Cameroon FA president Iya re-elected as he is transferred to prison

Mohammed Iya

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.

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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.

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John Yan: 倒霉的不该只有卡马乔 Sack Camacho or sack football in China

解雇主教练是一种经济省钱的危机公关手段,职业足球环境下绝对如此。

因为当一支球队成绩一塌糊涂的时候,作为管理者,无法解雇一支球队、无法解雇一代球员,于是解雇一名主教练,既能平息民怒,又能转移视线,还能节约人力资源投入成本,不论从管理学角度,还是经济学角度,这都是最容易的解决方案。

哪怕这未必是最正确的解决方案。

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Andrew Warshaw: Cup traditions, old and new, play the dating game

Tradition has increasingly taken a back seat in the modern age of football. Sometimes, it has to be said, for the right reasons but not when it comes to the English FA Cup, the game’s oldest domestic knockout competition.

For the last few years, the cup final, watched by billions of armchair fans worldwide despite many of them getting out of bed at some ungodly hour, has been shunted into unfamiliar territory, given whatever end-of-season slot can be found for it –

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adidas forecasts record €2 billion in football sales in 2014

Herbert Hainer

By Mark Baber
June 21 – Adidas expects to hit record sales of €2 billion from its football product in 2014 as it benefits from it position as official sponsor, supplier and licensee of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The forecast was made at a football media day in Herzogenaurach, Germany, by Herbert Hainer (pictured), CEO of the adidas Group.

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Inside Insight: Brazil unplugged

Brazil is rocked by (justified) demonstrations. While numbers vary, it is safe to assume that hundreds of thousands have and are taking to the streets to voice anger, frustration and dissatisfaction. With what, exactly, that remains a question to some. But it is a question that seems to get a wide spectrum of answers, depending on where the writer stands and from where the “independent” observer hails.

It is clear that Brazil’s economy,

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Blatter calls on Brazilians to stop using football to make their demands

Brazilian protest

By Andrew Warshaw
June 20 – As a wave of social unrest continues to sweep through Brazil, FIFA President Sepp Blatter has urged the public to stop using football as a means of expressing their anger and says they can only benefit from the tournament returning to the country next year for the first time in over half a century. The protests,  timed to co-incide with the ongoing Confederations Cup, has cast a shadow over the World Cup dry run event that has produced several exhilarating games in full stadia.

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Hearts broken as administrators hunt for funding

Hearts

By Andrew Warshaw
June 20 – In the same month that Scottish football agreed on a ground-breaking strategy to preserve the future of lower-league clubs, one of its most iconic, Heart of Midlothian, has ironically been forced to go into administration and has been docked 15 points for the start of the season.

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