground following death threats from rival fans.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 3 – Munich has been given the nod over Berlin to bid for part of the 2020 Euro finals which are to be played across 13 venues under UEFA president Michel Platini’s unprecedented pan-Continental blueprint.
By Mark Baber
September 2 – The Oman Football Association (OFA) is to launch its first professional league, the Omantel Professional League (OPL), the with new league starting with the new season on September 13.
By Paul Nicholson
September 2 – Ricardo Teixeira, the former FIFA executive committee member and head of the Brazilian football federation (CBF) for 23 years, has applied and, according to reports, been granted residency in Andorra. The landlocked micro-state in the Pyrennees, bordered by Spain and France, does not have an extradition treaty with Brazil, effectively putting Teixeira out of the reach of any potential Brazilian court summons.
Breakfast with Michel Platini is an annual media gathering on the fringes of the Champions League draw in Monaco that has become almost de rigueur for anyone trying to get inside the head of the UEFA president.
Informal and charmingly mischievous, you invariably get him in an engaging, outgoing mood – in a variety of languages – away from all those official functions and formalities.
Yet among the nods, winks, innuendos and wise-cracking,
By Mark Baber
September 2 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has warned urgently against the Swiss 1:12 initiative which he says would create a real problem for football in the country and the hinder the possibility of attracting talent from abroad, in an interview with the newspaper Schweiz am Sonntag.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 2 – The worst kept secret in football was officially rubbed-stamped on Sunday as Tottenham Hotspur’s Gareth Bale joined nine-time European champions Real Madrid on a six-year deal for a staggering world record transfer fee of €100 million (£85m).
