By Andrew Warshaw
July 13 – Barclays may be embroiled in an unprecedented rate-fixing scandal that has plunged its global reputation into disarray but that has done little to affect its involvement in football with the announcement that the banking giant has extended its sponsorship of the English Premier League until 2016 in a three-year deal worth £40 million ($62 million/€51 million) a season from 2013.
Another corruption scandal exposed, more top names disgraced – and once again Sepp Blatter has seemingly slipped through the net of culpability.
No-one in sports administration has become more of an expert in the “not me, Guv” stakes over the years than the FIFA President who has once again distanced himself from any wrongdoing, this time in the explosive ISL bribery case.
By acknowledging that he was the person referred to as P1 in Swiss court documents which FIFA published and which lifted the lid on an affair that has marred his 14-year Presidency,
By David Gold
July 13 – Ronaldinho’s troubled 2012 took a further turn for the worse this week as Coca-Cola dropped him after he drank a can of Pepsi during a press conference.
By David Gold
July 13 – Brazilian star Neymar insists they have what it takes to bring back Olympic gold for the first time in history this summer.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 12 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter today mounted a staunch defence of his alleged role in the ISL bribery affair as his position as leader of world football’s governing body came under fresh scrutiny.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 12 – FIFA vice-president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan has urged the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to be more unified and pull eastern and western factions together.
By David Gold
July 12 – The United States women’s team goalkeeper Hope Solo has been given a warning after testing positive for a banned substance.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 11 – The ISL corruption scandal that has tainted both world football’s governing body, FIFA, and its President, Sepp Blatter, for over a decade took a giant step forwards today when João Havelange, Blatter’s predecessor, and his former son-in-law, Ricardo Teixeira, were confirmed as having received millions of dollars in kickbacks from FIFA’s former marketing partner.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 11 – Worrying claims that spot-fixing was rife among players in the English Premier League are to be investigated by FIFA.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 11 – Yet another Middle East venture is investing in English football with the news that Nottingham Forest has been taken over by Kuwait’s Al-Hasawi family.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 11 – The Football Association of Wales (FAW) has reiterated that it will not punish any of the five Welsh players selected for Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 11 – The next stage in cleaning up FIFA after the most tarnished year in its history takes place next week when football’s world governing body appoints two figures who will play key roles in trying to banish corruption.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 11 – Former England manager Fabio Capello and ex-Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola are among 13 candidates being touted as the new Russia national team coach as the country looks ahead to the 2018 World Cup.
Poor Michel Platini. Do you not feel sorry for him? A wonderful footballer, he exchanges his shorts for a suit and becomes an administrator. Under his Presidency, UEFA hosts a European football competition that everyone says is one of the best in recent memory, if not the best ever.
The fears that it will lead to racist violence, and that players might even walk off during a match if they are racially abused,
By David Gold at Westminster in London
July 10 – Richard Scudamore, the chief executive of the English Premier League, today gave a vigorous defence of the regulation of their clubs, despite the excessive debt still swirling around the English game.