USA 2 Costa Rica 2 (USA win 4-3 on pens)
June 29 – You’d hate to use the word ‘sterile’ to describe a Concacaf Gold Cup quarter-final, but following the drama and passion of Guatemala versus Canada, it all felt a little flat as the United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) and Costa Rica kicked off for the right to face Guatemala in St. Louis. After 90 minutes and the drama of penalty kicks,
By Mark Baber
September 6 – Hours ahead of crucial World Cup qualifiers in Africa, a sponsorship deal has been signed between Crown Beverages and the Kenya national team, whilst Meanwood Properties and Zambeef Plc have come in to help pay for TV rights for today’s game between Ghana and Zambia.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
September 6 – Palestine football’s leading figurehead has poured scorn on Israel’s commitment to easing the plight of his country’s players and officials – and says the FIFA initiative to resolve the deep divisions between the two Middle East neighbours will never work unless Israel stops its “bullying” tactics. Earlier this week, FIFA president Sepp Blatter hailed initial talks aimed at easing travel restrictions for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza as “historic”
By Mark Baber
September 6 – English Football Conference South club Farnborough FC, who recently emerged from administration with support from bookmaker Paddy Power, have been given permission by the Football Conference Board to compete in the Conference from tomorrow, albeit the players will have to compete under their real names.
How do Real Madrid do it?
No it’s not a rhetorical question, really how do they do it?
For over 100 days the question was when will Gareth Bale join them in a world record deal from Tottenham.
With the deal finally, mercifully done, we now need to ask a more interesting question. How did they do it? I can’t be the only one to believe that world record transfers should be more plausibly made by clubs with oil money behind them.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 6 – Coaches of many of Europe’s leading clubs have backed UEFA President Michel Platini’s suggestion to shorten the summer transfer window in order to allow for greater stability and planning.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 6 – As the World Cup qualification process moves towards its conclusion, Fifa secretary-general Jerome Valcke insists organisers are “heading in the right directions” despite various ongoing issues inside Brazil, including cost and infastructure.
By Mark Baber
September 5 – Lionel Messi and his father Jorge have paid €5 million (£4.2 million) over to the Spanish tax authorities, leading a Catalan court to deny a request from the State Agency for Tax Administration to set bail for the accused pair in the legal process of their pending tax fraud trial.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 5 – Whilst the speech of new FA chairman Greg Dyke highlighted the dearth of English players in the Premier league eligible for the national team, buried in the text was evidence of a lack of highly skilled English coaches.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 5 – Two of South America’s biggest footballing icons, Diego Maradona and Romario, have joined forces to denounce the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) for not doing enough to distribute its funds.
By Mark Baber
September 5 – Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has been cleared by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) of breaking advertising rules banning subliminal promotional messages and no further action will be taken after it was decided a tweet he had posted plugging Nike was “obviously identifiable as a marketing communication.”
By Andrew Warshaw
September 5 – The new head of English football has targeted winning the 2022 World Cup as a genuine goal but has painted a bleak picture of the current state of the national team which is still without a major trophy for almost half a century.
That the 10 teams for the final knockout round, of the African qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup finals, will be known by the end of the first week in September, following the conclusion of the group stages, is no breaking news.
But the CAF-inspired decision not to allow the continent’s final five World Cup qualifiers emerge, directly, from the league format, as was the case for the 2002, 2006 and 2010 World Cups,
By David Owen
September 4 – The Rio de Janeiro doping control laboratory whose accreditation was revoked last month by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in a hugely embarrassing blow for Brazilian authorities, failed a “blind” quality assessment test, Insideworldfootball understands.
By David Owen in Buenos Aires
September 5 – The power of football is much in evidence as the high-stakes battle for the 2020 Olympics enters its eleventh hour in this elegant South American city beside the river Plate. In recent days, a string of leading football figures have played walk-on parts as the contest builds to its dramatic denouement on September 7, when 100 or so International Olympic Committee (IOC) members will choose between Istanbul,
Gareth Bale may be the first British galectico that Real Madrid have signed since David Beckham in 2003, but the differences between the two transfers shows how the world of football has moved on in the last decade. In a sense there has been a revolution in the way transfers are done and mega million transfers of high profile players have truly come of age.
It shows how much more skilful agents are,