Telecoms firm INEA picks up naming rights to Lech Poznan stadium
By Krzysztof Baranowski
June 25 – Polish telecommuncations company INEA have snapped up the naming rights to UEFA Euro 2012 stadium – Stadion Miejski in Poznan, Poland.
David Owen: Balancing a £1bn profit with reality
I don’t know about you, but I always thought that company accounts were supposed to reflect financial reality.
Not, it seems, when the value of professional footballers is concerned.
Over the five years between 2008 and 2012, clubs competing in England’s Premier League booked a cool £1 billion-plus in net profits from the sale of players.
This means, in effect, that those players were undervalued by the same amount in the clubs’
Egyptian violence erupts again as Al Ahli fans storm Cairo’s military stadium
By Mark Baber
June 24 – Al Ahli fans stormed Cairo’s military stadium this weekend against the backdrop of demonstrations held by Islamists in favour of president Mohammed Morsi and in a possible foretaste of anti-Morsi demonstrations planned for June 30 , the first anniversary of Morsi’s inauguration, which aim to force new elections.
Seagulls drop spectacular dirt-bomb on Poyet, live on TV
By Mark Baber
June 24 – Gus Poyet was sacked from his position as manager of Championship club Brighton and Hove Albion yesterday and, in a PR disaster for the club, apparently only heard of the sacking whilst in the BBC studios where he was acting as a pundit for the Confederations Cup coverage.
Rugby man upbeat about giving Hearts an investor lifeline
By Andrew Warshaw
June 24 – Former Scottish Rugby Union chief executive Gordon McKie is emerging as a possible saviour for Heart of Midlothian, the stricken Scottish Premier League club that has been plunged into administration with debts of £25m. McKie, who was involved in an unsuccessful attempt to take over Rangers last summer, has met with Hearts administrators with a view to a consortium of five or six investors buying the Edinburgh club.
Bulgarian giants CSKA Sofia fold as Stoichkov handed full control
By Andrew Warshaw
June 24 – Bulgaria’s most successful club, CSKA Sofia, has declared itself bankrupt and will try to merge with another club to carry on competing in a different guise next season – or end up in the amateur ranks. The 31-time national champions have been struggling financially in recent years, along with many Bulgarian clubs, and were barred from the Champions League in 2008-09 after failing to meet UEFA’s licensing criteria.
Thais face FIFA suspension unless club withdraws court action
By Andrew Warshaw
June 24 – Thailand are facing a ban from all FIFA competitions over an election row that could plunge lucrative pre-season tours by Barcelona, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea into jeopardy. FIFA has warned the Football Association of Thailand (FAT) – headed by controversial FIFA executive committee member Worawi Makudi – that it must resolve the dispute by the end of today (Monday) or face suspension.
U-20 World Cup refs draw the line at free kick encroachment
By Andrew Warshaw
June 24 – For the first time in FIFA competitions, vanishing spray to prevent players encroaching at free kicks is being used at the under-20 World Cup in Turkey, the latest move to aid referees following the introduction of goalline technology at the Confederations Cup.
TV audiences build for Confederations Cup early rounds
June 24 – Worldwide television audiences for the Confederations Cup continue to grow despite the adverse publicity generated by the widespread protests in Brazil. In the second round of matches, markets including Japan, Spain, Germany and the UK – the last two of which don’t have a team in the competition – all witnessed increases in viewing figures.
Exclusive: Premier League clubs cash in with £1bn net profit from player sales
By David Owen
June 24 – English Premier League clubs have racked up net profits on player sales of well over £1 billion during the last five seasons for which full figures are available. The figure suggests that club balance-sheets massively undervalue these assets – who also happen, in many cases, to be global stars.
Confederations Cup show will go on, says FIFA and LOC
By Paul Nicholson and Andrew Warshaw
June 21 – FIFA and Confederations Cup organisers have said the tournament will still continue as protests across Brazil intensified yesterday. World football’s governing body has said in a statement that neither “FIFA nor the LOC (local organizing committee) have ever discussed any such possibility” of cancelling the tournament.
Lee Wellings: More humiliation for Toon Army
Do any supporters anywhere openly suffer as much as those of Newcastle United Football Club?
No club moves from stability to disruption, from good stock to laughing stock, from hope to despair, like Newcastle. They are world champions at humiliation, and they could probably do with any silverware this brings.
Their latest drama has fallen snugly into the ‘you are joking?’ category they occupy so frequently.
The appointment of Joe Kinnear as ‘Director of Football’,
beIN SPORT debuts with three channels in Indonesia
By Paul Nicholson
June 21 – Sports broadcaster, beIN SPORT, which has been rapidly growing its global footprint, has announced the launch of three high-definition sports channels in Indonesia in partnership with TV sports rights specialists MP & Silva from Italy. The channels will launch July 1.
Cameroon FA president Iya re-elected as he is transferred to prison
By Mark Baber
June 21 – On Wednesday, Mohammed Iya, was re-elected as president of the Cameroon Football Federation by a landslide, on the same day he was transferred to the notorious Kondengui central prison in Yaounde, after appearing before a Special Criminal Court on charges of misappropriation of public funds.
David Owen: Protests show it’s time for Big Sport to shake off complacency
Demonstrations in Istanbul; a protest over high ticket prices by football fans in London; demonstrations in Brazil.
Decidedly, the world has changed, but the question is, ‘Have the grandees who run Big Sport taken notice?’
Yes, it is simplistic to bracket these three manifestations of frustration and rage together.
The Istanbul protesters seemed indifferent to, or even mildly positive about, their city’s prospects of hosting the 2020 Olympics – although they have thrown a spanner in that particular works.