Mexico 0 Costa Rica 0
June 22 – Mexico and Costa Rica drew a blank in an enthralling no holds barred encounter at the Allegiant in Las Vegas in front of 35,000 fans.
July 12 – The new owner of Greece’s third biggest club, AEK Athens, has pledged to restore its tarnished reputation following bankruptcy and demotion to the third tier of the country’s football league.
By David Owen
July 12 – Last week Buenos Aires won the right to host the 2018 Youth Olympics with a little help from Lionel Messi, who was given a prominent place in a promotional video shown to International Olympic Committee (IOC) members before the decisive vote. Now Istanbul is attempting to harness the power of football to help its bid for the 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.
By Mark Baber
July 12 – Yemen’s Football Federation has pulled its national football team from participation in foreign competitions for the rest of 2013 due to a financial crisis.
By Gareth Messenger
July 12 – Racing Santander have denied an allegation their 3-0 home win against Hercules on the final day of the second-division season was fixed and said they will co-operate fully with a probe by Spanish and European football authorities. Despite their victory on June 8, Santander were relegated to the third tier of Spanish football making it their second consecutive relegation.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 12 – Thailand is once again facing the possibility of being expelled from FIFA unless the continuing impasse over implementing contentious new reforms can be resolved.
July 12 – Football’s global match-fixing scourge, regarded as the biggest threat to the integrity of the sport, has now struck at the heart of CONCACAF with the confederation confirming that two Belize players were offered bribes to throw their opening match of the Gold Cup, the region’s blue riband event, against the United States.
July 11 – The qualifiers for The Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Women’s Under-20 Qualifiers Tournament kicked off this week with the Dominican Republic losing 3-0 to Trinidad and Tobago at home.
By Mark Baber
July 11 – A new report by Deloitte highlights the opportunities for the construction sector in Qatar as the country gears up to spend $140 billion over the next five years in transport infrastructure and over $200 billion in construction projects.
July 11 – Paris St. Germain’s Brazilian sporting director Leonardo has caved in to the pressure of his 14-month ban and is to resign from the Qatari-owned club.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 11 – Lazio and Genoa face starting next season in Serie A with a points deduction as a result of the latest revelations in Italy’s match-fixing scandals. The two top-flight clubs, plus Lecce, face sanctions as do eight players accused of “sporting fraud” by the Italian football federation, allegedly involving sums of up to €500,000 in bribes.
July 11 – Five nominees from the Bundesliga are included in UEFA’s initial shortlist of ten players for the 2012-13 Best Player in Europe Award, reflecting the success of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund in reaching last season’s Champions League final.
July 11 – The owner of one of the teams caught up in Nigeria’s match-fixing goal-fest scandal has disowned and disbanded the club. Nigerian authorities have imposed an indefinite ban on all four teams involved in two recent playoff games that ended with Plateau United Feeders annihilating Akurba FC 79-0 and Police Machine FC demolishing Bubayaro 67-0.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 11 – Canadian police are investigating death threats sent on Twitter to the captain of one of the country’s leading clubs, Montreal Impact, which plays in the MLS. Midfielder Davy Arnaud is reported to have received threatening tweets after making a mistake that led to his team losing 4-3 at home to the Colorado Rapids in stoppage time.
As the ‘cradle of civilisation’ remains trapped in the maelstrom of another political crisis, following the removal of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, from office last Wednesday, football – yet to recover from the consequences of the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak – has been sucker-punched yet again.
With just one round of the regular national championship left to play, before the start of the decisive four-team title play-off involving Ahly,
